Abstract:
This research aimed at understanding dimensions of employee retention, factor influence and how to retain the first line manager in food industry of Thailand. The design of this study is mixed method research strategy. For quantitative phase population in this study cover with the first line manager in food industry in Thailand id 426 participants, the researcher applies stratified sampling and cluster sampling for this study and got the return of questionnaire is 242 people. The researcher analyzed the data by the statistics package for social science (SPSS) for windows software to find out the factor of employee retention of first line manager in Thailand food industry. The statistics used in this study is average, frequencies, standard deviations, one-way ANOVA, correlations and multiple regressions. The research finding in quantitative research phase fined according hypothesis one the demographic data that concerning with retention factors was the different working experience. For hypothesis two fined the factor that can predict to employee retention as (1) Training and development ݕො = -0.754 + 0.264 will make the first line manager increase of 0.264 points in retention. (2) Work environment ݕො = -0.754 + 0.327 will make the first line manager increase of 0.327 points in retention. (3) Leadership support ݕො = -0.754 + 0.440 will make the first line manager increase of 0.440 points in retention. For qualitative phase the researcher selected ten participants who are the first line manager from the result of quantitative research phase by 3 groups 10 people with work experience as high retention level 6 people, middle retention level 2 people and low retention level 2 people. The data collection method in this phase was a semistructured interview, audio visual and document reviews. To code and categorize the gained data systematically, ATLAS.ti 6.2 which is the qualitative software for data analysis was performed to pattern the themes. Qualitative research phase revealed that there were ten dimensions of employee retention strategy these include (1) Fair recruitment (2) Job design (3) Provide training roadmap (4) Career development policy (5) Fair performance appraisal (6) Attractive benefit package (7) Management style (8) Leadership of supervisor (9) Good work environment and (10) Freedom to making decision.