Enhancing Employee Retention through Spiritual Intelligence in Malaysia's ICT Sector: The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement and the Moderating Effect of Gender

Change is constant and has an impact on staff retention and engagement. Research shows that over 50% of employees believe too many changes occur simultaneously at work. They report widespread financial difficulties, rising workloads, and unpredictability regarding job security. This impacts employee engagement and retention. Employees with spiritual intelligence (SI) can tackle problems by concentrating on their significance and worth. This study looked at the moderating role of gender, the mediating role of employee engagement, and the impact of spiritual intelligence on employee engagement and retention using the Social Exchange Theory as a framework. Convenience sampling was used in this quantitative study to collect data from 170 workers in Malaysia's ICT sector. SPSS and SmartPls were used to analyze the data and present the results. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between SI and employee engagement. On the other hand, SI had little impact on staff retention. The association between SI and retention was not mitigated by gender. Retention was also highly influenced by employee engagement. Employee engagement was a full mediator between SI and retention. Gender was not a significant moderator. The results indicate that organizational leaders and HR managers should focus on SI to increase employee engagement. The secret to keeping staff members on board and retained is employee engagement. The study's conclusions provide fresh insight into the vital role that SI plays in increasing employee engagement and the effect that engagement has on retention.