ISSN 2320-5407 International Journal of Advanced Research (2016), Volume 4, Issue (1): 118- 136 118 Journal homepage: http://www.journalijar.com INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RESEARCH RESEARCH ARTICLE WORKFORCE RETENTION:A SERIOUS ISSUE OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN PUNJAB AND CHANDIGARH *Rajni Bhalla 1 , **Ritu Mittal 2 1. Assistant Prof. in Commerce, Panjab University Constituent College, Nihal Singh Wala. Moga. 2. Assistant Prof. in Economics, Panjab University Constituent College, Nihal Singh Wala, Moga Manuscript Info Abstract Manuscript History: Received: 15 November 2015 Final Accepted: 22 December 2015 Published Online: January 2016 Key words: Employee Retention, Education Sector, Colleges and Universities in Punjab and Chandigarh. *Corresponding Author Rajni Bhalla. Retention is the process of physically keeping human resources in an organization as it is one of the key fundamentals that are necessary for organizational success. Employee retention refers to policies and practices which organizations are following to prevent valuable employees from leaving their jobs. How to retain valuable employees is one of the biggest problem that plague organizations in the competitive market place. Employees need to be retained because good, experienced, trained and hard working employees are required to run academic institutes. They have acquired good subject knowledge over the long run and a trained academician can handle students in a better way, as today’s learners become the future leaders and solve the problems of society. The present study is based on the issues and challenges in employee retention of colleges and universities in Punjab and Chandigarh. The objective of the study is to highlight the various factors which affect retention initiatives in the academic sector and to explore the relation between various factors and job satisfaction. This research discusses reasons why colleges and universities of Punjab and Chandigarh face the problem of employee retention. The research has been conducted with a pre tested questionnaire covering various factors that examine the reasons and impact of employee retention in the universities and colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh. The data is analysed with the help of SPSS 21 and for the analysis the descriptive statistical techniques like frequencies, percentages, cross tabs, correlation were adopted. The study concludes that the working environment is supportive for the teaching faculty in the colleges and universities of Punjab and Chandigarh but incentive systems are not well designed which causes dissatisfaction in the teaching faculty. . Copy Right, IJAR, 2016,. All rights reserved. Introduction:- Employee retention is a serious challenge faced by the organizations now days. A good corporate culture impacts it a lot. Good culture is typically characterized by superiority of quality, openness in communication, participative decision-making, high standard of safety, good corporate citizen (Rao, A., 2012). Experienced staff becomes the valuable asset for the associated organization. An organization cannot work smoothly and develop without its key workforce. Retention and commitment start at the very early stages of the staffing process. It is a never ending process as retention and commitment is affected by almost all aspects of the business (Aguenza et al., 2012). So there is a need to formulate appropriate employee retention policy to physically keep the employees at job. If we talk about the academic institutes, they cannot run without the strength of its good and experienced academicians. The increasing trend of employee turnover certainly results in performance loose which further puts negative impact on the organizations from where they are leaving. It will also causes productivity loss, loss of work team harmony and