Causes of Employee Turnover Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Causes of Employee Turnover - Research Paper Example As the paper outlines, the concept of employee turnover is the significantly-used approach in the context of human resource management in a business organization. The simplest way to describe the term is that it pertains to the rate or extent at which the employer or an organization loses and gains its employees or the workforce. Turnover is basically measured for the individual firms as well as for the entire industry. The concept of employee turnover refers to the workers’ rotation within and around the labour market, and continues between occupations, firms and different jobs. It also exists between the condition of unemployment and employment within a state (Abbasi et al., 2000). The term ‘turnover’ was further defined by Price (1977) as the ratio of the number of members in an organization who have left the workplace during a certain period divided by the average number of people in that organization. Very often, turnover is regarded with the complete process linked to the filling of a vacancy. According to the studies, every time that an employee vacates a position, involuntarily or voluntarily, there arises a dire need for the hiring and training of a new employee, and the cycle goes on. According to many research studies, it has been suggested that the concept of turnover in an organization arises from the employees being unhappy with the organization or dissatisfied from the job. However, this is not the only reason for the employees leaving the organizations voluntarily or involuntarily. There are various other factors for the occurrence of high employee turnover and they are described as follows: The Economy In the exit interviews conducted with the employees, one of the major reasons discovered for leaving the organizations include the availability of the higher paid jobs. In the United States, it has been examined that some of the workers working on minimum wage, left their jobs for another job which paid them only 50cents more per hour (Shamsuzzoha, n.d.). Thus, in the better economies, the vacancies in higher paying jobs would increase the employee turnover in many other less paying organizations. The characteristics of the job There are some jobs which are fundamentally more attractive and higher paid than other jobs in the same field. The attractiveness of a job is influenced by the challenges, repetitiveness, perceived significance, inherent dangers, and the growth opportunities. A bad match between the employee's skills and the job Every job requires a proper match and parallel characteristics between the employee and the job. However, those employees, who are normally hired for the tough jobs or do not match the qualifications and expertise required by the job, leave the organization in a short span of time. Therefore, the turnover rate in an organization also increases due to the lack of compatibility between the job specification and job description.