Madau, Dolly Nomcebo2024-08-182024-08-182014-03https://hdl.handle.net/10352/771M. Tech. (Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology.Talent, according to Michaels, Handfield-Jones and Axelrod (2001:12), is a sum of a person’s abilities, his/her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgement, attitude, character and drive. It also involves the ability to learn and grow. Employee retention has to do with job satisfaction, job involvement, career satisfaction and commitment from employees in the organisation (Noorliza & Muhammad 2006:33-34). According to Ongori (2009:11), employees who are given such recognition by the organisation feel special, valued and appreciated, ensuring an equitable amount of service within it (Ongori 2009:11). The research focused on the relationship between employee retention and talent management at Illovo Sugar Eston with a view to ascertaining whether or not the organisation is possibly the reason for employees leaving for other businesses, and if so to look for possible strategies to help it retain staff. Talent shortage due to failure by organisations to retain staff with the necessary expertise is becoming a reality and it is important that this challenge is addressed expeditiously (Maxwell 2007:273). The main aim of the study is to investigate and highlight the need and importance of talent management, including attraction and retention of staff with required skills at Illovo Sugar Eston. This will include investigating the challenges relating to attracting and retaining talent within the organisation in order to ensure a continuous supply of qualified staff and to reduce labour turnover. The study will also touch on the importance of competitive incentives and rewards in the attraction and retention of employees. This will involve strategies to attract and retain talent, to support the attainment of the organisation’s strategic and short-term objectives, by ensuring that it has qualified people, committed and well-motivated to take the business forward (Armstrong 2002:13). Hummayoun and Muhammad (2010:2028) confirm that employees who are empowered are more likely to feel confident and strive for excellence in order to improve production and quality. To achieve these objectives, a survey was conducted among employees of Illovo Sugar Eston. The findings highlighted that exit interviews are not effective in the retention of staff in that they are carried out when the individual has already made a decision to leave the organisation. Judging from the results from respondents, it is clear that staff satisfaction leads to high productivity and plays a significant role in the retention of staff. The results further indicated that management strategies are not being used to the extent that they should be in the retention of talent, whilst most respondents felt that fringe benefits currently offered by the organisation had a positive influence in staff satisfaction and in the retention of talented employees. The influence of the Employment Equity Act (55 of 1998) resulted in employees from the non-designated group agreeing with the commonly held perception that people from designated groups use the provisions of the Act to look for better opportunities with other organisation.enEmployee retentionTalent managementIllovo Sugar EstonFringe benefitsEmployment equityStaff satisfactionStaff attractionDissertations, Academic -- South Africa.Employee retention.Job satisfaction.Thesis