Running Head: DRAFT ACTION RESEARCH PLAN Edwards 1 Draft Action Research Plan Markis’ Edwards EDU 671: Fundamentals of Educational Research Dr. Deborah Naughton January 5, 2018 Area of Focus The purpose of this study is to come up with better ways or retaining employees at the place I work for. There are high numbers of employees every month who are terminating their services with the institution. This is forcing the institution to constantly carry out new hiring processes to replace employees who have exited the institution (Holder-Winfield, 2014). Problem interest The institution is constantly losing talented employees almost on a weekly basis. The institutions have several theories that support the reason for this; employees are not satisfied with the salaries and the remuneration package that they are receiving, the employees feel that there is little room for career growth and that there is constant head hunting for the employees from rival institutions. The human resource department has recorded that it loses 20 to 25 employees every month. This is causing instability in the institution as the human resource has to hire new employees and train them in order to replace the employees who have exited the institution. The human resource department is worried that the training process for the new employees is taking too much time and delaying the daily functions of the institution. There is also a worry from the current employees of the organization, they are uncertain about the future of the organization. Current employees are worried that the constant exit of fellow employees might trigger a collapse of the institution. Background The issue of constant employee exits was recorded to have started a year ago. Prior to the constant exits, the institution recorded to be losing employees at a lower rate; 5 to 10 employees per year. The institution that I work for used to be very stable and every function of the institution was carried out as expected. This was quite remarkable considering that the institution was fairly a new one; it has been in existence for the last 11 years. As of three years ago, the institution’s remuneration package was slightly lower than its industry’s remuneration payout. In the first five years, the organization’s expansion was rapid considering it is a banking institution; the expansion was noted in the acquiring and opening of new bank branches and also the number of employees employed by the institution. However, after the fifth year, the rapid expansion stopped, the employees settled into their positions in the institution. Nine years into the existence of the institution there was a slowdown from the employees with grumbles of lack of room for career growth and inequality of remuneration package of the institution compared to that of the industry that it was in. Prior Interventions Two months after the grumble fellow human resources and I tried to get t ...

1. Running Head: DRAFT ACTION RESEARCH PLAN
Edwards 1
Draft Action Research Plan
Markis’ Edwards
EDU 671: Fundamentals of Educational Research
Dr. Deborah Naughton
January 5, 2018
Area of Focus
The purpose of this study is to come up with better ways or
retaining employees at the place I work for. There are high
numbers of employees every month who are terminating their
services with the institution. This is forcing the institution to
constantly carry out new hiring processes to replace employees
who have exited the institution (Holder-Winfield, 2014).
Problem interest
The institution is constantly losing talented employees almost
on a weekly basis. The institutions have several theories that
support the reason for this; employees are not satisfied with the
salaries and the remuneration package that they are receiving,
the employees feel that there is little room for career growth
and that there is constant head hunting for the employees from
rival institutions.
The human resource department has recorded that it loses 20 to
25 employees every month. This is causing instability in the
institution as the human resource has to hire new employees and
train them in order to replace the employees who have exited
the institution. The human resource department is worried that
the training process for the new employees is taking too much

2. time and delaying the daily functions of the institution. There is
also a worry from the current employees of the organization,
they are uncertain about the future of the organization. Current
employees are worried that the constant exit of fellow
employees might trigger a collapse of the institution.
Background
The issue of constant employee exits was recorded to have
started a year ago. Prior to the constant exits, the institution
recorded to be losing employees at a lower rate; 5 to 10
employees per year. The institution that I work for used to be
very stable and every function of the institution was carried out
as expected. This was quite remarkable considering that the
institution was fairly a new one; it has been in existence for the
last 11 years. As of three years ago, the institution’s
remuneration package was slightly lower than its industry’s
remuneration payout.
In the first five years, the organization’s expansion was rapid
considering it is a banking institution; the expansion was noted
in the acquiring and opening of new bank branches and also the
number of employees employed by the institution. However,
after the fifth year, the rapid expansion stopped, the employees
settled into their positions in the institution. Nine years into the
existence of the institution there was a slowdown from the
employees with grumbles of lack of room for career growth and
inequality of remuneration package of the institution compared
to that of the industry that it was in.
Prior Interventions
Two months after the grumble fellow human resources and I
tried to get to the root cause of the grumble and dissatisfaction
of the small number of employees. Once it was established the
human resource met up with not contented members and offered
to increase their remuneration packages. This move was meant
to stop the spread of the grumbles to other employees. The not
contented members were reluctant to take the new packages
claiming that it was a payout to shut them up, however, they

3. eventually took the new packages. As part of the human
resource department of the institution, we assured them that we
would take up the issue of career growth with the top
management of the organization.
The top management advised that we should create room for
career growth for the grumbling employees as they were only a
handful of them. To that effect, new positions were created and
given to the grumbling members. A year later a new protest
from a significantly huge number of employees took place.
Their complaints were similar to the earlier handful grumblers.
To that effect, the top management advised the HR department
to offer voluntary early retirement to employees that were
dissatisfied. This led to the termination of services from many
employees in that year. to that effect, it was crucial to find an
employee retention strategy that would sort the institution once
and for all.
Participant Description
To come up with an effective strategy I decided to have a list of
participants that will aid me to decide on good employee
retention styles. I decided to pick a representative from each
department of the institution. The departments included the IT
department, branch operations department, credit department,
debt recovery department, legal department, administration
department, central processing unit department, marketing
department, sales department, risk and audit department, money
transfer department, forensic and physical security department.
I also randomly selected 6 employees who met different
criteria; two employees that have worked in the institution for
three or less years, two other employees who have worked in the
institution for more than three years but less than six years and
the final two employees who met the criteria of working in the
institution for not less than six years.
Justification of participants
I settled on these participants as they represent a large
percentage of the institution’s employees. Having a member
from each department will give an overall view of the

4. department’s take on employee retention. Each department
representative will highlight the plight of their department. Also
by having a representative from each department will align the
institution to the common goal of employee retention as every
department will feel that they had a role to play in the eventual
strategy.
By having employees who have worked in the institution for a
different number of years will help align the expectations of
employees depending on their stay in the organization. These
participants will give a representative view of their expected
career growth and remuneration packages. The participants will
also represent the various age groups in the organization.
Research Questions
The two questions I settled for my research are as below
Question 1: What do you think will retain the most number of
employees in the institution and what will be the possible side
effect of applying your employee retaining strategy?
Question 2: What do you think will be the perspective of your
fellow employees in regards to your employee retaining strategy
(Hinchey, 2016)?
Idea-Teaching and Learning
My idea is an issue that will involve teaching and learning. The
top management and HR department will learn of the
expectations of the employees. They will also learn better
employee retaining mechanisms. As the research is taking place
the participants who are representatives of fellow employees,
will learn about the organization’s expectations of employees
and learn about realistic employee retention strategies
(Ragoonaden, 2015).
Locus of Control
I believe that my idea is within my locus of control. I believe
that through my interactions with the participants, I can
influence the outcomes of the research to favor both the
institution and employees. My idea will also influence the
internal locus of control of the employees as they will believe

5. that they had full control of the outcome as far as employee
retention is concerned (LEFCOURT, 2017).
Passion
I feel that my idea is something that I am passionate about. My
passion originates from both my life experience and
professional practice. My desire to have employees who are
satisfied or who have little complaints about the institution they
work for motivates me to come up with a solution for such an
issue. Through my life experience, I have discovered that
satisfied people or employees for this matter perform better if
they feel that their needs and demands are looked into and that
they are addressed.
Inspiration
My idea inspires change, as employees feel they are part of the
employee retention strategy. My idea will improve the employee
plight in the institution and as a result, it may save the
institution’s state; the institution will not collapse as employees
will be retained and the functions of the institution will be
carried out as expected.
References
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Blaikie, N. W. H., & Priest, J. (2016). Social research:
Paradigms in action. Malden, MA: Polity Press.

6. Hinchey, P. H. (2016). A critical action research reader.
Holder-Winfield, N. (2014). Exclusion: Strategies for improving
diversity in recruitment, retention, and promotion.
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2014). The action
research planner: Doing critical participatory action research.
LEFCOURT, H. M. (2017). LOCUS OF CONTROL. S.l.:
PSYCHOLOGY PRESS.
McNiff, J. (2014). Writing and doing action research.
Ragoonaden, K. (2015). Mindful teaching and learning:
Developing a pedagogy of well-being.
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