This dissertation aims to investigate the reasons for high degrees of employee turnover in the UK junk food retail industry. It may be observed that the junk food retail sector will employ part time learner employees, who are only using these jobs as a part time, stop space arrangement between schools and work anyhow. Alternatively, many of these jobs tend to be low paid ones and employees seek mainly to get some experience before shifting to other, better paying careers. Additionally, since these careers are service oriented and employees may need to face negative responses from consumers, there could find their careers humiliating and unsatisfying and could be wanting to job hop.
This research study proposes to examine employee turnover in the retail industry by posing the next research questions:
Is employee turnover a fairly common trend among employees in the fasts food ndustry?
What will be the known reasons for high staff turnover in the fast food retail sector?
2. 0. Books Review:
This books review includes a definition of worker turnover, the effects of worker turnover upon an organization as well as the methods and techniques that can support and boost retention of employees.
As pointed out by Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002), knowledge creation and the building of learning procedures is important in getting a competitive benefit. Success for the business rests in the nurturing of individual skills in the folks who are hired and the successful writing of such experience. "This involves professionals in a company to look beyond strategy, structure and systems to a give attention to the company's purpose, process and folks". (Bartlett and Ghosal, 2002:36). When employees leave a business, it ends up with a considerable damage in knowledge and skills for the organization because all the data and training that those employees have got is lost to the company.
Employee retention is the most challenging in the hospitality industry, mainly due to negativity associated with the jobs in the fast food retail sector. In the same way to the hospitality industry, there's a high negative understanding about the jobs [Giselli et al, 2001] & most employees understand their careers as "humiliating and demeaning" [Spillane, 2001]. There can be an increasing propensity for employees to change jobs, for example English employees change employers typically seven times throughout their lifetimes, with employees taking about a year to settle into their new jobs and be fully fruitful, which further shortens the effective working span of the average employee. In a single study completed in a United kingdom and a Greek banking institution through the period 1991-2001, about 20, 000 people left the firm (www. lums. lans. ac. uk), an extremely higher rate of worker turnover.
2. 1. Employee turnover:
Employee turnover is the proportion of the number of workers who've to be substituted in confirmed organization to the common number of staff in the organization. Corresponding to Phillips and O'Connell (2003), taking care of the retention of employees and keeping the turnover rate below the mark and industry norms is one of the very most challenging conditions that encounters businesses today. When a worker leaves a company, either through retirement life or to sign up for another firm, the company loses an abundance of experience and skill possessed by that staff and the Company is forced to displace the average person, often from external (Kransdorff, 1996). Employee turnover, in particular when it is voluntary, can have a damaging effect on a firm, because it does not just constitute a lack of the data that the staff possesses; it also means that the operational process of the Company can suffer deficits or destruction while new employees are recruited to fill up the places that the exiting employees have left behind.
As pointed out by Kransdorff (1996), as the advantages of repeated job turnovers are seem as getting fresh creativity and new ideas to the business, with the expertise of incoming employees compensating for those who are leaving, the reality is that the organization's investment in the outgoing specific by means of experience and knowledge possessed by that individual is instantly lost. As a result, an organization no longer has the advantage of the hindsight that has been gained by it as embodied in the experience of the people who have gone, unless the business finds a way to retain the wisdom, experience and understanding of those employees they have committed to through effective actions in conditions of succession. Therefore produces a standard loss in efficiency and a damage in competitive benefits, as a business loses the advantage of hard acquired hindsight embodied in the knowledge of its employees which is instead pressured to make do with the activities of new employees who will come from some other background altogether.
Khatri (no time) distinguishes between turnover objective, which is the intent of the staff to leave his / her job and job hopping. He cites Ghiselli (1974:81) who defined job hopping as the "periodic itch to go from a job in one destination to various other job in some other place", which occurs out of impulsive actions. Another reason why employees choose to leave their jobs is the turnover culture, which makes it acceptable for a worker who has been with an organization for a long period to change jobs and move to another group.
In the retail industry in particular, employee turnover may be higher because of several factors, which Booth and Hamer (2007) have discovered in their research. They carried out a case study on a significant shop and their key resources of data were an total annual employee review and the internal labour turnover data for every UK device of the retailer. Their findings advised that environmental factors such as the nature of the local labour markets impact upon staff turnover. Secondly, high worker turnover may be the result of organizational factors and culture, especially became management behaviour may be a factor influencing worker decision on whether or not to leave a business. This research was especially significant since it revealed that in the retail sector specifically, the more employees become inlayed and familiar with an organization; the more likely they are really to leave in order to get better prospects. This may explain why employee turnover is so saturated in the UK retail industry, because most employees join as novices and get trained, which in turn improves their prospects for acquiring better employment and thereby induces high worker turnover. In the same way, those employees with preceding experience would also seek to improve their training and experience and then move to better leads because overall, the retail industry does not pay high salary at junior levels.
It can also be noted that regarding the fast food retail industry, this development would be even more frequent because most employees will tend to be part time learner employees who are employing these jobs as a stop-gap set up until they complete their studies or until they find something better. As a result, motivating employees and incorporating procedures to improve staff retention is therefore very important and retention is reviewed further below.
2. 2. Retention of employees:
According to Fuller (2004), it's the way that an organization functions which can affect staff decisions on whether or not to remain with it. If employees feel like outsiders, or second-rate and unworthy, then chances are to have a negative impact upon the employees' physical, internal and spiritual health and they are much more likely to leave the organization.
CPA Consultant Steve Erickson suggests ten ways to aid companies in hiring and retaining employees (Annonymous, 2007). These include
(a) Making recruiting a all year round process, interesting both employers and employees.
(b) Building a worker recommendation network.
(c) Differentiating the firm, because they build unity within the company and possessing a clear give attention to internal and external service categories.
(d) Focusing on the nice clients by evaluating them and allowing employees to utilize the nice ones to inspire them.
(e) Building a culture of success and assisting employees to feel successful credited to being associated with such a company.
(f) Consistent communication which results in benefits for everybody.
(g) Determining success for every employee by ensuring that each employee is aware of where the company is certainly going.
(h) Establishing a reverse mentoring program, whereby the head/manager calls for the initiative to gather reviews from the employees
(i) Lowering the degrees of inside competition for resources by making certain there is an efficient system of governance.
(j) By eliminating all negative talk within the firm and promoting a good attitude in solving staffing issues.
Murphy and Burgio-Murphy (2005) have laid out five important aspects which every firm should know about worker retention. First of all, some employees in the firm tend to be valuable than others, therefore the greater the degree to which a firm focuses on retaining the high performing employees and getting rid of the reduced performing employees, the bigger its level of success. Second of all, different employees may be motivated by various things, therefore it is merely by requesting the employees a firm can determine what those motivating factors are and act accordingly to motivate them to stay with the firm.
Thirdly, the original 90-day period after an employee joins the company is the period where they're probably to leave, therefore if the market leaders/managers concentrate on building bonds with the new employees during this period, then there is a greater odds of retaining those new employees (Murphy and Burgio-Murphy, 2005). Fourthly, a company should not be quick to permit a good worker to resign. Most employees who wish to resign are looking to leave quickly and painlessly, however the manager should keep these things consider it every day and night and take the time to question them about why they would like to resign, so that work can be produced, if possible, to provide the worker with better conditions or benefits that will minimize the explanation for leaving in the first place. Lastly, if a worker cannot be maintained and is objective on resigning, then an effort should be made to ensure that the staff leaves in good spirit and retains a good impression of the firm. Sending periodic improvements about job openings is also suggested in case employees desire to return or refer others to the firm (Murphy and Burgio-Murphy, 2005).
2. 3. Succession of employees:
The selection of whether to replace top level people from the within or the exterior can also be associated with the size of the corporate body. Regarding to Dalton and Kesner (1983), much larger organizations, especially those on the stock exchanges may be reluctant to go outside the organization for an upgraded CEO, due to complexness of instituting changes within organizations that are too big in size, although in some instances may be needed and it might be more difficult to bring about those changes without needing another successor. The inner power composition within organizations could also impede the appointment of the successor from beyond your organization, due to the entrenchment of interested parties who may demand replacement from within the business. With the recurrent changes in managerial leadership, corporate recruitment is currently being influenced from a standpoint that does not reveal the distinctive record and needs of particular organizations.
On this basis, Kransdorff (1996) shows that the experience and remembrances of outgoing employees should be orally documented and maintained by the business as a part of its succession planning, so that the repository of information that is contained in the outgoing employee is not lost to the business. Rather, if these details is retained, it could be used to effectively induct new employees and make sure they are cognizant of the organization's background, regulations and problems and permit the employee to execute more effectively in the service of the organization. His also helps the organization to retain understanding of and build upon its past accomplishments.
Maxwell (2004) highlights that most organizations do not plan for the human source side of the planning process to also take in to the growth and development, or succession of employees. Succession planning is one of the aspects that can contribute to profitability by ensuring a smooth transition of employees. She recommends some steps in order to plan for effective succession. Firstly, it's important to predict and calculate which members are likely to leave within the year's period, either through old age, copy or for personal reasons. The next step is to make a four quadrant matrix with two axes, which is to be used in an effort to measure all workers on success and performance. Employee standing along these quadrants should produce 10% in the quadrant of low-performer-low-potential, and 20% of employees in the high-performer-high-potential quadrant with all of those other 70% employees rank along the other two quadrants (Maxwell, 2004).
This matrix may then be used as the foundation to determine HR needs, including training, retention and succession. Employees falling in the reduced quadrant are the ones who may have to be urged to boost or be booted out. Appraisal of employee performance can be an important aspect in identifying retention of employees, . For instance, at Emery Air Freight, the business was shedding $1 million per year anticipated to poor performance and faulty tactics by employees, when this was corrected, the deficits were eliminated and productivity improved upon (Schuler and Macmillan, 1984).
The 70% of employees in the centre quadrants are the ones who are likely to profit the most from training programs or enrichments on the job. "Training of employees is an invaluable asset in providing a company with a competitive edge. For instance, Delco-Remy used a training program because of its employees and was then able to identify itself from its challengers" (Schuler and Macmillan, 1984:249). Others such as IBM and McDonalds also use training programs to enhance productivity of their firms.
It is the high achievers in the Maxwell (2004) matrix however, that require to be rewarded generously and given opportunities for advancement, and these are ones who also needs to be targeted from a succession point of view, to be advertised to raised positions based on their potential and potential (Maxwell, 2004).
This can then form the foundation on which the HR section thinks about individual employees, their skills and positions in the organizations that they might be well suited for their job. After these discussions among HR professionals, the employees can then be individually approached and consulted about their dreams, so that discussions can be moved into into about how the individual aspirations of employees can best be accommodated within the framework of the department's goals (Maxwell, 2004). On this basis, the HR office can function more proficiently having identified the average person needs of employees, by executing an twelve-monthly review - interacting with the low performing employees on how they can improve, establishing schedules for training and staffing for another yr and making decisions about marketing promotions and succession.
Succession should be an annual process. If opportunities are expected, then staffing changes and increases should be organized well beforehand, since it requires many calendar months to fill up positions. When sufficient time is allowed to fill up positions, then your position can be appropriate matched with the individual possessing the most appropriate level and selection of training and skills, rather than having to employ someone in a rush, who may well not be able to do full justification to the job (Maxwell, 2004).
2. 4. Motivating employees:
According to Macmillan (1983), the gaining of competitive advantage involves a knowledge of barriers to response, intellect and infrastructure systems and requirements, basic management challenges as well as extensive planning procedures. Several companies have efficiently achieved a competitive advantage through the restructuring with their human reference management systems, as pointed out by Schuler and Macmillan (1984). In the Bairnco Corporation, add-ons were associated with performance for top level level professionals and the company was able to almost double its sales from $270 million to $442 million in the short span of 2 yrs. Regarding Lincoln Electric, employees receive a show in the profits, which imbues employees with a high motivation to create. At the American Productivity Middle, generalist professionals are hired, in order to be function effectively in different specialty areas, because their "appreciation system and skills course both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of efficiency and organizational performance" (Schuler and Macmillan, 1984:247).
Motivation ideas may be broadly grouped according to
Genetic and hereditary factors, such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory and Herzberg's two factor theory.
Need based theories, example: Vroom's expectancy theory.
Behavioral theories including the Collateral theory.
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory (1970), which is a five tier system, an individual has two sorts of needs - the lower order needs that happen to be satisfied externally, such as physiological and safe practices needs, and the higher order needs that are satisfied internally such as sociable needs, esteem and home actualization needs. The low order needs may be labeled as the extrinsic factors while the others are intrinsic factors. Herzberg further elucidated these factors in his two factor theory talked about by Marchington and Wilkinson (2002), where in factors such as company insurance policy, supervision and earnings play an important role in deciding the type of employees who will probably join the business. If, for a particular job, they are adequate, employees will be satisfied, usually they will not. Herzberg "argues that employees were more likely to be determined by factors such as accomplishment and the task itself rather than simply money" (Herzberg 1968).
Vroom's expectancy Theory (1964) is based after three salient beliefs:
Valence Expectancy Instrumentality
According to Vroom, each one of these three factors that will be the expression of an employee's targets must be calculated in such a way they are in a position to bring in regards to a motivational force that will ensure maximum pleasure to the employee. It is possible to calculate this motivational push using the method:
Motivation = Valence x Expectancy (Instrumentality)
When the results of the employee's expectancy is satisfied to the utmost through the performance of the HR team, then the employee is likely to be highly motivated in his job.
The Collateral Theory is situated upon the rule that in a office situation, the amount to which an employee experiences satisfaction at his job is determined by the amount to which he seems that he's at an advantage or a drawback as compared to a "referent other", who's actually somebody who is in a position much like the staff. [Anderson and Bedini 2002]. Based on the equity theory, "type" has been referred to as those assets a person brings to his job such as education and skills. The term "outcome" has been indicated in the Collateral theory as discussing the results of the suggestions that an worker puts into a job, i. e. salary and benefits [Anderson and Bedini 2002].
Applying the Equity Theory at the place of work performs an important role in shaping real human relationships at the work place and the performance which may be extracted from the employees. It is the notion of inequity as compared to a referent "other" at another organization that motivates visitors to behave in such a way that the suggestions/outcome percentage is adjusted and when this ratio is usually to be compatible with what management wishes, then your appropriate motivation must be provided to the employees to handle the inequity [Beauvais, n. d. ]. Such factors include add-ons or special factors to rectify the conception of inequity which creates dissatisfaction at the workplace among employees.
3. 0. Strategy:
This study will use a quantitative research methodology, because the target is to determine how prevalent staff turnover is at the context of the junk food sector in the united kingdom retail industry. It must be noted however, that in determining the reasons for high worker turnover, a qualitative way must be applied because the subjective viewpoints of the participants need to be taken into question. Therefore, to be able to answer the research questions which were posed in this research, the strategy used is through the Study and questionnaire method. A Likert-type questionnaire will be utilized, where in replies will be assigned a numerical value over a scale which range from 1 to 5. A lesser value of just one 1 will signify that the issue being analyzed in the question is not important at all while the highest value of 5 will indicate that the Respondent considers that one concern very important. Additionally, a questionnaire may also be ready which be organised on an informal basis and will be completed through an interview with selected participants. The data will then be correlated to be able to study patterns and identify styles and the statistical chi-square approach to analysis of data could be applied to assess the degree of statistical significance of each of the variables which will be suggested through the questionnaire.
The sample survey questionnaire is provided below:
4. 0. Questionnaire:
JOB LEVEL:_________________________
PART TIME? YES NO
Criterion for measurement
1: Very Good
2: Good
3: Fair
4: Bad
5: very bad
1
2
3
4
5
1) My excitement at my job
2) Support from my supervisor
2) Competency of my supervisor
3) Speed in response from my supervisor on my concerns
4) Degree to which my supervisor does not put pressure on me
5) Amount of work regulation
6) Versatility in work hours
7) My wages
8) Provision for bonuses
9) Convenience of working hours
10) Duration of working time and ability to rest
11) Provision of overtime benefits
12) Satisfaction in my own job
13) Personal fulfilment within my job
14) Admiration I get from co-workers
15) Treatment I get from guests
16) Tips I receive from guests
17) Satisfaction with length of hours I am on the job
18) Management policy towards guests who are unreasonable in their demands on me
19) Recognition once and for all work that we do
20) Overall satisfaction ranking with my job
The reactions that are received will be ranked on the basis of weightage. The maximum average range of reactions received against a specific ranking will signify the prevalent style among the list of employees for that particular aspect of the job. This is an initial estimation of job satisfaction that may be achieved by a standard survey. The method of questionnaire is simple and simple to use. Employees can certainly tick the response they wish to make and tabulation of the responses is also facilitated by the numerical value assigned to them.
5. 0. Conclusions:
Based upon the findings from the literature review and the factors that contain been proven to be in charge of high worker turnover in the junk food retail sector, it seems likely that the replies obtained to the survey questionnaire may also reflect similar trends. In view of the current recession and the difficulties that people have been facing in getting jobs, many folks have been grabbing part time work in the junk food retail sector as a means to stay afloat, which could have produced conditions where in employees are in abundant supply as opposed to the other way around, making employees reluctant to leave their careers. Because of this, there is a chance that the results may show that the downturn has decreased the employee turnover rates, however the general factors influencing employee turnover are still likely to be relevant and appropriate.
