Background To The Research Problem

Discuss about the Business Research Methodology for Growth and Success.

In the modern era, effective management of human resources is essential for growth and success of organizations. Nowadays, employees are considered as the most significant and most valuable assets of an enterprise. It can be stated that skilled and talented personnel’s directly supported a business to gain a competitive advantage over other companies in the marketplaces.

At present, the competition among firms operating in the hospitality industry has become so intense that it is no longer easy for hotels such as Hilton, Four Seasons, and InterContinental, etc. to attract new customers and retain the old ones (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 2013). To sustain in the highly competitive marketplace, these businesses are required to emphasize on effective management of their human resources. Furthermore, effective and skilled employees can understand changing customer needs and demand in the best possible manner.

Over the past few years, increasing rate of employee turnover has emerged as the most significant issues for brands such as Hilton Hotel Sydney. The overall operations and function of the hotel are getting adversely affected because of the staff turnover. At the same time, the volume of sales revenue and profits has also declined to a great extent (Stone, 2013). The demand of talented and skilled workers in the hospitality industry of Australia is very high. On the other side of this, the supply of human resources in the industry is not adequate. It can be stated, increasing staff turnover in such situation can be a severe issue for Hilton Hotel Sydney. 

The present study will outline the significance of effective human resource management practices in the modern era.  In addition to this, this research will help in identification of the key factors which has increased the rate of staff turnover within Hilton Hotel Sydney.

Aim

“To identify the reasons behind increasing rate of staff turnover” – A study on Hilton Hotel Sydney 

Objectives

• To analyse the importance of effective human resources management practices in the present scenario
• To determine the key factors that increases rate of staff turnover
• To recommend ways through which Hilton Hotel Sydney can reduce its staff turnover

In simpler terms, human resources management can be defined as the process in which various plans and strategies are developed by organizations to manage employees and direct their efforts towards the accomplishment of common goals and objectives (Meyer & Xin, 2017). A team of skilled and competent staff members cannot be developed if the human resources management practices are not sufficient within a business enterprise. The process of human resources management consists of the different functions such as training and development, recruitment and selection, performance management, rewards, and appraisals, etc.

Proposed Aim And Objective

In the context of service industry such as hospitality, the role of employees or staff members becomes more vital (Palanski, Avey, & Jiraporn, 2014). The rationale behind this is that in the hospitality industry, the workers come in direct contact with the customers at the time of delivering products and services. A team of talented and skilled employees can provide management with valuable information about changing customer need and demand.

Nowadays, businesses in the hospitality industry of Australia are focusing more on implementing training and development programs. The primary objective of these programs is to enhance the existing knowledge base and skill set of employees. It can be stated that hotels can generate high revenues by delivering fast, accurate and satisfactory services to customers through trained staff (Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly, & Kynighou, 2016). On the other side of this, it can be critically argued that organizations such as hotels, resorts, and restaurants are now investing a considerable amount of efforts and resources in training programs. Furthermore, these programs are only beneficial if businesses can maintain a low rate of employee turnover.

The hospitality industry of Australia is going through a very challenging phase, and the primary concern here for organizations is increasing rate of employee turnover. For hotels such as Hilton, Four Seasons, InterContinental, Park Hyatt, Southern Ocean Lodge, Saffire Freycinet, etc. it has become crucial to retain staff members in the long run. These businesses are required to develop and implement effective strategies which can support in retaining employees in the best possible manner (Qureshi, Iftikhar, Abbas, Hassan, Khan, & Zaman, 2013). The importance of employee retention is that it will help in enhancing the overall productivity and performance of staff members. In addition to this, employee retention strategies also play a vital role in enhancing the overall morale and motivational level of workers.

Increasing rate of staff turnover can be termed as a grave threat to overall growth and long-term sustainability of organizations. Furthermore, increasing turnover also indicates that the staff members working in a hotel are highly dissatisfied with their job roles and activities. In the modern era, the employer should not neglect increases rate of staff turnover, and it is also suggested that this issue should be taken very seriously (Hausknecht & Holwerda, 2013). Hiring employees and investing resources in training them is a very challenging task. However, businesses start suffering from massive losses when these workers stats resigning from their jobs.

Literature Review

Lack of growth and development opportunities within hotels can be termed as the most common factor behind increases rate of staff turnover. Employees are no longer interested in staying within an organization in situations when they witness that their growth has become stable. Every staff members require adequate opportunity of growth, development and it is the responsibility of the employer to provide the same.

On the other hand, it can be critically argued that workplace conflicts, ineffective leadership, and poor working conditions are some other factors responsible for increases rate of staff turnover (Sparrow, Brewster, & Chung, 2016) Poor working conditions result in creating a high degree of dissatisfaction among people working in an organization. At the same time, the overall productivity and performance of staff members also get hampered because of poor working conditions.

In the service industry, ineffective leadership can be termed as a most crucial factor which contributes to the increases rate of staff turnover (Ketchen Jr, Crook, Todd, Combs, & Woehr, 2017). Majority of the hotels and businesses prefer to operate with autocratic style of leadership wherein all the decisions are made by the top management and views of employees are not taken into consideration. The result of this is that high degree of dissatisfaction is created among workers and they also start feeling undervalued (Mahajan, 2015). It can be stated that such kind of conditions encourages employees to quit their job and seek for better job opportunities.

Other than this, conflicts and disputes among workers at regular intervals is another factor which creates obstacles in retention of staff members. In today’s corporate era, the majority of the businesses operating in hospitality industry fail to develop and implement effective strategies to resolve workplace conflicts (Cristiani & Peiró, 2015). It can be expressed that a negative working environment is established because of disputes and conflicts among workers. Such kind of situation force employees to switch their job and thus, increases the overall rate of staff turnover.

Increasing rate of employee turnover is a serious issue for businesses operating in the service industry. It can be expressed that areas such as customer service can be adversely affected by increasing turnover rate (Zopiatis, Constanti, & Theocharous, 2014). The rationale behind this is that increasing turnover results in a shortage of staff member within an enterprise. Furthermore, businesses are not able to deliver effective, accurate and satisfactory services to customers due to the shortage of workers. Organizations can face difficulties in terms of attracting new customers and retaining the old ones.

The key factors that increase rate of staff turnover

Apart from this, the overall productivity and performance of existing employees can be affected because of high employee turnover rate. This can be justified by the fact that high turnover results in increasing the number of inexperienced people within organization. Thus, companies face difficulties in achieving desired goals and objectives (Call, Nyberg, Ployhart, & Weekley, 2015). Reduction in return on investment, deteriorating service quality, negative working environment and low workplace morale are some other consequences of increasing rate of employee turnover.

It can be stated that research design is that overall strategy which is used with an objective to structure the entire research appropriately. Exploratory, descriptive, case study, casual, experimental, etc. are some key designs which are being used while conducting a study (Taylor, Bogdan, & DeVault, 2015). To identify the reasons behind increasing rate of staff turnover within Hilton Hotel Sydney, exploratory research design will be employed. Here, the researcher will be looking forward to exploring the reasons which have increased the overall employee turnover rate within the selected business enterprise. The key benefit of using exploratory research design is that it will help in increasing the understanding of topic under investigation.       

The process of data collection includes a selection of appropriate sources from where reliable and accurate information can be gathered for conducting the study. Here, the research will be completed by using secondary sources such as books and journals. On the other hand, the expert interview will be used as a source of collecting primary information.

Sampling – The researcher will be using purposive sampling technique which is a part of the non-probabilistic sampling method. Here, the sample will be managers of Hilton Hotel Sydney and the sample size will be ten managers.   

To carry out the study on identifying the reasons behind increasing rate of staff turnover within Hilton Hotel Sydney, the qualitative technique of data analysis will be used. The main reason behind using this technique is that it will help in carrying out in-depth and detailed analysis of the information collected from various sources. Furthermore, the data gathered will be presented with the help of different charts, graphs, and tables. The evaluation of data will be carried out by using thematic technique of data analysis.  

Ethics are considered as the most crucial area of research as ethics helps in differentiating between what is right and what is wrong (Flick, 2015). To conduct the present study in ethical form, the researcher will ensure that all respondents are taking voluntary participation in the study. In addition to this, informed consent is another area which the researcher will focus up-on. The researcher will also ensure that the aim, objective, purpose, and risk of study are well communicated to all participants. At the same time, the identity of all respondents will be kept confidential and third party will not be allowed to access the results of the present study.

Consequences of high employee turnover rate

Research limitations can be defined as those factors which influence a study and are beyond the control of a researcher (Mackey & Gass, 2015). At the time of conducting a study on identifying the reasons behind increasing rate of staff turnover within Hilton Hotel Sydney, sample size, availability of reliable data and access to information will be the significant limitations which the researcher will face. It can be stated that due to limited time and resources, the sample size will be restricted to only ten managers. The impact of this can be directly observed on overall findings of research. Apart from this, limited access to employee turnover rate of Hilton Hotel Sydney will be another limitation of this study. The secondary sources also contain insufficient data on a topic which is increasing rate of employee turnover within hospitality industry of Australia. 

References

Call, M. L., Nyberg, A. J., Ployhart, R. E., & Weekley, J. (2015). The dynamic nature of collective turnover and unit performance: the impact of time, quality, and replacements. . Academy of Management Journal , 1208-1232.

Cristiani, A., & Peiró, J. M. (2015). Human resource function strategic role and trade unions: exploring their impact on human resource management practices in Uruguayan firms. . The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 381-400.

Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. California: Sage.

Hausknecht, J. P., & Holwerda, J. A. (2013). When does employee turnover matter? Dynamic member configurations, productive capacity, and collective performance. Organization Science , 210-225.

Ketchen Jr, D. J., Crook, T. R., Todd, S. Y., Combs, J. G., & Woehr, D. J. (2017). Managing Human Capital. . The Oxford Handbook of Strategy Implementation, , 283.

Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2015). Second language research: Methodology and design. ‎Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.

Mahajan, J. P. (2015). Managing Human Resources. . Noida: Vikas Publishing House.

Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R., & Kynighou, A. (2016). Human resource management at work. . London: Kogan Page Publishers.

Meyer, K. E., & Xin, K. R. (2017). Managing talent in emerging economy multinationals: Integrating strategic management and human resource management. . The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 11-15.

Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M. (2013). Employee—organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic press: Massachusetts.

Palanski, M., Avey, J. B., & Jiraporn, N. (2014). The effects of ethical leadership and abusive supervision on job search behaviors in the turnover process . Journal of Business Ethics , 135-146.

Qureshi, M. I., Iftikhar, M., Abbas, S. G., Hassan, U., Khan, K., & Zaman, K. (2013). Relationship between job stress, workload, environment and employees turnover intentions: What we know, what should we know. . World Applied Sciences Journal , 764-770.

Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Chung, C. (2016). Globalizing human resource management. . Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge.

Stone, R. J. (2013). Managing human resources. . Milton QLD: John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource . New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Zopiatis, A., Constanti, P., & Theocharous, A. L. (2014). Job involvement, commitment, satisfaction and turnover: Evidence from hotel employees in Cyprus. . Tourism Management , 129-140.