Introduction
The use of scholarly, peer-reviewed academic articles is an important and essential element in hospitality research. Although internet-based sources and company publications are also relevant because they provide the necessary data, scholarly articles are particularly momentous for the needs of research because they have the highest degree of data accuracy and credibility. In addition, they present information in a standardized way, thus making it concise, but informative and comparatively easy for comprehension for the readers with different cultural background.
Hospitality industry is not an exception in this regard. Although some commentators argue that it is too simplistic to be subject of profound academic studies, the practice shows that intense competition among the hotels and other hospitality institutions significantly increased the value of accurate and credible academic data.
Furthermore, employee turnover is one most acute problem on the contemporary hospitality landscape. This industry is human resources centric, i.e. qualified and experienced employees are vitally important for successfulness of such organizations. Yet, the research shows that the turnover rates in hospitality industry are among the highest nationwide. Thus, in accordance with the 2014 Compensation Force report findings, hospitality industry is the unquestioned leader in this field, accounting for 20.2% of voluntary turnovers and 27.6% of all turnovers. The closest industry is banking & finance with average 13.1%.
The purpose of this research is provide a brief literature review of the three scholarly peer-reviewed articles, examining the causes of employee turnover in hospitality and discussing the strategies, which may be used to reduce turnover rate and increase employee engagement. Specifically, this work discusses the relevance of these studies for further research in hospitality turnover rates and employee retention.
Cho, S., Woods, R., (Shawn) Jang, S., & Erdem, M. (2006). Measuring the impact of human resource management practices on hospitality firms’ performances. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(2), 262-277.
In this article, Seonghee Cho and his associates explore the influence of twelve most popular approaches to human resources management and turnover rates among the mangers and other employee in the hospitality organizations of the United States, focusing on hotels, travel companies, casinos, consulting firms etc. In addition, this study also focuses on examining the correlation between employee turnover rates and return on assets, measured by labor productivity of the employees (Cho et al., 2006).
Among other issues, this study emphasized that the main methods of decreasing employee turnover in the hospitality sector of economy can be grouped into three generic, yet distinct categories. The authors of the article argued that although the effectiveness of these methodologies should be analyzed separately, they synergetic use is the key to increasing retention and engagement of the employees.
Specifically, labor participation programs allow employees to become directly involved in improvement and management of the organization, which, in its turn, has a dramatic positive effect on their motivation. This approach also helps the company to become more reliant on internal growth, rather on use of ‘alien’ talents, which good for both motivation of the staff and financial management of the organization.
In addition, various mechanisms of incentivizing employees are important for invigorating them to stay with the company. One of the main causes why junior and middle staff leaves hospitality organizations is that the employees feel that (a) they are underpaid and (b) there are no prospects for professional development for them within their organization. The work of Cho concluded that providing merit-based performance payments, as well as promising and granting promotions to the employees is an essential condition for enhancing retention rates.
Finally, the authors concluded that high turnover rates might be reduced by administrating comprehensive pre-employment tests. In other words, the organizations should be more exigent than they are now, i.e. the companies should hire only those candidates, who certainly meet the position requirements. The fact that there is a surplus of labor force on this market makes it possible to evaluate the competences of many job applicants.
The results of this study are important for our research mainly because they show what methods the organization may use to reduce the turnover rates among its employees. This study also accentuates that although the observations were mainly conducted in hotels, the managers can use them in any area of hospitality industry, therefore, they can be applied for developing the methods of reducing employee turnover in third party player proposition services.
Gustafson, C. (2002). Employee turnover: a study of private clubs in the USA. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 14(3), 106-113.
The purpose of the work completed by Catherine Gustafson was to explore the reasons of high turnover rates in private clubs across the United States of America, and to explore the key perceptions of the managers in this regard. In other words, this work aimed at comparing the real impellent forces of employee turnover and the managerial assumptions and perceptions in this regard (Gustafson, 2002).
Among other issues, the research revealed that such perceptions of the managers are determined by different factors, including their experience, education, sphere of hospitality industry and size of the organization. The authors underscored that the discrepancies between the real causes of turnover and the managers’ perceptions are the primary reason of the failed human resources projects.
One of the key findings made by Gustafson is that irrespective of their experience, education and expertise, the managers are prone to overestimating the effectiveness of financial and promotional incentives, while substantially underrating the importance of loyalty to the company and healthy work environment. The article concludes that the managers should create a friendly and mutually loyal team environment, and the employee turnover rate will decline.
Analyzing this article is useful to the topic, because it provides many informative insights into the popular mistakes committed by the hospitality managers, thus helping to develop turnover improvement strategies in a most effective way.
Iverson, R. & Deery, M. (1997). Turnover culture in the hospitality industry. Human Resources Management Journal, 7(4), 71-82.
This work is profound qualitative study into the factors, which influence an employee’s decision to leave a company in the hospitality industry. The key message of the authors is that although professional gratification, growth opportunities, work-related conflicts and financial compensation are important determinants of employee retention, the most important factor is the turnover culture. In other words, when an organization routinely fails to eliminate the causes of employee disinterest and poor motivation, the culture of high turnover will gradually develop and contaminate the entire organization (Iverson, 1997). The company will be regarded as a temporary place of job, which should be changed when something more attractive emerges.
Therefore, this article contends that in order to keep turnover rates low, the managers should mostly focus on creating an auspicious working environment for staff rather than trying to improve separate work benefits.
This work is important for the discussed topic because it identifies the most fundamental dimension of all turnover-reduction policies. Realizing that team environment is the key to overall diminishment of employee turnover will be helpful in developing the most efficacious human resources policies for a hospitality organization.
Relevance of the Articles for the Future Research Project
The future research study will be aimed at analyzing the reasons of high turnover rates among the third party providers of proposition player services. Despite the fact that it is a sub-segment of the gambling industry, the practice demonstrates that it shares many features with hospitality industry.
Additionally, there are no studies specifically focused on analyzing the causes of high turnover in the providers of proposition player services. Therefore, the only method of developing effective methodologies for reducing the turnover rates in these institutions is analyzing the studies from similar industries. Hospitality segment of the economy appears to be the best alternative in this regard.
In addition, these works discredit popular misconceptions about why productive employees leave the companies, engaged in the hospitality segment. Therefore, by analyzing the mistakes popularly committed by the managers of those companies, the future research will help to develop the most effective, yet the least resource-consuming solutions for employee retention and engagement.
References
Cho, S., Woods, R., (Shawn) Jang, S., & Erdem, M. (2006). Measuring the impact of human resource management practices on hospitality firms’ performances. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25(2), 262-277.
Gustafson, C. (2002). Employee turnover: a study of private clubs in the USA. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 14(3), 106-113
Iverson, R. & Deery, M. (1997). Turnover culture in the hospitality industry. Human Resources Management Journal, 7(4), 71-82.
