Employee Turnover - Research Proposal Example

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Employee turnover is the inward and outward movement of employees of an organization. Furthermore, employee turnover can be either involuntary or voluntary. Voluntary employee turnover is brought about by numerous factors that are made up of personal reasons, geography, supervision, remuneration, career opportunities, among others. Involuntary is when the turnover is brought about by staff members not adhering to the company work rules and policies, therefore, not meeting the anticipated performance standards. According to Mohr, Young, and Burgess Jr, (2012), there is no need of having 0% turnover as certain levels of employee turnover are unavoidable and expected. The problem concerning Limited Brands LLC Company is that the part-time employees are not satisfied with the number of working hours they are being offered, and they tend to leave the company voluntarily. Employees are a key aspect of making sure a company meets its objectives. Problem Statement I will attempt to solve the problem of employee retention within my place of work through the use of questionnaires and surveys which will determine that the employees need and want more hours per week. Setting of the Problem The problem is in Limited Brands LLC Company, which is the umbrella company for Bath and Body Works, Victoria’s Secret and White Candle Barn. The organization has eight stores within each district for the company of Bath and Body Works. Each store is rated by the amount of volume they do each year. The Stores that perform at the highest sales rates are the A volume stores. The stores that are between high and low volume, are the B volume stores and the stores that have the lowest amount of sales are the C volume stores. In my South TN district, there are 8 stores. These stores are A volume and C volume only. By standard practice, A volume stores are allowed to employ a full time store manager and a full time Co-manager along with 3 customer sales leads that are each to receive no more than 39 hours per week. Each A volume store is allowed to employ up to 50 part time employees all year round. The amount of hours that the A volume stores are allotted each week for part time employees, depends on the sales forecast for that week, which is determined by the same week of the year as the previous year’s sales. In the A volume stores, workers are seen to be given 20-30 hours a week compared to the other volumes which are given less than six hours a week. The problem arises when the part-time employees are complaining about the minimal hours they are receiving from the organization, which has led to constant loss of employees. The high employee turnover has become an issue for the company. History and Background of the Problem The voluntary resignation of employees formed a gap, which led to understaffing, a drop in quality of customer service and the remaining staff were overburdened bringing about a downbeat syndrome. The organization did not meet the needs of the part-time workers to be added to more time to work as compared with other workers within the eight stores. Thus, this led some employees to look for better employment opportunities elsewhere rather than staying in an organization that does not listen to them. Other part-time workers just remained for the 20% employee discount but were not hard working, this could be an issue for the organization as it could face financial problems due to low productivity. Thesis Statement I will attempt to solve the employee retention problem in my workplace through the use of quarterly employee satisfaction surveys and meeting the needs and wants of the employees to offer more working hours weekly. Scope of the Project The scope of this research is the employees that left the organization and the voluntary causes that led to their departure. Significance of the Project This project will help assess the problem in the number of hours that each part-time employees are being offered and come up with the solutions pertaining the cause of high employee turnover. The solutions will be aimed at developing strategies for staff retention with the aim of reducing turnover issues. Definition of Terms LLC-limited Liability Company CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will review the turnover of employees and the aspects connected with it. Employee turnover can be prevented but needs resources, energy and effort able to respond to the needs of the employees effectively. Also, the issue of job satisfaction and how it triggers turnover and employees will be discussed. Employee turnover This is a much researched phenomenon; researchers indicate that there is no normal account for why individuals select to leave a company, they just select to leave on a voluntary basis instead of involuntary. Glebbeek and Bax, (284), noted that most studies have tried to find an answer to what makes people quit by researching likely antecedents of staff's intention to leave, however, there exists minimal efficiency in the results which is partially because of the diversity employed. When an employee quits a job and goes to another company, this is termed as voluntary turnover. According to Morrell, Loan-Clarke and Wilkinson, (172 ) this turnover brings about significant costs to the company, both in terms of indirect costs (organizational memory, service/product quality, burden on remaining staff, and low morale) and direct costs (selection, recruitment, and replacement). Personal reasons Aspects that are certain to a person can have an impact on the rates of turnover. They comprise of both trait-based and personal factors. Individual factors consist of things like alteration in a family situation, a need to study new skill or an unwanted job offer. Additionally, there are also personality features that are connected with turnover and may lead an employee to leave a certain job due to reasons known to himself or herself. Geography If the conditions at work are below average or the place of work lacks essential facilities like restrooms, furniture, proper lighting, and additional safety and health provision, workers will not be prepared to put up with the problems for a long time. Supervision Employees require some direction and guidance. New workers may require additional assistance in learning an inexperienced job. In the same way, the nonexistence of a teaching program may result in employees falling behind in their performance level, and they may feel that their skills are lacking. This may cause employees to seek other places of work that they are familiar with, hence resulting in employee turnover. Remuneration Low pay or unfairness in pay structures is considered as a great cause of frustration and can make workers quit. For another thing, a new employee may be curious why the individual next to him is being paid a wage that is higher than his or her pay, and the job they are doing is the same. This may make him or her to consider moving out to seek better organizations that are not biased. Career opportunities The lack of opportunities for growth or advancements can cause employee turnover. If the job is essentially a dead-end offer, this must be clarified before hiring, so as not to deceive the employee. The job must be defined accurately, without raising untruthful hopes for advancements and growth in the position. Job satisfaction This one factor that is important in addressing employee turnover. This is a feeling about various aspects of a job, and if employee’s show a sign of satisfaction then they will show more commitment. It is strongly connected to turnover intention, the higher the job satisfaction of employees, the lesser their turnover intention. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN The purpose of this chapter is to describe the design methods of research, namely data analysis, data collection, and research population. The research aimed at the quantitative research methods like questionnaires. Additionally, it used large samples so as to upsurge geographical elasticity of the study. Data is analyzed according to occupation, gender classification and additional variables integrated into the survey. Thesis Statement Employees should be given more hours to work so as to benefit the organization as a whole and organizations should meet the needs of employees so as to be able to retain them and avoid future high employee turnover. Hypotheses People employed for more than one year at Limited Brands shoe a higher retention rate on the retention rate statistics quarterly report than people that are hired just prior to Black Friday. Operational Definitions Employee Retention: Abundance of part time employee loss after the first of the New Year. Employee Retention: Maintaining long term employees despite number of hours due to employee satisfaction evidenced by quarterly employee surveys. Assumptions Time wasted in recruiting new employees will still be a great challenge and the tangible and intangible resources will remain unchanged and continue to worsen due to lack of manpower if the problem is not addressed. Limitations The limitation of this study is that it will be limited to only one organization. Additionally, those employees who left the organization might not be ready to participate and discuss their experiences. The study focused on questionnaires, therefore, limiting the application of other methods of research that could be of use to the research. Lastly, reaching the former staff members of the company was a task since the majority had changed their mobile numbers, therefore limiting essential data outcomes. Research Procedures This is the procedure of how the research is going to be carried out. The primary objective of quantitative survey research technique to give specific estimates and facts from a representative and large sample of the participant to enable the organization to know the needs of the employees and how to prevent future turnover. Population This is the recognizable total aggregation or group of features that are of importance to the researcher and relevant to the stated problem. A population is a group of individuals under-investigated. In this study, the study population is the previous and current employees of the company both males and females of all age groups and all races. Sample This is the total number of respondents being studied in the research. The researcher should find a sample that would give responses to the research question and be able to justify the study findings. Instrument This study used questionnaires, also called employee satisfaction survey, as the instrument of choice for data collection. The questionnaires contained open and closed questions that pertained specifically to employee feelings, thoughts, questions and comments on the issue of the number of hours that they receive each week. The question of motivation for employment and continued employment was also asked. Employees and former employees had the opportunity to remain anonymous or not. Data Collection The study collected data by use of questionnaires that were sent through emails. This is a systematic way of collecting data and ensure reliability by ensuring that similar queries are asked to the participants. Use of Questionnaires is an extremely applicable technique because the information may be acquired faster from the contributors in a non-threatening manner. Response Level The response level will be determined by the number of replies the researchers get from the participants compared to the number of emails they sent. Time Schedule The research will take a minimum of two months with much of the time spent in locating the target population. Most of the participants include members of staff who have moved to other companies as a result of the high rate of employee turnover. Time Table Activity Duration Dates Design, planning and Sample selection 3 weeks 11th April – 1st May Pre-tests 3 days 2nd May-5th May Data collection 2 weeks 6th May- 20th May Data Sorting and Analysis 2 weeks 21st May- 4th June Data review and Discussion 4 days 5th June – 9th June Evaluation and feedback 1 week 10th June-17th June Report Writing and Submission 1 week 17th June – 23rd June Data Analysis Data obtained in the research will be analyzed using pie charts, frequency distribution tables and pit square. Microsoft excel will be used to bring the statistics together due to the extensive knowledge and sophistication in the area. Summary of Sources Morrell, Kevin M. , John Loan-Clarke , and Adrian J. Wilkinson . “Organizational Change and Employee Turnover.” Personnel Review 2004: 161–173. Web. The authors explore the need for change in organizations and how this change is significantly linked to human resource management functions. The review involving different companies provides a deeper insight into employees’ turnover and its effects on organizations. Glebbeek, Arie C., and Erik H. Bax. “Is High Employee Turnover Really Harmful? An Empirical Test Using Company Records.” Academy of Management Journal 47 (2004): 277–286. Web. This article seeks to shed more light on the pros and cons of high employee turnover. The authors use empirical tests of an organizational records to justify the information and explore the issue deeper. Mohr, David C., Gary J. Young, and James F. Burgess Jr. “Employee Turnover and Operational Performance: The Moderating Effect of Group-Oriented Organizational Culture.” Human Resource Management Journal 22 (2012): 216–233. Web. In this article, the issue of high employee turnover is explored using the parameters of organizational and departmental performance. The authors explore this concept using a group-oriented organizational culture and compare the turnover rate with the operational performance. Work Cited Morrell, Kevin M., John Loan-Clarke , and Adrian J. Wilkinson . “Organizational Change and Employee Turnover.” Personnel Review 2004: 161–173. Web. Glebbeek, Arie C., and Erik H. Bax. “Is High Employee Turnover Really Harmful? An Empirical Test Using Company Records.” Academy of Management Journal 47 (2004): 277–286. Web. Mohr, David C., Gary J. Young, and James F. Burgess Jr. “Employee Turnover and Operational Performance: The Moderating Effect of Group-Oriented Organizational Culture.” Human Resource Management Journal 22 (2012): 216–233. Web. Read More