Managing High Employee Turnover Risk through Compensation and Benefits in Medium Size Companies - Research Paper Example

“Managing High Employee Turnover Risk through

Compensation and Benefits in medium size companies”

Table of Contents

ContentsPage no.

Chapter Three: Methodology2

3.1 Introduction2

3.2 Research Philosophy3

3.3 Research Design3

3.4 Research Approach4

3.5 Sampling Technique and Research Participants5

3.6 Research Strategy/Data Collection Method7

3.7 Treatment of the Data8

3.8 Conclusion9

Chapter Three: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

The overall idea behind this study was to understand the role of compensation and benefit plans in reducing the risk of increasing employee turnover in mid-sized sales companies. The exploration of this idea included an investigation of the factors that lead to increased employee turnover in companies. It also included a research on the ways companies can use compensation as a motivational tool to increase employee satisfaction with their companies, especially sales companies. Employee turnover is considered a negative sign for companies because it is directly concerned with employees who are the main pillars of success for any company. When skilled employees start leaving their companies, the effect is always on the operational efficiency of companies and that negative effect leads to decreased organizational productivity. This is the reason why managers focus on using effective measures to increase employee motivation and decrease people risk within companies (Mosley Jr., Pietri, & Mosley Sr., 2011).

Keeping the above-mentioned background in consideration, the research questions for this study were formulated in the previous chapter. This chapter goes further and provides a detailed insight into the research design, sampling and research participants, data collection method, and data analysis/treatment procedures selected and used for addressing the research questions.

3.2 The Research Philosophy

The research philosophy holds critical importance because it gives actual meaning to the issue/problem under study. The degree of reality in context with the theory of the human needs and knowledge come in good association in the process of describing research philosophy. Thus, it can be said that philosophy forms the basis for the research and helps in figuring out the findings of the research. The research philosophy plays a key role in building mechanisms and offering directions to the researchers in selecting appropriate methods to move on with the research (Holden & Lynch, 2004).

As far as this research is concerned, the researcher formed basis on two major research philosophies that included epistemology and ontology. Epistemology was kept in consideration because it supports researchers in carrying on with the field work that is essential for data collection (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Whereas, ontology is associated with the knowledge a researcher has regarding the issue under study and has been used in this study as a source of researcher dedication to the research and relies on the effort as well as knowledge of the researcher. In this study, the researcher identified the relationship between compensation plans and employee turnover, thus, field work was of huge significance in gathering required data to be used for analysis and making research findings. Therefore, it was suitable to use epistemology to form the basis for the research philosophy.

3.3 Research Design

The researcher used the qualitative research theory for this research since it helps in getting detailed and realistic information about the issues, while being in the common settings (Creswell, 2007, p.36). The qualitative research theory focuses on detailed inspection of the issue to uncover the grounds that support or negate the hypothesis and calls for added responsibility instead of relying on quick and pre-fixed answers (Silverman, 2016). This kind of research is suitable for studies because it helps in getting a detailed insight into issues instead of focusing on generalization of arguments results as in case of quantitative studies. In this study, this kind of research was likewise helpful in getting a point by point insight into the components that lead to high employee turnover risk within mid-sized sales companies. Using this research design, a far reaching investigation was done in view of the assembled information regarding the input of compensation and benefits in reducing employee turnover risk. Qualitative research also helped the researcher in dealing with value-laden questions adequately and productively. On the off chance that the researcher had picked a quantitative design, it could have summed up the outcomes using numbers and figures instead of detailing the actual aspects. Moreover, it could also have hindered the chance to accomplish definite and factual conclusions.

3.4 Research Approach

Another thing that goes side by side with the research design is the approach chosen to support the selected research design. In this study, the researcher used the phenomenological approach. This theory focuses on the subjective experiences of people and their actual interpretations of the incidents happening in the world (Giorgi, 1997). This theory relates to this study in that it helps in uncovering the aspects that appear less attractive for employees and also those that appear to be essential for employees like compensation and benefits. This approach basically deals with the psychology of people (Giorgi, 1997) and the issue of workers’ inclination towards compensation and incentive schemes also relates to the psychological field of study. Grounded research theory could also have been used for this study but that would have indulged the researcher into a complex and iterative process (Glaser & Strauss, 2012). The main reason to go with this approach was that it concentrates on investigating the genuine facts and view of the concerned populace. This approach was extremely valuable for the research as it helped the researcher in making some reasonable speculations while taking into account varying considerations and points of view regarding the issue of employee turnover risk and its link with compensation plans. This theory also helped in getting detailed descriptions of employees’ perspectives, which is also a main supportive point for this type of qualitative research. Moreover, a clear and accurate description of psychological aspects of human experiences is a point that led the researcher to the use of this theory in this study.

3.5 Sampling Technique and Research Participants

In this study, the researcher aimed to make personal visits to three marketing and sales organizations located in London. Amid the visits, the researcher arranged meetings with ten sales representatives and two HR authorities from each of the three organizations. The researcher arranged meetings at the respective workplaces of the participants in order to examine the environment that the companies had provided to them, as well as to observe the reactions of other employees about the implementation of compensation plans. Another important point in this regard is that there was not any sort of ethnic, religious, or sex discrimination in selection of the research participants. This was done to avert any risk of bias that could have affected the credibility of the study.

The sampling technique chosen for data collection for the research was purposive sampling. Purposive sampling refers to a non-probability based sampling technique in which the researcher select research participants based on his/her judgment (Tongco, 2007). Purposive sapling technique also ensures quality of data and reliability of information (Tongco, 2007) both of which were critical for this particular study. For example, in this study, the researcher decided to visit sales companies because the employees of such companies are more concerned with the implementation of compensation and benefits packages (Brown, 1990). Moreover, as the target of the researcher was to include a limited number of people in the study as the primary sources of information and get their detailed viewpoints, the use of this particular theory seemed to be viable. The advantages of using purposive sampling include time-effective and cost-effective sampling, targeted research, and relevant investigation into the study. Bias is a key issue associated with this type of sampling. However, the researcher did the best to overcome this issue as much as possible by including [people regardless of their race, sex, and gender.

As far as the selection criteria for the research participants is concerned, the researcher chosen the sales representatives for meeting considering the following criteria: (a) the age group should be between 24 to 30 years, since this is the age when a person is typically exceeding expectations as a sales employee; (b) no less than one year of employment involvement with the present organization, or with some different sales organization. Purposive sampling was utilized for subjective studies where members need to meet specific criteria with a specific end goal to be incorporated into the examination. The objective of the specialist in purposive sampling was to accumulate results from individuals with a wide scope of points of view (Blackstone, 2012).

3.6 Research Strategy/Data Collection Method

As the objectives of the study were to investigate the factors that lead to employee turnover and the role of compensation in decreasing the people risk within companies, it was necessary to use a method that could help the researcher in getting relevant details from the most concerned population. Therefore, the researcher gathered the data required for this study through interviews with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire. The theory of qualitative research supports the use of questionnaires for interviews (Dicicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006). Trustworthiness and credibility are critical in qualitative studies, therefore, use of interviews appear to be the most viable step in collecting data for a qualitative research (Shenton, 2004). The questions that the researcher included in the questionnaire were well-directed towards the issue under investigation and played a valuable role in getting a detailed insight into the risk of increased employee turnover. Again, as there was no bias in the selection of research participants, there was zero bias also in the selection of questions. The questions were aimed mainly at knowing and establishing the relationship between motivation and turnover risk. This was done by investigating the factors that motivate employees, the factors that make employees dissatisfied from their jobs, factors that enhance employee loyalty, and factors that make employees switch jobs from company to company.

These questions were very helpful in getting thorough, to the point, and relevant information about the function of benefits and compensation plans in building and enhancing employee motivation and, consequently, in dropping the risk of employee turnover. An important point here was to get permission from the university panel to conduct the research. To do this, a proposal focused on inquiring about the issue of employee turnover was prepared and submitted to the higher authorities. Moreover, the researcher took written authorization from the university’s board of human subjects review for going ahead with the research. After getting the required permission, the researcher started the process of collecting data from the intended research participants. Another important point to talk about here is that the researcher used interviews as the major source of information instead of surveying about the issue because surveys usually do not reveal detailed aspects and hinder many important points. Arranging face-to-face interviews with the sales professionals proved to be very helpful in getting the required insight as compared to large-scale surveys. The results of the interviews were also backed by the supporting substantiation retrieved from the secondary sources using books, magazines, journals, internet, articles and periodicals.

3.7 Treatment of the Data

As far as treatment of the collected data is concerned, the researcher stored the interview-based information in the computer system by making separate files for each of the research participants. Next, each of the interviews was analyzed to see differentiating and similar points. To facilitate analysis of the interviews, the information stored was structured, simplified, and categorized. The researcher also transcribed and categorized the information provided by the interviewees to make out the existence of common patterns within the interviews and their likeliness and dissimilarity ratios. The data was stored in the researcher’s database system for the purpose of quick retrieval, improving accuracy, and ensuring consistency.

The discoveries from my exploration are contrasted with discoveries from the relevant scholarly literature. The interviews were investigated and the information is exhibited in Chapter Four in measurable and even configuration where suitable. This is contrasted and researched using a wide range of peer-reviewed journal articles. The information collected through interviews formed the basis for the researcher to make certain recommendations for the policy makers of sales companies.

3.8 Conclusion

The focus of this chapter was on exploring the research methodology used to undergo this study. This included a detailed overview of sampling and research participants, research design technique, data collection strategy, and data treatment/analysis procedures used for exploring the research questions for this particular study. The study followed the qualitative approach that was based on the research design of phenomenology. This design entails a focus on practical experiences and realistic information provided by the research participants. Using the interviews of ten sales professionals and two HR managers of three sales companies, the researcher gathered the required amount of information to base the conclusions and recommendations. Interviews were designed in such a way that they were able to retrieve the most relevant information about the issue under investigation. The main focus of the researcher was on quality instead of quantity throughout the research in order to keep focus on the issue. The next chapter presents the results of the interviews done for investigation.