Factors Affecting Hotel Employee High Turnover Rate

Table of Contents

Executive Summary  1

1. Introduction  4

1.1 Background to the problem 5

1.2 Research Goals and Objectives 6

1.3 Significance of the Research 6

2. Literature Review  4

2.1 Definition and Importance of Turnover 5

2.2 Employee turnover types 6

2.3 Factors affecting employee turnover 6

2.4 Importance of job satisfaction 6

3. Research Questions  4

4. Methodology 4

4.1 Research Design  5

4.2 Data Collection Methods 6

4.3 Sampling Method 5

4.4 Data Analysis Techniques 5

4.5 Limitation of the Study 5

4.6 Ethical Considerations 5

5. Results and Discussion 4

5.1 Results and Findings 5

6. Conclusion and Recommendations 4

7. Limitations and Future Research 4

8. References 4

9. Appendix 4

 

Case Study of Astral Tower and Residences Hotel – Front office department

Executive summary

In the hospitality industry, human resources play a major role and this industry strongly depends on the human factor as it hires those one that have direct contact with customers. Hotel industry is a significant employer of labour. The important factors in determining how well the industry is performing can be evaluated by how well the organisation is attracting and retaining their employees.

This study examines the factors affecting turnover within the Astral Tower and Residences Hotel. This study consists of mixed method both qualitative and quantitative, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to offer insight into what factors causing high staff turnover. Within the 6-month period, employees at reception had nearly 50% of turnover, and the primary reason for turnover was all voluntary resignation. Performance related terminations were not elevated.

Firstly, 5 participants were participated to conduct semi-structured interviews and asked a range of questions concerning the main motivator when working within this organisation, reasons to leaving this organisation and what factors can be improved in order to reduce turnover. Interviews were conducted in order to get responses freely, valued experiences and thoughts of participants. Interviews can be the most successful method of obtaining specific answers and information. Findings from interviews were analysed and main themes were merged. Most frequent answers from the first question on main motivation factor when working at Astral Tower and Residences hotel was colleagues and good work environment. Furthermore, the second question was asked about the factors that contributed to employees action to leave the organisation. Two main frequent answers was low pay and emotional labour. The last question was then asked to hear participants suggestions and thoughts on how to reduce turnover, and incentives and staffing were most expressed during the interview.

Secondly, a questionnaire was made in order to obtain more specific answers and factors to answer the research question. A questionnaire was distributed to 20-targeted respondents, including 5 participants who have already participated in the previous interview. This questionnaire was divided into 4 sections. Section A was focusing on demographic data. Demographic analysis is important as factors such as age, gender, marriage status and education can raise turnover. Section B, C and D was given lists of elements and participants were asked to select from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

Section B focuses on identifying organisation factors. The survey found that 80% participants selected no career development as number 1 organisational factor of turnover. Then, no motivation, manager’s leadership style, organisation culture, bad work environment and peer pressure was ranked in descending order. Section C focused on personal factors. 90% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that career aspiration is one of the strongest factors that contributes high turnover rate. Then, the level of education, the size of family, incapacitation, age and gender was ranked in descending order. Lastly, Section D focused on work related elements. Highest percentage was selected in the element of pay package. 60% agreed, 30% strongly agreed with only 10% of neutral. No participants selected disagree or strongly disagree. Then, job stress, workload, odd working hours, lack of challenge and style of leadership was ranked in descending order.

1. Introduction

1.1 Background to the Problem

Astral Tower and Residences Hotel is part of The Star Entertainment Group, leading entertainment with a world-class casino (The Star Entertainment Group, 2017). With its title of ‘world class Casino’, more than 8,000 employees work with pride and it is a company where hospitality workers and students desire to work for this company. People see this company with glamour and look magnificent from outside, but just like other organisations, The Star also face difficulties within each department to successfully run this business. This research focuses only on Astral Tower and Residence Hotel’s Front Office employees. The main objective of the research is to evaluate the underlying factors on employee’s high turnover and influences that make them want to leave the Astral Tower and Residence Department.

An exploration into factors influencing high turnover within the department is crucial for the organisation itself. Firstly, this research will look into the organisation’s insight into the factors related to employees’ turnover. Secondly, it will look into human resource and Astral Tower and Residences department’s perspective to develop and improve on retaining their employees. Lastly, it offers empirical evidence of factors affecting employee’s turnover in Astral Tower and Residences department.

The Australian hospitality industry is a leading industry accounting for more than 10% of Australia’s exports earnings (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). In 2010, average accommodation hotel occupancy across Australia was 72.7% with employment in the hotel sector being around 90,000 people nationally (Tourism Accommodation Australia, 2017). It is therefore evidential that hotel industry is a significant employer of labour. The data collected by Labour Turnover & Costs in the Australian Accommodation Industry, where the average turnover rate in the Housekeeping, Kitchen and Front Office departments was 50.75% and 39.19% among executives, supervisors, and managers (Australia Tourism & Transport Forum, 2006). Furthermore, it is found that average cost for replacing executive and managerial position was $109,909 per hotel, per annum, and the average cost for operational staff was $9591 per employee.

Therefore, labour turnover is a significant cost to hotels as it is time-consuming to find new staff and train new staff to meet the service standards. Employee retention is challenging for all organisations and retaining the talented staff in the industry. As the researcher of this study is a hospitality student who is working in this industry, was curious to know why Astral Tower and Residences Front office department’s employees leave the organisation early and won’t stay long. This research will analyse the factors, which influence the employees to leave the Front office department.

1.2 Research Goals and Objectives

The primary objective of the study is to determine the factors that are causing employees high turnover rate in Astral Tower and Residences Hotel’s Front Office department. This research will examine how employees feel about their work and what factors influence them to leave the organisation. Based on findings, this research will assist Front Office managers and higher managements to offer directions on how to retain their employees, to satisfy front office employees’ expectations towards the ideal front office department environment and to retain our employees longer. Additionally, this study also aims to fill the current research gaps- as so far there are limited studies investigating the factors of high turnover rate only focusing on Front office department itself.

Objectives

1. To determine the elements influencing organisational factors in Front Office department
2. To identify the elements influencing job related factors in Front Office department
3. To examine the elements influencing personal factors in Front Office

1.3 Significance of the Research

By identifying reasons for high turnover among Front office department, this research would be of interest to organisation’s management, Human Resource Managers and Front Office Managers to revise and enhance retention method according to employees’ perception and motivations. The organisation will be able to identify the areas they should focus on to maintain low turnover rate to save the cost that is spent in replacing and training new employees. Employees also will benefit from this research as management teams will focus on developing a retention strategy. The findings will enhance the existing literature in the area of Front Office employee’s turnover in the hospitality industry.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition and Importance of turnover

According to The Recruitment debate (2005), an asset of that company is its people. Having the right people with the right skills in the right positions will bring the success or failure of the business. To bring the success of the business, it needs to retain their employees and reduce turnover rate. Turnover rate is the measurement of the movement of employees in and out of an organisation (Ronra and Chaisawat, N/A). Turnover is defined by Price (1977) as “The ratio of the number of organisational members who have left during the period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organisation during the period. When the employee leaves the organisation, the first issue faced by managers is searching and filling a vacancy. When that position is vacated either voluntarily or involuntarily, managers must need to hire and train a new employee.

Many studies on employees’ turnover rate have conducted but there is no set reason why people choose to leave the organisation (Ongori, 2007). Branham 2005 suggested that there are seven main reasons affecting employee’s turnover:

1) When they feel that job or workplace is different to what they expected

2) There is a mismatch between the job and person

3) No support from managers

4) No career opportunities

5) Unrecognised

6) Stress from overwork and

7) No trust between employee and managers.

Furthermore, Ronra & Chaisawat (2010) found that there is a relationship between employee satisfactions with the working environment, possibility of growth, work itself and overall satisfaction can reduce the turnover rate.

Employee turnover is a problem and there is no universally accepted reason for why people choose to leave organisations (Lee & Mitchell, 1999). Turnover also represents a significant cost in terms of direct costs such as replacement, recruitment and selection and indirect costs such as morale, pressure on remaining employee and the loss of social capital (Morrell, 2004).

2.2 Employee turnover types

Voluntary turnover

Voluntary turnover is when an employee is voluntarily leaving the organisation when they are unhappy with their jobs and alternatives are available (Hom & Kinicki, 2001). The employee decides to end their employment with an organisation for personal or professional reasons. In many situations, employees decide to quit due to not satisfy with the current job and received a better package from another organisation (Noe, 2006).

Involuntary Turnover

Involuntary turnover is when organisation decides to terminate an employee due to economic adjustment or employee who does not meet the job description (Noe 2006). It is a difficult decision from the organisation, as well as those who loses their job.

2.3 Factors affecting employee turnover

2.3.1 Work Related Factors

Many studies have been conducted to find an answer what determines employee’s intention to leave the organisation, however, researches could not find exact reason due to little consistency in findings (Kalliath and Beck, 2001). There are several reasons why people leave an organisation and move to another organisation. Work-related factors such as stress, long working hours, overload work, style of leadership lack of challenge and low payment can lead employees to lack of commitment in the organisation and job dissatisfaction which lead them to leave an organisation (Firth et al. 2004).

It is found that people rarely leave jobs when they are happy in that working environment even offered higher pay from another organisation (Loquercio, 2006). People prefers stability with their job, however, due to many factors, people are pushed to move to new jobs due to dissatisfaction with their current work. Tracey & Hinkin 2008 argues that employee turnover rates can be affected by employee dissatisfaction with the overall work environment, working conditions, and wages. These factors lead employees to choose to quit their job and seek other employment opportunities (Lee, 1988).

Griffeth et al 2000 found that pay related variable has the most effect on turnover. Pay, individual’s performance and turnover have a close relationship. Higher income level is most primitive impulse of employee career. Industries with low income had a higher turnover rate, and industries with more profit had a lower turnover rate. Furthermore, an interpersonal relationship of department managers had a significant impact on employee turnover intention. When employees are having difficulty in dealing with the relationship with colleagues and boss, they will most likely to leave the organisation (Wang & Chen, 2001). In addition position, working hours, working conditions and other factors affect work commitment can influence employee turnover (Cui, 2003).

2.3.2 Personal Factors

Personal factors can include factors that beyond the control of management side. It includes individual’s own factors including age, gender, educational level, marital status, years of working, individual ability and career aspiration (Zhang, 2016). These factors are able to indirectly affect one’s turnover intention. It is found that the female employee turnover rate is much higher compared to male employees it is due to women’s duty related to giving birth and much more. In regards to this matter, both government and organisation policies create the chance for female staff to come back to work after giving birth, or to work on a more flexible basis, however still this remain a big challenge for many workers in the hospitality industry (Simon et al, 2007).

Furthermore, young employees with high education level tend to have a low level of satisfaction with jobs and careers, which lead to lower commitment to the organisation (Ma, 2003). When individuals are not motivated, competent at their job, employees are likely to quit their job. In addition, whether the company can provide training and learning opportunities for staff also had a significant effect on whether the employee chooses to stay with that organisation. Employees always have ideal motivation and ambition. If the organisation cannot make the opportunity for them to move up or to learn, employees cannot grow, so they cannot even get self-realization in the organisation which evolves turnover.

2.3.3 Organisational Factors

Organisational factors include organisation culture, relationship, training, career development which will influence employee turnover. When a new employee is entering into the organisation, their individual value and expectation need to break-in with organisational culture and management mechanism. The consistency of personal value orientation and organisational culture can predict employee retention. The higher the consistency, the chance of retaining that employee is higher. Employee’s personal goal and organisational goals need to be matched in order to successfully reduce turnover rate.

Organisation who provide good culture, income and welfare, in other words, the greater the size of the organisation will provide stronger employee security, which will lead to higher satisfaction level and proud of access to the successful organisation which make an employee generally not want to leave the organisation (Ling 2005). Vice versa, when organisations are not stable, employees tend to quit and look for a stable organisation because with stable organisations, they would be able to predict their career advancement. Furthermore, when an organisation is large, it brings more internal opportunities, roles and hence improve employee’s job satisfaction. Thus, employees are more likely to stay where there is a predictable work environment, which means higher level of inefficiency will lead to higher level of staff turnover (Zuber, 2001). Costly et al. (1987) points out that a high labour turnover may mean poor personnel policies, poor recruitment policies, poor supervisory practices, poor grievance procedures, or lack of motivation.

2.4 Importance of job satisfaction

Judge and Hullin (1993) argued that employees’ job satisfaction is linked to turnover rate. Researchers agreed that lack of employee job satisfaction level in an organisation leads to problems such as lack of commitment which increase in turnover rate. Job satisfaction and turnover are basically related to which job satisfaction has directly effect on the turnover (Choi, 2014).  Employee satisfaction is important as it has a direct relationship with individual’s positive emotional reaction to a particular job (Oshagbemi, 2000). Employees who trust their organization will have higher levels of job satisfaction in the hospitality industry.

The Mobley model was a landmark conceptual piece that explained the process of how job dissatisfaction can lead to employee turnover. The model proposes that an employee experiences seven sequential stages between job dissatisfaction and eventual turnover (Lee, 1988). Job satisfaction can be influenced by all sorts of factors such as pay, relationship with their supervisor, work environment, growth and possibility of growth, work itself, and with the overall satisfaction, then suggest a guideline that improves the employees’ job satisfaction level and reduce the turnover rate (AlBatta, 2014).

2.4.1 Employee Retention

Employee retention is a worldwide problem affecting the organisation. Managers face the challenge of retaining their employees who will contribute significantly to the success and achievements of the organisation. By retaining talented employees to their organisation is an advantage as their knowledge and skills can enhance company’s ability to be economically competitive (Kyndt, 2009). Employee turnover can rise due to an internal structure of the organisation, recruitment policies and strategies, career progression, opportunities, rewards and benefits, and training and development (Fitz-enz, 1990). Organisations should continuously develop strategies to retain employees in order to avoid turnover due to stress, job dissatisfaction, unsatisfactory working environment and benefits (Atif, 2011).

Many researchers found that to retain their employees by providing compensation, training and development, competitive work environment and benefits (Deckop, 2009). In addition, employees make the decision to leave an organization it can be due to many factors such as no promotion or pay increase or many events during the employee’s time at the organization (Davies, 2001). Also, employee’s high involvement with Human Resource Management practices, such as appraisals, bonus, and compensation, training and development, opportunities, and feedback can significantly reduce turnover of an employee (Wong, 2001).

3. Research Questions

1. What are the organisational factors of Front office employees’ high turnover rate?
2. What are the personal factors of Front office employees’ turnover rate?
3. What are the work related factors of Front office employee’s high turnover rate?

4. Methodology

4.1 Research Design

This research has used both qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed method approach) to address the research questions. The qualitative approach was first used to understand the basic factors affecting employee turnover within Astral Tower and Residences. Qualitative approach will help to determine the attitudes, behaviours and perspectives of the research subjects. Quantitative analysis was then conducted to specifically address the research questions. Therefore using mixed methods can present clear answer to the research questions. Triangulation can occur by qualitative and quantitative results, which will assist the research.

4.2 Data Collection Methods

The researcher collected both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Secondary data was collected from books, academic journal articles and hospitality reports.

Primary Data

The researcher used primary data, which is information collected for the first time. The questionnaires were used to collect data from selected respondents in the organizations under the study. The data collected using this method is usually reliable, accurate and very effective and this makes the research findings accurate.

Questionnaire

According to Kothari (2004), a questionnaire sheet with questions and ask respondent to fill or answer. Questions in the questionnaire were made direct to avoid ambiguity. Questionnaire was given to the 20 participants and given enough time to respond. A pilot study was done to test the validity and reliability of the research. It was then administered, data was systematically organised for analysis.

Semi-structured Interview

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with set of open questions with opportunity for the interviewer to collect data from participants’ insights, thoughts, experiences and reactions.

4.3 Sampling Method

As the purpose of this research is to analysis factors of turnover in Astral Tower and Residences, the target sample is employees of the hotel.  The researcher used handpicked sampling technique to find about 20 eligible Participants. According to O’Leary 2013, handpicked sampling involves selecting of a sample with a particular intention in mind and will allow researcher to improve knowledge by going beyond the set boundaries.

	Semi-Structured Interview	Questionnaire
Number of Participants	5	5 + 15 = 20
% Response rate	100%	100%

Table 1 Sampled population

4.4 Data Analysis Techniques

The questions of the study were answered through questionnaire and semi-structured interviews and data was analysed in both the qualitative and quantities measures.

The qualitative data was gathered through semi- structured Interviews with 5 participants asking questions concerning main motivator when working within this organisation, reasons to leave this organisation and what factors can be improved in order to reduce turnover. Interview was conducted in order to get responses based on their experiences and thoughts. Answers from interviews was then analysed and main themes were merged. Researcher thought that thematic technique is most appropriate tool for this study, and tabulated in columns and rows in logical sequence thereby giving the clear conclusion of they study.

Secondly, quantitative data was gathered through questionnaire to obtain more specific answers and factors to answer our research questions. Using the research questions to guide the analysis, responses from participants are analysed, presented using tables and graphs and converted into percentages for easier interpretation.

4.5 Limitations of the Study

This study has some limitations. Firstly, this research focusing on a small number of employees from Astral Tower and Residences hotel, the findings of the study may therefore have some limitation. This study is limited to exploring factors that affect employee turnover within the Astral Tower and Residences only, and does not represent whole of The Star organisation.

All finding are based on the answers provided by the participants and are subject to the potential bias and intolerance of the people who participated in this research. Only 20 participants were involved in this research, which means the findings may change if the study were to be applied to other employees, and bigger sample size could be more general and valid. Lastly, due to time limitation, findings reflect only selected period rather than long-term reflection.

4.6 Ethical Considerations

All the interviews were conducted under mutual agreement between interviewer and interviewees. The researcher made sure to follow the ethical code of conduct, guarantee anonymity or any sort of identification in order to get responses freely.

Participants were advised that anonymity would be guaranteed and data collected would be used for research purpose only.

5. Results and Discussion

Semi-Structured Interview

From the interviews with participants, several themes were attracted and merged to gain further understanding of the reasons of high turnover and broaden the limited knowledge of employee’s leaving the organisation.

Theme 1 Analysis – Employees’ motivating factors when working at this hotel

From the Table 1, main motivating factors that influence employees working at Astral Tower and Residences were identified from the interviews. Only top two main important factors were selected to discuss further as below.

Colleagues

Several theoretical arguments have been developed to explain the importance of teamwork, which will lead to improved organisational performance (Becker 1997). Teamwork with colleagues is an important motivating factor and will lead employees to be committed, show greater efficiency and effectiveness (Manz & Sims, 1980). There are many reasons why teamwork is important. Firstly, employees will work harder with a positive effect on job satisfaction and motivation, which will lead them to work together towards a common goal. This point was mentioned by few employees from Astral Tower and Residences saying “my team members were one of the motivating factors” and “we all support each other by helping and backing up each other”.

Employees are more committed to the job when the relationship between the employer and employee is fair (Pinder, 1984). They way that employer treats employee will have a direct effect on their performance, attitude, and commitment to the organisation. This can be seen through employee’s interview transcript “friendly staffs and manager” which can prove the good relationship between managers and employees. In addition, Clarke (2001) stated that employees are more motivated to stay when they have strong relationships with their work colleagues. “We’re always having fun at work when we are working together as a team” and “we all support each other” were some quotes that clearly show the close relationship between employees. Employees tend to remain in organisations when they have established a strong team. It can be also said that teamwork has a close relationship with one’s values and the meaning of their work (Harpaz & Meshoulam, 2009). Therefore, it can be clearly seen through interview scripts that one of motivation factor for Astral Tower and Residences is their team members, which allow an enhanced understanding of the relations of employees and motivation at work.

Work environment

The second key factor of employees’ motivation identified from the interviews is related to the work environment. Employees showed their interest in the benefits gaining from the Astral Tower and Residences’ working environment. For example, having a good break during the shift, staff discounts, and benefits. Selected employee’s comments are as follows:

“The Star has a great reputation. It is the only casino in Sydney”

“I really like how this hotel gives us two breaks during our shift. Previous hotels did not do this”

“..the good thing working at this hotel is that they provide you many staff discounts…parking, food, insurance”

“…because we are casino, we feel safe surrounded/protected by securities…especially we can buzz them when guest is giving us a hard time”

As it was already mentioned in the above literature review, a bad working environment will lead employees to seek other organisation, which has a significant relationship between employee satisfactions and working environment. It was already mentioned that according to Loquercio (2006), people will not leave the current job if they are happy in that working environment is good even they are offered higher pay from other organisation.

Theme 2 Analysis – Factor’s that have direct influence to employees’ decision to leave this organisation

As can be seen from the Table 2, main factors that influence employee turnover at Astral Tower and Residences were identified from the interviews. Top two main important factors were selected to discuss further as below.

Low payment

One of the main reasons employees leaving an organisation is because of pay. Tang (2000) stated that there is a close relationship between money, job satisfaction, and turnover. One of the main findings from Tang’s study is that turnover is high among employees who value importance on money, regardless of their job satisfaction. “Out of all the departments within The Star, receptionist gets the lowest pay… I am thinking to transfer to different department like VIP service”, “Compare to how much effort that I put in and amount of stress from guests, I am not happy with the pay that we get as a receptionist”

As per literature review, it was found that pay related have the most effect on turnover. Pay factor has a close relationship with individual’s job performance. Low payment can raise employee’s demotivation, lack of commitment and job dissatisfaction.

Emotional labour

Working in the hospitality industry, one attribute that you are expected in service occupation is to interact with different customers and provide exceptional services. As interaction with the service provider and guest is one of the core services that influences guest’s perceptions of service quality, it is necessary for hotel managers to consistently enforce to give best customer service to meet our guest’s expectation.

In this hospitality industry, being friendly and serving people is expected to its employees. However, one of the consequences of emotional labour is that employee may experience psychological damage, emotional exhaustion, and job dissatisfaction.

“Amount of stress getting from casino members is one of the factors making me leave this department”, 

“Casino members are very rude, especially when they lost money at casino…”,

“Casino members are the worst to serve…”.

The hotel receptionist may have personal difficulties, but when they are at the desk they are expected to smile, welcoming, happy and hide their inner feelings.

Theme 3 analysis – How to reduce employee’s Turnover

Incentives

Incentives are ego needs of the employee, which will increase job satisfaction level (Dhameja, 2009). Managers need to apply incentives in order to make employee motivated. However, employees from Astral Tower and Residences do not receive any incentives towards their achievements. “When I worked at The Westin, we get incentives for upselling rooms, but here there are no such incentives” and “they want us to upsell Penthouses for $3000 per night and get $50 voucher…how is that possible?” Employees are expecting to receive some sort of incentives when they are making an upsell for rooms as a way of motivation, but answers from management side are always “we are working on it”. From interviews, employees were asked to suggest some ideas in order to reduce turnover and one of the most popular idea was incentive and rewards.

Staffing

One of the major problem at Astral Tower and Residences is short staffing. Therefore, employees are sometimes expected to work 7 days a week, which affect emotional and physical exhaustion. Emotional and physical exhaustion will raise job dissatisfaction level and intention to leave the job.

“Because we don’t have enough staff on the roster often work overtime…”

“Many times managers work as a receptionist like us, they don’t have time to do their management jobs because we’re short staff”

“Even though we hire new staffs, in few months we’re back to short staff because they are leaving”

Questionnaires

Twenty employees of Astral Tower and Residences front office department participated in this research. Below chart shows the gender and age group, where most participants with the percentage of 45 were aged 24 to 27. Next, most popular age group were 21 to 23 with 15%, 28 and above 35% and lastly 18 to 20 with 5%. 15 participants were females and 5 were males. It can be said all of 20 participants completed either Bachelor or Masters degree. 85% of bachelor degree and 15% of a Masters degree. 80% of participants were single and 20% were married. More than 40% of participants were only worked less than 6 months, next 30% between 1 to 2 years, 15% each less than 6 months and more than 2years.

Age	Respondents	%
18 to 20	1	5
21 to 23	3	15
24 to 27	9	45
28 and above	7	35
Total	20	100

 

 

 

 

 

Education	Respondents	%
Bachelor	17	85
Masters	3	15
Total	20	100

 

 

PART B:

Part B of the questionaries asked participants to rate organisational factor’s that is affecting high turnover rate within the front office department. Organisational factors are summarised in Table 5.1. More than 80% of participants agreed that organisation factor that there is no career development within the front office department. 20% strongly agreed that there is no future career vision within this department, 10% said neutral, only 15% of disagreeing and 5% of strongly disagree.

Furthermore, no motivation ranked number two with more than 70% said agreed with 15% strongly agreed. Great participants agreed that no motivation for their job leads employees to leave the organisation. Only 10% were neutral, 5% disagree and no one selected strongly disagrees. This, therefore, summarises that no career development and no motivation towards the job is the most important factor leading to staff turnover in The Star front office department.

Ranking	Organisational Factor’s affecting high turnover rate
1	No career development
2	No motivation
3	Manager’s leadership style
4	Organisational culture
5	Bad work environment
6	Peer pressure

Table 5. 1 Organisational Factor’s affecting high turnover rate

 

Organisational Factors	SD	%	D	%	N	%	A	%	SA	%
Manager’s leadership style	1	5	3	15	2	10	10	50	4	20
No career development	0	0	2	10	1	5	16	80	1	5
Organisational culture	2	10	10	50	6	30	1	5	1	5
Bad work environment	6	30	10	50	3	15	1	5	0	0
Peer pressure	3	15	13	65	3	15	1	5	0	0
No motivation	0	0	1	5	2	10	14	70	3	15

 

SD: Strongly Disagree

D: Disagree

N: Neutral

A: Agree

SA: Strongly Agree

 

Many of the participants selected the impact of manager’s leadership style were next reason on employee turnover in the front office department. Manager’s leadership style ranked 3 that it affects employee’s turnover. The percentage shows less than rank 1 and 2, however, 50% of participants agreed with 20% of strongly agreed.

The majority of the participants disagreed that organisation culture plays a major role in the employee turnover. 50% of participants disagree with this aspect. Moreover, 30% were neutral and 10% strongly disagreed.

Similarly, the bad working environment was another strongly disagreed factor that contributes employee’s turnover. More than 50% selected disagree, 15% neutral and 30% strongly disagree.

Most participants strongly disagreed to the fact that peer pressure in the organisation has a great influence on the rate of employee turnover. 65% of the participants of the total population disagreed. Followed by 15% who strongly disagreed, 15% neutral and only 1 participant agreed with 0 strongly agreed.

Overall, this gives the conclusion that this is a good place to work. Participants have also agreed that no peer pressure and organisation culture is good.

 

Part C:

Part C evaluate individual factor’s affecting high turnover rate within The Star front office department.

90% of participants either agreed or strongly agreed that career aspiration is one of the strongest factors that contributes high turnover rate within The Star front office department. 70% agreed that an individual’s career aspirations would make them leave and change their career. No participants selected disagree or strongly disagree on this element.

Moreover, a greater percentage concurred to the factor that level of education has an impact on the employee’s turnover in the front office department. No respondents selected disagree or strongly disagree on this element. 80% selected neutral and 10% on agree and another 10% on strongly agree.

With the element of a size of family affecting employee’s turnover, only 35% selected agree or strongly agreed. This can be due to 20% of participants had married status. As front office department has odd working hours, employee’s who has dependents may raise a problem and lead them to quit the job. 80% participants were singles, therefore 65% disagreed that family affected the turnover rate.

Ranking	Personal Factor’s affecting high turnover rate
1	Career aspirations
2	Level of education
3	Size of family
4	Incapacitation
5	Age
6	Gender

Most of the participants were selected disagree in incapacitation section. Incapacitation refers to employee’s inability to perform the given tasks assigned for some reasons. Furthermore, most of the respondents seemed to disagree that age of the employee contributes to the rate of the employee turnover in the front office department. This may result due to young age group within The Star front office department.

Finally, participants strongly disagreed that gender of the employee contributes to the rate of the employee turnover. 100% participants selected either disagree or strongly disagree related to this element.

 

Table 5. 2 Personal Factor’s affecting high turnover rate

Individual Factors	SD	%	D	%	N	%	A	%	SA	%
Level of education	0	0	0	0	16	80	2	10	2	10
Career aspirations	0	0	0	0	2	10	14	70	2	20
Age	8	40	10	50	2	10	0	0	0	0
Gender	9	45	11	55	0	0	0	0	0	0
Incapacitation	2	10	16	80	1	5	1	5	0	0
Size of family	0	0	13	65	0	0	6	30	1	5

 

Section D:

Even though elements were ranked 1 to 6, rank 1 to 4 had similar high percentages of reason’s affecting employee’s high turnover at The Star front office department.

The highest percentage was selected in the element of the pay package. Most of the participants agreed that pay package contributes high turnover in this department. 60% agreed, 30% strongly agreed with only 10% of neutral. No participants selected disagree or strongly disagree.

Next, the highest percentage was job stress, were 60% agreed, 20% strongly agreed, with 20% neutral. No participants selected disagree or strongly disagree. Similarly, the workload was ranked 3, with 50% agreed, 30 strongly agreed, with 15% neutral and 5% disagreed.

Even though odd working hours ranked 4 with a lower ranking, many of participants agreed that this element had the strongest effect on employee’s turnover. 40% of participants strongly agreed, 25% agreed, 20% neutral and only 5% disagreed.

On the element of lack of challenge, 35% of the participants disagreed, 40% strongly disagreed with the fact that lack of challenge leads to employee turnover. 30% selected neutral and only 5% agreed.

Most of the participants disagreed that style of manager’s leadership contributes a lot to the level of employee turnover. 15% were strongly disagreed, 35% neutral, only 5% did agree and another 5% strongly agreed.

 

Ranking	Work related Factor’s affecting high turnover rate
1	Pay package
2	Job stress
3	Workload
4	Odd working hours
5	Lack of challenge
6	Style of leadership

 

Table 5. 3 Work related factor’s affecting high turnover rate

Job related factors	SD	%	D	%	N	%	A	%	SA	%
Lack of challenge	6	30	7	35	6	30	1	5	0	0
Workload	0	0	1	5	3	15	10	50	6	30
Pay package	0	0	0	0	2	10	12	60	6	30
Job stress	0	0	0	0	4	20	12	60	4	20
Odd working hours	0	0	1	5	4	20	7	35	8	40
Style of leadership	3	15	8	40	7	35	1	5	1	5

 

Conclusion

The hospitality industry has/is experiencing challenge to retain employees due to fast turnover rate. Astral Residences and Tower is also facing this challenge. The common theme in the literature review was that staff retention is most challenging within human resource management. Staff turnover can be raised due to numerous factors and it cannot be universally defined and answered as it was mentioned in the literature review. Recognition, acknowledging and developing strategies to retain employees is important steps for business to grow, reduce turnover and turnover costs.

Some of the key issues identified on the interviews are:

Limitations and Future Research

 

Appendix 1:  Semi structured interview questions and responses

Please note: highlighted areas are the common themes within the discussion.

 

Appendix 2: Interview Transcript

Theme 1	Employees’ motivating factors when working at this hotel
Key reasons	Selected Interviews Transcripts
Colleagues	“…My team members was one of the motivating factors” “friendly staffs and managers…” “we’re always having fun at work when we are   working together as a team” “we do get stress from our guests, however we (team members)   all know how  support each other by helping and backing up each other” “we all support each other…”
Work Environment	“The Star has great reputation. It is only casino in Sydney” “I really like how this hotel gives us two breaks during our shift.   Previous hotels did not do this” “the good thing working at this hotel is that they provide you many staff discounts…parking, food, insurance” “because we are casino, we feel safe surrounded/protected by securities…especially we can buzz them when guest is giving us a hard time”

 

Table 2: Interview Transcripts – Theme 1: Employees’ motivating factors when working at this hotel

 

Theme 2	Factor’s that have direct influence to employees’ decision to leave this organisation
Key reasons	Selected Interviews Transcripts
Low pay	“compare to how much effort that I put in and amount of stress from   guests, I am not happy with the pays that we get as a receptionist” “out of all the departments within The Star, receptionist gets the   lowest pay…I am thinking to transfer to different department like VIP services…” “they only pay you extra dollars for over night shifts…”
Emotional Labour	“casino members are the worst to serve…” “because casino members spends high amount of money, they think that they can get everything for complimentary…” “amount of stress getting from members is one of the factor making me leave this department” “I have family, but they expect me to do overnight shifts …” “casino members are very rude, especially when they lost money at casino…”

 

Table 3: Interview Transcripts – Theme 2: Factor’s that have direct influence to employees’ decision to leave this organisation

 

Theme 3	How to reduce employees turnover
Key reasons	Selected Interviews Transcripts
Incentives	“When I worked at The Westin, we get incentives for upselling rooms, but here there are no such incentives” “Managers wanting us to make profit by offering upgrade room, No motivation to upsell because we get nothing for upselling” “they want us to upsell Penthouses for $3000 per night and get $50 voucher…how is that possible?
Staffing	“we are always short staff…”   “because we don’t have enough staff on the roster often work overtime..”   “I don’t know why they are not hiring more staffs..”   “many times managers work as a receptionist like us, they don’t have time to do their management jobs because we’re short staff”   “even though we hire new staffs, in few months we’re back to short staff because they are leaving”     “casino members are the worst to serve…I love checking in leisure guests..   they thank you for everything that you do for them.. “   “because casino members spends high amount of money, they think that they can get everything for complimentary…”   “amount of stress getting from members is one of the factor making me leave this department”   “I have family, but they expect me to do overnight shifts …”   “casino members are very rude, especially when they lost money at   casino…”

Table 4: Interview Transcripts – Theme 3: How to reduce employee’s turnover

 

Appendix 2: Questionnaire

The factors affecting high Employee Turnover rate: Case Study of Astral Tower and Residences Hotel.

 

PART A

What is your age?

• 18 to 20
• 21 to 23
• 24 to 27
• 28 and above

What is your gender?

• Male
• Female

How long have you worked at this hotel?

• Less than 6 months
• 6 months to 1 year
• 1 – 2 years
• More than 2 years

What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have received?

• Less than high school degree
• High school degree or equivalent
• Some college but no degree
• Bachelor degree
• Masters degree

 

Which of the following best describes your current relationship status?

• Married
• Single, never married
• Other

 

PART B – OBJECTIVE 1

ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS

Using a scale of 1=Strongly disagree 2=Disagree 3= Neutral 4= Agree and  5=Strongly agree, please rate the following organisational factors influencing employee turnover at Astral Tower and Residences.

 

Manager’s leadership style

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

No career development

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Organisational culture

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Bad work environment

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Peer pressure

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

No motivation

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

 

PART C – OBJECTIVE 2

Personal FACTORS

Using a scale of 1=Strongly disagree 2=Disagree 3= Neutral 4= Agree and  5=Strongly agree, please rate the following individual factors influencing employee turnover at Astral Tower and Residences.

 

Level of education

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Career aspirations

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Age

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Gender

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Incapacitation

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Size of family

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

 

PART D – OBJECTIVE 3

Work RELATED FACTORS

Using a scale of 1=Strongly disagree 2=Disagree 3= Neutral 4= Agree and  5=Strongly agree, please rate the following job related factors influencing employee turnover at Astral Tower and Residences.

 

Lack of challenge

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Workload

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Pay package

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Job stress

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Odd working hours

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

Style of leadership

Strongly disagree           1             2             3             4              5           Strongly agree

 

End of Questionnaire

Thank you for your participation and completing this questionnaire.

 

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