The causes of high staff turnover within selected hotels in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

The human resource department in the hospitality industry has a reputation for high staff turnover and labour instability due to various reasons, such as staff members who are not motivated and are not recognised for hard work. Another problem is employing unskilled staff, low staff remuneration, staff members not being trained and long working hours. The main research problem was: What were the reasons for the high staff turnover in the selected hotels of this research study? From the main research problem three sub-problems emerged the first being, Why does the selected hotels not understand what actually motivates their employees to stay on in positions? The other two sub-problems are stated in chapter 1. The main objective was to research the reasons why the selected hotels were experiencing such high staff turnover. According to Amos, Ristow and Pearse (2008:172), staff turnover can be from a combination of factors such as what the organisation pays, the working conditions, opportunities for promotion, the quality of supervision, and poor group relations, which makes it more or less appealing as an employer. The research design utilised a multi-strategy approach whereby both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. The questionnaires were a quantitative data-gathering tool that provided the researcher with information relating to why staff turnover is so high in the selected hotels. Questionnaires were completed by human resource managers, senior managers, managers, supervisors and staff members. The qualitative data were obtained from the interviews and the literature review. Interviews were conducted with human resource managers (HRM) in the selected hotels to find out what problems they face and to find solutions to reduce staff turnover. The main findings were that many of those associated with the selected hotels maintain that hotel positions do not offer creative and intellectual development. Once people have understood the needs and demands of their particular job, their cultural learning and intellectual stimulation comes to an end quickly, causing people to lose interest in their jobs and look elsewhere. The main recommendations were that management styles and human resource practices should be applied to stimulate, communicate with and recognise staff potential. Money was not the main reason why staff resigned from their positions; rather it was the fact that managers were not acknowledging them for their hard work and that there was no growth within the selected hotels.