THE DILEMMA FACED BY NPOS IN RETAINING SOCIAL WORKERS: A CALL TO REVISIT THE RETENTION STRATEGY

Abstract

The high turnover of social workers in the non-profit organisations (NPOs) sector in South Africa is a major problem that requires further investigation despite the number of studies that have already been conducted in this area. This qualitative study seeks to contribute to the retention of social workers in the NPO sector, and is based on an exploratory survey of the various factors that lead to high social worker turnover. The findings of this paper confirm that NPOs are faced with several challenges in relation to the retention of social workers, and this calls for revisiting the existing retention strategy.