a. The concept of employee turnover among the providers of third party proposition services – literature review 5
b. Calculating employee turnover rate and its impact on business 6
c. Research questions 7
III. Evaluation of Canterbury Travels Survey Questionnaire 9
IV. Survey Plan for Evaluating the Causes of High Employee turnover rate and strategies development in hospitality 11
References 13
The Use of Qualitative Methods
Providing third-party player proposition services is a dynamic, yet poorly researched segment of the hospitality business. In particular, the practice evinces that while there is abundant data about gambling, hotel or destination management in general, the academic community gave from little to no attention exploring human resources of this small, though significant element of the large USA hospitality machine.
Because credible quantitative solutions are not openly available, the use of different qualitative solutions remains one of the primary methods for investigating and analyzing this issue. This paper provides some brief insights into the major causes of the assuredly high turnover among the providers of third player proposition services and identifies the platform for future development of the corresponding remedies. Specifically, it speaks about the data received from the observation and interviews, as these methods are among the most reliable, while easily accessible and affordable methods of collecting qualitative data.
Data from the observation
Having observed the performance of PT Proposition services in several casinos in the United States, the following issues, became conspicuous:
The contracted casino staff often works during the night shifts, which is both psychologically pressing and physically arduous.
Furthermore, the observation revealed that while the two thirds of all employees (the examination involved unannounced observations of the 28 hired professionals; prior written consents from them and their employers were obtained), had extended work hours. For example, recurring casino visitors often requested to be serviced by a particular employer, with whom they seemingly developed some kind of psychological affinity. As a result, the people had to remain on the table even after their shifts were over.
The staff did not have adequate pauses
There is a well-established opinion confirmed by the relevant medical studies that nigh work requires longer pauses (Carsten & Spector, 1987). When employees work incessantly, the effects include lowered productivity, poor concentration, increased fatigue and even depression (Morrell, Cloan-Clarke & Wilkinson, 2001). During the observation, it became evident that almost a half of the employees had two pauses with duration ranging from fifteen to thirty minutes, which is obviously non-sufficient for a complete mental recuperation.
Data from interviews
The interviews with several employees, their managers and visitors of a casino confirmed the initial assumptions regarding the causes of high turnover rate in this area of gambling business. In addition, the findings revealed several additional considerations on this phenomenon.
Specifically, the following information was obtained:
The majority of people, who work in this industry, review the career in this industry as a temporary and short-term option.
In particular, many students work on this segment during their studies. Others often regard this job opportunity as a transition point before becoming a manager in hospitality industry. Not a single interviewee revealed that he/she plans to spend more than two years in a current position. Among the key reasons of unattractiveness of a career in this industry are unstandardized working hours, low wages and physically arduous nature of the work.
Interviews with the managers illustrated that there are no systematized policies aimed at creating favorable team environments.
Although some kinds of bonuses are occasionally paid to the employees and corporate parties are sometimes organized and sponsored by the company, the interview showed that these efforts are exceptional and non-systematic. There are no specifically appointed human-resources officers responsible for team building and motivation of the employees. In addition, the managers reported that in contrast to other segments of the hospitality business, the team is often disunited. Individually, after several months of the work, the employees tend to become callous, unresponsive and hard-hearted.
Concept Identification, Measurement and Research Questions
As discussed in the previous works, the problem of high turnovers in proposition player services business is one of the most poorly researched and conceptually impoverished area of the contemporary human resources management. Thus, the practice demonstrates that developing the concept and outlining its theoretical boundaries is important for both theory development and subsequent policymaking (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2013; Carsten & Spector, 1987).
This apart of the assignment focuses on providing the definition of employee turnover in third party providers of player services and discussing why the stage of concept development is of critical importance in research. Furthermore, this part of the research also reveals the main approaches to measuring turnover rates in this segment of the hospitality industry.
Finally, this assignment provides a detailed analysis of the research questions to be used in the future paper. Specifically, relevance and ethical admissibility of such research questions, as well their utility for the human resources practitioners are discussed here.
The concept of employee turnover among the providers of third party proposition services – literature review
Tett & Meyer (1993) define the idea of turnover in employment perspective as the act of replacing an existing employee with the new one. Morell, Loan-Clarke and Wilkinson (2001) argued that employee turnover refers to the ratio of the number of employees or workers, which had been substituted by the persons with the similar organizational function. There is a multitude of other definitions of this phenomenon in the academic world. Although such definitions have different elements and are sometimes discrepant, all of them serve the same purpose, which is to demonstrate how successful an organization is in hiring qualified people and retaining them onboard of the organization (Conaty and Charan).
At the same time, it is important emphasizing that high employee turnover is not always a negative matter (Perrow 1991). For instance, some organizations (e.g. agricultural companies) are dependent on seasonal labor only (Lee, Gerhart, Weller & Trevor, 2008). Other companies favor high employee turnover because longer stay with a company leads to unionizing trends among the employees, which sometimes effectively substitute trade unions and other forms of institutional representation of the employees (Ulrich, 1997). At the same time, Rothwell and Kazanas (2003) suitably noted that long-term employees, who may unite and negotiate better job conditions, is not an asset, but rather an encumbrance for the companies, which use low-skilled rudimentary labor.
Nowadays, there are four main categories of employment turnover.
The first dichotomy involves voluntary and involuntary turnovers (Tett & Mayer, 1993). Thus, the first one refers to a situation when a decision to leave an organization is taken by the employee. The practice demonstrates that the most popular causes of voluntary resignation (and therefore turnover) of an employee are insufficient pay, lack of career prospects and poor team environment. The second type is involuntary turnover, i.e. when a decision to replace an employee is taken by the employee, and the latter is unwilling to leave his position. The reasons of this type of turnover include inadequate professional performance or personal conflicts with managers (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2003)
The second dichotomy is between functional and dysfunctional types of turnover (Heneman & Judge, 2006). The first type refers to a situation when an employee, who demonstrates poor performance or whose professional development fails in keeping up with the company development, leaves the company either on his own initiative or by a decision of the management (Conaty & Charan, 2010; Heneman & Judge, 2006). Functional turnover is positive for the organization, because it cultivates competiveness and ‘natural selection’ among the employees, stimulating them to become better professionally and socially (Joshi, Liao & Martocchio, 2011; Lee, Gerhart, Weller & Trevor, 2008). In contrast, dysfunctional turnover refers to a situation when a qualified, high-performing employee decides to leave the organization because of better offer received from other company or inadequate career advancement opportunities (Ulrich, 2006).
Calculating employee turnover rate and its impact on business
The common approach to calculating employee turnover rate involves use of the following formulae.
x=100 (yz)
Where x refers to the employment rate (in %), y – a number of separation during the discussion period and z – a total number of employees. The two typical periods for measuring employee turnover are a calendar or a fiscal year, although a calendar option is more prevalent (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2003).
Apart from the purely managerial aspect (e.g. the need to spend time to train the newly hired worker), high turnover rate is financially and organizationally detrimental to the company (Rothwell & Kazanas, 2003). Specifically, the need to replace an employee is associated with sourcing expenses, hiring, training and acculturation. In addition to this, company has to provide a severance pay to the one, who is leaving.
Research questions
Understanding the causes of high turnover rate in hospitality industry in general, and among the providers of third party proposition player services in particular involves answering to the following research questions:
What is understood under the concept of high-employee turnover in this segment of hospitality industry?
As discussed before, although employee turnover is a commonly accepted metric, managerial perception of this concept significantly varies across the different industries. Thus, ensuring that the researchers and the practice operate the same definitional mechanism is essential.
What are the most popular and the most effective approaches for measuring employee turnover in this area?
The hospitality industry has many distinct features. Thus, in order to explore the research subject in full, understanding specifics of calculating the turnover rate is important. Specifically, analyzing the type of metrics commonly accepted here is important.
What is the typology of turnover rate in general and in hospitality in particular?
As discussed before, there are several types of turnover situations. Some of them are good for a company, while others are invariably negative.
What turnover scenarios are good for a company, which works in hospitality?
Exploring this question will help to identify favorable turnover scenario, i.e. it will help to understand when turnover is necessary for a company development.
What turnover scenarios are negative for a company in general and for the providers of third party proposition services in particular?
Answering this issue is good for understanding the type of turnover, which leads to loss in productivity, performance or effective of a company, i.e. it helps to provide a comprehensive description of the working scenarios, which should be avoided by a company to keep efficient.
What are the impacts of having a poor turnover rate in general in hospitality and specifically among the providers of third party proposition player services?
Although many commentators argue that a dysfunctional turnover rate is always negative, the scope and extent of the alleged impacts should be measured quantitatively and qualitatively in order to make any further. Specifically, understanding that the gravity of this problem has not been overestimated and that the research & development expenses aimed at reducing such rates are r justified.
Is employee turnover rate in hospitality industry in general and among the providers of third party player proposition services indeed high?
Unless the causes of a problem are thoroughly researched, the development of reliable, effective and, most-importantly, long-term solutions is not possible. The answer to this question will serve as a platform for framing the corresponding human resources policies.
What are the most effective methods for reducing employee turnover rates in the hospitality industry in general and among providers of the third party proposition services in particular?
This question is critical for the future research study, as it will show how productivity and efficiency of hospitality organizations may be improved by reducing high rates of employee turnover rates. In particular, the answer to this research question will provide a comprehensive description of the ‘best practices’ in this area, as well as it will take into consideration sound theoretical speculations in this regard.
What internal and external aspects should an organization take into consideration when launching measures aimed at reducing the rates of employee turnover?
Despite the fact that the need of removing high turnover rates may be incontestable in some cases, implementation of such policies may be impossible without some prerequisites, such as the availability of financial resources or the use of specific approach to management and corporate governance.
What other considerations are relevant in discussing the causes and effectives of turnover rates in hospitality industry?
Although answering the nine questions listed above may be sufficient for getting a clear and comprehensive picture about the causes of high turnover rates in hospitality industry, some aspects may be consequentially for research and company policymaking.
Evaluation of Canterbury Travels Survey Questionnaire
The importance of making surveys as a method of quantitative research is undisputed. In particular, there is much evidence showing that distribution of the different questionnaires is an important stage in market research (Hammersley, 2013). Furthermore, there is a popular scholarly opinion that no other type of the data is even to opinion of the customers, especially when number of the collected responses is sufficient to speak about statistical significance of such sample (Joshi, Liao & Martocchio, 2011).
Despite the fact that the questionnaire made for Canterbury Travel is relatively well structed, in some way it fails to accomplish the goals of Roxanne Freeman. The purpose of this part of the assignment is to provide a comprehensive analysis of four major strategies, which may be used to improve this questionnaire in order to receive more informative, complete, accurate and relevant answers.
Firstly, the case says that the main purpose of making such survey is to evaluate whether Canterbury Travels can offer more business for Canterbury Travels, or whether the market is already saturated by other suppliers. However, nothing in the question evaluates financial capacities of the potential customers, i.e. there is not a single question asking how much a potential customer spends on travel, or may be willing to spend. Therefore, adding a section asking about average travel budget of a potential customer appears to be a good improvement for this survey.
Secondly, in case this type of survey fails in clarifying whether there is any potential market in the town because no questions relating to targeting and segmentation are there. To be more specific, any travel company usually specializes in some kind of specific travel activities. For example, some companies provide exclusive customized wildlife safaris in Eastern Africa, while the only professional domain of the others may Zanzibar beach vacations or windsurfing tours to Australia.
Thus, the fact that there is a question designed to understand the type of travel preferred by the customers does not necessarily mean that it will help to understand whether Hometown is a promising market for Canterbury travel. The authors of this survey questionnaire should have formulated this question in a more specific. Furthermore, it might have been a good idea to ask several questions, which fusion would produce a clear insight into how much an average potential customer is willing to pay and what his travel priorities are.
Finally, the survey focuses on getting reports about performance of the competitors. It is not entirely clear whether this type of data collection is compliant with the local fair competition legislation, not to mention that this approach seems to be ethically dubious. Therefore, the question should better ask about the reasons of unsatisfactory performance of the current travel agency of the respondent.
Survey Plan for Evaluating the Causes of High Employee turnover rate and strategies development in hospitality
Despite the fact that some scholars argue that survey is overly simplistic (Hamersley, 2013), this method of primary data collection remains one of the most reliable, available and affordable solution. At the same time, easiness in data collection and interpretation should not be underestimated. The practice demonstrates that failure to develop the research questions in an appropriate manner, or mistakes committed at the data interpretation stage may result in a wrong formulation of the company marketing campaign, which entails unnecessary losses and negative outcomes for the company reputation.
Therefore, in order to conduct the research aimed at understanding the real causes of high turnover rate among the providers of player proposition services, taking the following steps is necessary:
Formulation of the survey objective. Although ‘understanding the causes of high employee turnover rate among the providers of player proposition services’ comprehensively conveys the meaning of this research, yet it is not specific enough. In order to apply the results of such research in a practical dimension, outlining geographical and temporal boundaries of the research is necessary.
Development of the simple, yet informative research questions. Avoiding the mistakes committed by the marketers of Canterbury Travels is important in the data collection. The questions should be focused on evaluating the causes of high turnover rates, and the measures, which could have prevented separation with a particular employee, should be used. In addition, the survey report form should not be overly sophisticated or wordy. A targeted respondent should be capable of answering all questions within ten minutes or less. Overburdening him/her with information may affect data accuracy, as well as it can repel a respondent from providing further answers. For each cohort of the respondents a customized report form should be prepared.
Distribution of the survey forms. All questionnaires should be distributed among the respondents in an ethical and polite manner.
Results collection. It is important to ensure that all filled forms have been collected. If any of the files are intentionally or inadvertently lost, integrity the may suffer.
Data interpretation. The practice shows that sometimes there is an irresistible temptation to rig data in order to confirm the research hypothesis, especially when a research project is sponsored by a private corporation. Respecting the standards of academic integrity and unbiased, impartial approach should be an unshakeable principle during this stage (Hammersley, 2013).
References
Carsten, J. M.; Spector, P. E. (1987). "Unemployment, job satisfaction, and employee turnover: A meta-analytic test of the Muchinsky model". Journal of Applied Psychology 72 (3): 374–381\
Conaty, B. & Charan, R. (2010). The talent masters: why smart leaders put people before numbers. New York: Crown Business.
Hammersley, M. (2013) What is qualitative research?, London, Bloomsbury.
Heneman, H. & Judge, T. (2006). Staffing organizations. Middleton, WI: Mendota House.
Joshi, A., Liao, H., & Martocchio, J. (2011). Research in personnel and human resources management. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald.
Lee, T. H., Gerhart, B. Weller, I. & Trevor, C. O. (2008). "Understanding voluntary turnover: Path-specific job satisfaction effects and the importance of unsolicited job offers". Academy of Management Journal 51 (4): 651–671
Morrell, K. Loan-Clarke J., &Wilkinson A. (2001) Unweaving leaving: The use of models in the management of employee turnover. International Journal of Management Reviews 3(3), 219-244.
Perrow, C. (1991). "A Society of Organizations". Theory and Society 6 (20): 725–762
Rothwell, W. & Kazanas, H. (2003). Planning and managing human resources. Amherst, Mass.: HRD Press.
Tett, R. P, Meyer, J.P. (1993). "Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Turnover Intention, and Turnover: Path Analyses Based on Meta-Analytic Findings". Personnel Psychology 46 (2): 259–293.
Ulrich, D. (1997). Human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
