Tichaona M et al.; Sch. J. Arts. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015; 3(1B):122-134 Available Online: http://saspjournals.com/sjahss 122 Scholars Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences ISSN 2347-5374 (Online) Sch. J. Arts Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2015; 3(1B):122-134 ISSN 2347-9493 (Print) ©Scholars Academic and Scientific Publishers (SAS Publishers) (An International Publisher for Academic and Scientific Resources) Coactive Staff Retention Strategies in Selected Zimbabwe’s Public and Private Universities: Human Resources Personnel’s Perspective Professor Tichaona Mapolisa 1 *, Doctor Sharayi Chakanyuka 2 1 Associate Professor and National Programme Leader for the Bachelor of Education in Educational Management in the Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Arts and Education at the Zimbabwe Open University. 2 The Co-ordinator, Academic Studies at the Institute of Distance Education, University of Swaziland. *Corresponding Author: Professor Tichaona Mapolisa. Email: tichmap@gmail.com Abstract: This eighth excerpt from the researcher‟s thesis chronicles the coactive staff retention strategies in purposely selected Zimbabwe‟s public and private universities from the perspective of the stakeholder -sampled Human Resources personnel. Data were gathered using open-ended interview and documentary analysis methods. Data were analysed using NVivo. Public and private universities offer coactive staff retention strategies such as salaries and promotion, medical aid and funeral cover. Both sets of universities appreciated the need to staff develop their staff members. In some private universities, there were no staff retention strategies to talk about. The first conclusion is that university lecturers‟ salaries are unfavourable because they are comparably lower than what other universities in Southern Development Community (SADC) Region offer. Universities need to peg their salaries to match what the SADC Regional universities offer to lecturers of equivalent grades. Second, universities need to have clearly documented coactive staff retention strategies that enable them to become employers of choice. It is necessary to institute a macro- scale study in the terrain of coactive staff retention strategies with the intent to build a knowledge base to influence national policymaking decisions. Keywords: Coactive staff retention strategies, public universities, private universities, Human Resources personnel‟s perspective, Human Resources personnel. INTRODUCTION Staff retention strategies of varied nature obtain in different university and non-university institutions throughout the world. To put this study into its proper context, there is need to review the concept of staff retention, prior to the presentation of the background to the study. Existing literature view staff retention from different perspectives. [1] (p.340) perceives the term as a process that, “is about capacities to capture the extent to which the organisation effectively develops talent, information and resources to increase customer value.” The focus of this conceptualisation of staff retention is to increase customer value. According to [12] (p.2): Academic staff retention refers to the process or the ability of an institution not only to recruit qualified staff, but also to retain competent staff through establishing quality of work-life, motivated staff climate, best place of work, and being the employer of choice contingent upon formulation and execution of best practices in human resource and talent management. Staff retention in [12]‟s thinking is about making an organisation an employer of the moment. In the views of [2] in [1] (p.5), “employees are encouraged to remain with the organisation for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project.” This view is about organisations making sure that employees keep their jobs as long as the organisations want to utilise the employees‟ expertise. Similarly, [21] in [48] described retention to mean, “systematic efforts by the employers to create and foster an environment that encourages employees to remain on their jobs by having policies and practices in place.” By implication, staff retention exists when managers become employee- centred in managing their employees. [56] in [1] (p.340) confirms [21]‟s findings in [1] (p.5) that, “retention is about willingness to stay at an organisation which is influenced by incentives to pay or compensation and job satisfaction.” [19] (p.2) view staff retention in the context of knowledge retention in this way, “Due to recent trends in the world of work, knowledge retention has been lauded as a useful strategy to mitigate turnover challenges that threaten organisational survival and growth.”