Specific features of retaining generation Y creative employees: Results of a pilot study

Abstract

The search for and training of employees suitable for the company’s strategic goals and values is a lengthy and costly process. Therefore, organizations are ready to make efforts to retain the most valuable employees, on whom the company’s profit largely depends. The retention of creative specialists increases the capacity of an organization, and creation of working conditions that stimulate creativity and activate thinking, provides generation of new ideas that can become the basis of company’s competitiveness. This pаper presents an analysis of specific features of the staff retention process in creative industries in the context of the theory of generations. The investigation formulated the hypothesis that the retention factors in creative industries are different from those in a non-creative sector. The study is based on the empirical sample derived from the results of 7 interviews with managers of creative industries and a survey of 53 creative workers of generation Y. As a result of a comparative analysis of major international research, and also interviews with managers of creative industries, a number of factors were identified that affect the retention of employees from the creative class of generation Y. The use of the t-criterion for comparing independent samples (creative workers and sales workers) partially confirmed the hypothesis. The study also revealed that managers’ views about the factors of retaining creative employees differ from those of creative workers themselves.