Career Development

Employees at present give preference to jobs that would give them the opportunity to advance or grow in their careers though the provisions of training and schooling that the company offers. It has been believed that a company that desires to forge the relationship between employer and employee must provide for the advancement of its employees (Hall & Moss, 1998; Hsu, Jiang, Klein & Tang, 2003; Steel et al.
, 2002; Woodruffe, 1999). This argument extends not only to the upward mobility of the employee but also for the provision of training and skills development that increases the employees’ repertoire of skills and knowledge (Butler & Waldrop, 2001). Other elements of a career development program are coaching, career management workshops and competency management programs (Roehling et al.
,2000). Recently, it was found that the perception of employees towards the career programs initiated by their employers reduced the employees’ intention to leave the company (Allen, Shore & Griffeth, 2003). Meanwhile, a similar study found that high performing employees leave the company because of the lack of training and promotion (Steel, et. al. , 2002). Job Characteristics

Based on the earlier studies on motivation and needs, it has been argued that employees stay with their jobs not only for the money but because they need to fulfill needs like achievement, to satisfy their dreams and to create purpose in their lives (Mitchell et al. , 2001; Pfeffer, 1998). In the same way, employees are motivated to give their best in their work if it is challenging to them, work that is routinely done offers little challenge and hence may demotivate the worker (Woodruffe, 1999).
When workers are demotivated, turnover is likely to be high thus 13 companies must take caution in the designing of job descriptions. A recent construct called jobsculpting proposes to match people to jobs that would give them the opportunity to make use of their interests and passions in life (Buttler & Waldrop, 2001). Empirical evidence has also been found that job content is an important element that significantly impacts employee commitment and performance (Horwitz et al. , 2003; Steel et al. , 2002).