Combatting High Employee Turn Over Rates 6 COMBATTING HIGH EMPLOYEE TURN OVER RATES Niesha Turner DeVry University Professor O’Keefe Technical Writing November 29, 2015 Executive Summary This document tackles the issue of employee turn over. Reasons behind employee turnover are numerous including poor working environment, lack of compensation, failure to reward employees, failure to involve employees in decision making among other reasons. This can have a negative impact on the performance of an organization noting that employees constitute the most important department to any organization; Human resource. Taking corrective measure thus is a must for any organization that notices the situations of employee turnover becoming prevalent. Such include among others rewarding employees, minding their health and welfare as well as taking interest in their development. Organizations ought to take care to avoid employee turnover and retain their work force for enhanced productivity. Introduction Employee turnover is a situation whereby employees leave a company by way of resigning, being laid off or having their contract terminated. Contracts can be renewed and being laid off can as well mean that there are problems within the organization. If mostly employees make personal decisions to leave an organizations especially by way of resigning, and then this happens to be done by many employees within an organization and within short durations of time, then it is usually a clear indicator that there I a problem that should be addressed. High employee turnover can lead to a negative image about a particular organization and it could lead to a problem by regulators if the situation looks massive. Every organization thus needs to ensure that there are measures in place to ensure that its employees are retained and as well act as ambassadors of the organization even when at work. This is only achieved when the employees are treated well and are satisfied with their jobs. When employees are happy and more satisfied with their work, they are usually more productive. Hiring the right people is the beginning point of employee retention since people that are unfit for a particular role can’t be satisfied with it especially if they do not perform according to their expectations. Besides hiring the right people, offering opportunities for growth and development of employees as well helps combat high employee turnover and so does offering flexibility in working, recognizing and rewarding employees and keeping compensation and benefits packages current. Description and Background information Several authors have looked into the issue of employee turn over. Almost all authors that look into the issue concur that organizational psychology can easily be used to explain the problems associated with employee turnover. With this regards, factors of motivation and demotivation are a wide range of individual elements that are very si.

1. Combatting High Employee Turn Over
Rates
6
COMBATTING HIGH EMPLOYEE TURN OVER RATES
Niesha Turner
DeVry University
Professor O’Keefe
Technical Writing
November 29, 2015
Executive Summary
This document tackles the issue of employee turn over. Reasons

2. behind employee turnover are numerous including poor working
environment, lack of compensation, failure to reward
employees, failure to involve employees in decision making
among other reasons. This can have a negative impact on the
performance of an organization noting that employees constitute
the most important department to any organization; Human
resource. Taking corrective measure thus is a must for any
organization that notices the situations of employee turnover
becoming prevalent. Such include among others rewarding
employees, minding their health and welfare as well as taking
interest in their development. Organizations ought to take care
to avoid employee turnover and retain their work force for
enhanced productivity.
Introduction
Employee turnover is a situation whereby employees leave a
company by way of resigning, being laid off or having their
contract terminated. Contracts can be renewed and being laid
off can as well mean that there are problems within the
organization. If mostly employees make personal decisions to
leave an organizations especially by way of resigning, and then
this happens to be done by many employees within an
organization and within short durations of time, then it is
usually a clear indicator that there I a problem that should be
addressed. High employee turnover can lead to a negative
image about a particular organization and it could lead to a
problem by regulators if the situation looks massive. Every
organization thus needs to ensure that there are measures in
place to ensure that its employees are retained and as well act as
ambassadors of the organization even when at work. This is
only achieved when the employees are treated well and are
satisfied with their jobs. When employees are happy and more
satisfied with their work, they are usually more productive.
Hiring the right people is the beginning point of employee
retention since people that are unfit for a particular role can’t
be satisfied with it especially if they do not perform according
to their expectations. Besides hiring the right people, offering

3. opportunities for growth and development of employees as well
helps combat high employee turnover and so does offering
flexibility in working, recognizing and rewarding employees
and keeping compensation and benefits packages current.
Description and Background information
Several authors have looked into the issue of employee turn
over. Almost all authors that look into the issue concur that
organizational psychology can easily be used to explain the
problems associated with employee turnover. With this regards,
factors of motivation and demotivation are a wide range of
individual elements that are very significant at determining if
the employees are encouraged to keep their jobs or not.
Factors contributing to employees turn over
Factors that determine the employee turnover vary. Few things
are identified as voluntary reasons that have no association with
the work place situations. Examples could be retirement due to
reaching the retirement age. Other than that, especially
sometimes in the past, women especially used to quit working
so as to take care of their families in full time capacities. This
used to happen mostly out of agreements upon being married
where one partner decided to be the traditionally called ‘bread
winner’ while the other was a home maker (Mowday, et al
2013). Another issue in the same capacity would be getting
incapacitated such that person can no longer work such as due
to chronic illness which leads to such individuals quitting their
jobs willingly and without work related pressures.
However, pressures related to work play bigger role at making
employees quit their jobs or to be dismissed (Batt, & Colvin
2011). Excessive work is one of the few usually undisclosed
reasons that affect majority employees. Despite most states
having the mean working hours being around 40 hours, most
deadlines that should be met necessitate employees to even
work over time in situations that at times are not even
compensated for. This creates inconveniences with the factors
such as having an amiable work-life balance and often leads to
fatigue (Kehoe, & Wright 2013). A related issue is however an

4. unfavorable work environment from health and safety
perspective. Employees can be injured or fall sick out of the
health hazards that they are exposed to at their work stations. If
the risks outweigh the benefits and where measures to minimize
the risks are not taken, then employees often quit.
Unfavorable terms of remuneration and current benefits and
compensation package as well can become a force that drives
the employees out of an organization. In most situations,
employees look for better opportunities elsewhere.
Lack of opportunities of development and employee growth can
be a huge hindrance especially for younger employees who
would like to have their careers advance and whose chances of
promotion and upward trajectory of their job groups highly
value this bit as an incentive. Therefore, they can comfortably
look for work elsewhere where chances are better.
Effects of employee turnover on the organization
There are several negative effects of employee turnover in an
organization. The most obvious of them all is a negative public
image. Negative publicity results to other issues that are easily
related to that. It is harder or a firm or an organization that has
a high employee turnover to be able to hire new employees
especially the competitive to talents. Only those that are green
in their careers and those that work out of desperation or as a
means of survival become available. Such employees have low
productivity and need a high involvement of the management on
their training and development. Similarly, there are higher
costs of hiring the new employees (Judge, & Kammeyer-Mueller
2012). First of all, the cost of hiring is rather high. This doesn’t
mention the benefits and compensation claims by the employees
that are either laid off or by those who quit. New employees as
well require a heavy deal of investment in them to develop their
skills to top levels that would enhance e higher productivity.
There is also a chance that regulators would as well be
interested in understanding the factors that result to the
situation with employees. Besides, stakeholders including
customers may have a huge negative perception of the company

5. which can affect the clientele and/or customer base as even
loyal ones switch allegiance. Finally, it is worth noting that
such a group of employee that remains after colleagues move
out does so for reasons that still happen to force them to do so
other than motivate them. Therefore, this implies that they are
generally demotivated. Demotivated employees have very low
levels of productivity not to mention lack of regard for the
employer which as well directly influences their loyalty and
commitment to the company. Correctional measures need to
therefore be taken to curb the problem before a company suffers
especially in the long term.
Measures to take in order to curb employee turn over
Remedies to the problems are the basic that would enhance
employee job satisfaction which in turn acts as an incentive not
only ensure that they are retained but also act as a ‘bait’ to
attract other top talents within the organization.
Ensuring the work place follows OSHA recommendations is
extremely necessary especially with regards to enhancing work
place health and safety standards (Edmans, 2012). This is in
addition to offering covers to employees such as insurance
covers while at work. Offering medical covers beside the basic
personal covers that other normal people have is also a huge
incentive that shows the interest of the general well-being of the
organization for the employee.
Offering opportunities for career advancement is also necessary.
The opportunity comes in terms of training and development
and advancing the tasks given top the employees with time
where by fresh challenges give the worker a new experience and
opportunity to learn. This not only gives the employees
identified the morale to continue working harder but also makes
them more efficient and creates chances for others to learn from
those that get to be trained.
Allowing employees to have general freedom at the tasks and
duties that they do motivates them by making them feel that
they have a role to paly which highly builds their confidence. In
simple terms, this implies that excessive monitoring and

6. supervision can not only demotivate employees but also make
them doubt their credibility and ability which effectively
reduces their self-esteem and the associated positive
performance.
Recognizing and rewarding performing employees also helps to
motivate them and encourage them to work harder which in turn
leads to increased productivity. Others as well are encouraged
to work hard. Recognition can be of different forms such as
giving opportunities for training to performing employees and
promoting them as well.
Taking care of employee welfare also is important. Nursing
mothers can have their own section where children can be taken
care of. Simple things like having the company provide meals
like lunch and tea as well as having team building and
recreation activities organized by the company goes a long way
in boosting employee morale and commitment to the
organization. Freedom to have the management being involved
in personal affairs of the employees as well boosts their morale
and confidence in the company for the support.
Involving employees in decision making makes them to feel
appreciated. Indeed, they become ‘owners’ of the company
other than being owned as a means to achieve an end by the
company. Such an initiative as well offers an excellent
opportunity to ensure that decisions made are considerable and
do not subject employees to unfavorable circumstances.
Conclusion and recommendation
In their analysis, Glebbeek and Bax (2004) argue that high
employee turnover is always highly discouraged since it
portrays any company negatively. As a matter of fact, it is
bound to lose stake holders, have a negative public image and
make it hard for it to hire new employees. Therefore, it is
crucial to have the management doing anything possible to
minimize employee turnover and enhance commitment and
loyalty.

7. References
Batt, R., & Colvin, A. J. (2011). An employment systems
approach to turnover: Human
resources practices, quits, dismissals, and performance.
Academy of management Journal, 54(4), 695-717.
Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm
value, with implications for corporate social responsibility.
The Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 1-19.
Glebbeek, A. C., & Bax, E. H. (2004). Is high employee
turnover really harmful? An empirical test using company
records. Academy of Management Journal, 47(2), 277-286.
Judge, T. A., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D. (2012). Job attitudes.

8. Annual Review of psychology, 63, 341-367.
Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-
performance human resource
practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of
Management, 39(2), 366-391.
Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M. (2013).
Employee—organization linkages: The psychology of
commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic Press.