Internal employability as a strategy for key employee retention

Abstract

Economies the world over and particularly those in southern Europe, are suffering the crippling effects of the extremely complex economic and financial crisis. This study looks at the impact of certain human resource policies geared towards increasing internal employability as a means of retaining valued employees and promoting job flexibility within the firm, as well as increasing positive attitudes towards organizational citizenship. Satisfaction and commitment are proposed as intermediating variables of the relationship between perceived internal employability and ITQ/OCB. The proposed research model is contrasted using structural equation modeling (LISREL). The results obtained from the empirical study indicate that employability should be considered an essential factor in achieving the desired commitment, loyalty, adaptability and productivity from employees by strengthening the psychological contract between firm and worker through professional recognition.