Strategic Approach to Retention of Skilled Manpower

The aim of this study is to investigate a strategic approach to the retention of skilled manpower. This is a cross-sectional descriptive survey. The sample of the population consists of employees specializing in the field of higher education in South Khorasan province, out of which 143 persons were selected using judgment sampling. Inferential statistics including Pearson correlation and multivariate regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The data analysis showed a strong significant relationship between the strategic approach and retention of human resources (r=0/78). Then, to determine how much of the variance of retention system is explained by strategic approach, multiple regression was performed. The results showed that the strategic coordination, strategic advantages and strategic synergy each could respectively predict 28, 25 and 24% of the retention system’s variance. While strategic flexibility was not able to account for retention system. As a result, more focus on aligning retention system with organizational strategies as well as other human resource management systems; paying more attention to human resources competitive advantage to compete and excel in higher education; and finally, the coordination of actions to strengthen human resources and overall effectiveness of the system of higher education are suggested.