Research Paper – High Turnover Rates
Katy Ward
Liberty University
BMAL 500: Organizational Behavior
Dr. Megan Saez
1 May 2022
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Abstract
Through this paper I will be analyzing my current company’s high turnover rates, the
reasoning behind them, and providing suggestions for improvement in the future. While
employee turnover is a normal issue for many companies, but we have seen an increase in our
department recently. The goal of this paper is to understand why employees feel the need to
leave outside of graduating college.
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Defining the Problem
My current company works in the college realm, specifically in outdoor recreation and
adventures. The majority of our employees are full-time students who work twelve to eighteen
hours a week with us. There are two departments to the company, one comprised of fifteen to
twenty student employees and the other with a team of six to seven student employees. We
experience excessive amounts of turnover, for assorted reasons, the one that most may guess
would be because students graduate college and move on to “grown up” jobs, away from their
college town. However, we have begun to see an increased number of student workers leaving
either side of the company while still pursuing their degrees, for reasons that differ vastly. Some
leave because they no longer enjoy the job, others because they got a different position in the
college, or simply because they do not want to work at all and just want to enjoy their college
experience. This causes us to have to constantly replace and train up fresh staff, even in the
middle of semesters, which in turn leads to an ever-changing work environment which can be
stressful for both the leadership and the employees. Not knowing what to expect is never easy
for anyone, let alone student workers who are already stressed with school and social lives.
High turnover rates is the biggest issue that our company faces, not only every year, but
every semester. This past semester we lost and had to replace thirteen student workers
throughout both sides of our company and none of them were due to graduating college. If we
were fully staffed at all times, having twenty-seven student workers, that would mean that we
had a forty-eight percent turnover rate this semester alone. However, our company is very rarely
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fully staffed and typically operates with around twenty-three employees, meaning that our
turnover rate would be closer fifty-seven percent this semester. According to the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the average turnover rate in 2021 for “educational services” was 25.5 percent
(BLS, 2022, Table 16). Our company’s turnover rate is about double that statistic. What this
actively demonstrates is that we must train new employees constantly, which slows down
productivity particularly because there is always someone new, who is still learning the policies,
procedures, and job skills required to do the job at all. When people are fresh and learning, it
keeps everyone on their toes a little more because everyone feels a sense of responsibility to
educate the new employees.
Our leadership team, comprised of five student managers and three full-time directors,
must maintain a healthy atmosphere that caters to all the employees, in addition to having to
create a service that our patrons feel is productive. Directors start off with the initial training and
orientation of new staff and then employees are handed down to the student managers for on-the-
job training. When staff are having to continuously be trained on their new skills and job
requirements, then the student managers and full-time directors are taking time away from other
things that may need their attention. However, it creates a bit of a catch twenty-two, because
without professionally trained staff, then the company does not run smoothly. Having a higher
retention rate among our student workers would greatly improve this dilemma that we find
ourselves in often. Being in a college atmosphere where people graduate and leave does account
for a portion of the turnover, but that cannot account for all of the turnover we have been
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witnessing. In fact, we lost zero out of thirteen employees to graduation this semester. There is a
change in work morale that has begun to arise more, and we have not been able to adjust to the
new demand of students’ workplace needs and desires. Students no longer wish to hold a job
while in college, wishing to “fully experience the college life” making it difficult for employers,
who rely on college students, to hire and retain decent staff. “In the end, each human being will
be loyal to himself to find something ideal, appropriate, and make them comfortable and calm”
(Mappamiring, et. al., 2020, pg. 237).
Another aspect that may affect our high turnover rates is the smallness of our team. While
having a small team can be great, it can also cause issues amongst staff. We encourage
camaraderie through all levels of our staff and that creates close friendships. Our textbook refers
to these friendships as “informal groups” which “exists when the members’ overriding purpose in
getting together is friendship or a common interest” (Kinicki, 2020, pg. 300). While this is
wonderful to see, if friendships between employees are not managed appropriately, they can
quickly turn into cliques and even smaller, exclusive groupings among our already small staff. If
people are not feeling included by everyone, then it can turn into an unhealthy work environment
for some student workers. While this is never our goal and we do our best to correct these
situations when they do arise, because it is another aspect that plays into our small retention
rates. If we could find a way to avoid these situations altogether, then we may have an easier
time providing a welcoming environment for our student workers. We care about them deeply
and we want all of them to feel comfortable in their workplace.
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Analyzing the Problem
This article, What Millennial Workers Want? Turnover or Intention to Stay in Company,
researches the intentionality behind workers and what motivates them to stay with a company or
decide to leave. By looking into the fundamental, rational, and psychological aspects of an
employee’s motivation, this article discusses how companies can increase their retention of
valuable employees who have been around for a couple semesters, who know the job in and out,
for longer periods of time. One of the possible issues with constant turnover is that there are
“Some forms of gap include defining the meaning of the words discipline, work, work
motivation, loyalty, and engagement with different intentions and goals” (Mappamiring, et. al.,
2020, pg. 238). All of those things look vastly different for everyone and being able to set
common ground amongst all of those help a company to hire committed employees because they
know what is expected of them from the beginning. With so much turnover happening,
employees who stay with the company can tend to feel a tension with every person who leaves
and the person who replaces them. It is difficult to create an atmosphere that can comfort
retained employees in the midst of an ever-revolving door of coworkers. “Creating comfort in
each person’s self requires a process that is certainly not easy and fast. Included in the process is
the creation of a comfortable atmosphere in the work environment” (Mappamiring, et. al., 2020,
pg. 238). It is important for workplaces to understand how each person feels comforted can help
to improve general comfort in the workplace as a whole.
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Because we work with such a small company, our employees tend to become tightknit
and become friends with each other fairly easily. On the opposite side of the spectrum though,
this closeness can cause some of our employees to become cliquey and exclude others from their
social circles. “the effect of regulation and flexible rules in providing socialization space for
employees with their social life in the workplace and their environment has an extreme impact”
(Mappamiring, et. al., 2020, pg. 239). This “extreme impact” can be a positive impact or a
negative impact and for some staff it may be both at times. Creating an environment for student
workers to thrive in, is one of the aspects that may need to change in order to gain retention
through each semester.
As mentioned before, our high turnover rate causes our leadership to be constantly in
training mode for the inexperienced staff. “… new employees need to increase their skills and
abilities. That is the importance of employee training. Proper HR training and development can
have a good effect on employees” (Mappamiring, et. al., 2020, pg. 240). If employees do not
experience good training when they are first hired, they are more likely to leave. In addition to
leaving the company, they may be leaving with feelings of inaptitude, which negatively impacts
not only the person but the company as well. Being sure that our leadership is thoroughly
orienting the new student workers with not only the handbook, but on-the-job specific training
can help to raise retention rates because the employee then feels cared for and needed. In turn,
when people feel needed, they have a higher sense of motivation to continue the work they are
doing.
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Recommendations for the Future
For the future of our department, there are a couple of things that could help our retention
rates to be more positive. First, understanding that some turnover is normal. Our goal should not
be to retain all of our employees, but rather create an atmosphere where student workers wish to
continue working. When we are constantly training new employees, our atmosphere is always
changing so our leadership needs to be able to adapt to each new student worker as they also
have to adapt to us and our department. “The fact is each of us has his own style, his own
preferences, and his own ways of facing life’s challenges” (Kroeger, et. al., 2002, pg. 4). We
must find a way to help each new employee find the best way for them to fit into our
environment. This is not an easy thing to do because there is no one method to keep our
atmosphere healthy. It will look different every time we lose or gain an employee. The important
part to remember is that if people work in an atmosphere that feels happy and light and healthy,
they are more likely to stay in that workplace because they enjoy it and naturally, people like
things that make them feel good.
One of the recognized problems behind our high turnover rate is that we may not be
training our staff thoroughly enough. Psalm 32:8 says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the
way you should go” (Nelson, 1982). Similarly, our company should be instructing our
employees in a positive way so that they understand not only how to do their job, but the why
behind what their doing their job for. People who understand the reasoning behind actions are
more likely to feel a sense of integrity while completing their work and when they have that,
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they can feel proud when the job is done well. By establishing a training program that is
comprehensive to the job, before sending them out into the field, employees will feel more sound
in their judgment and actions that they perform on the job. In turn, when employees feel more
confident, our patrons will feel better cared for because it is clear our student workers understand
what they are doing.
The last of our major problems regarding turnover is the closeness of our staff. While we
encourage our employees to work well together and make friendships where they can, we do not
want those friendships to become exclusive groups where others do not feel welcome. Acts
20:28 says “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own
blood” (Nelson, 1982). As one of the full-time directors in our department, it is important that I
watch my whole flock, not just the ones who seem to be doing well. When people begin to feel
excluded from others, they start to lose interest in work as a whole. No one wants to be in an
environment where they do not feel seen or heard or needed. As a leader, I am called to include
all of my people and help them do the best work they can do, and that cannot be done when they
are not mentally willing to do that because of social situations that feel tense to them. We do not
want any of our student workers to feel excluded, but rather welcomed through every part of our
work community. Watching out for any unnecessary cliques that may be forming through the
staff, could help prevent any student workers from feeling unwanted or unimportant in our small
team.
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Conclusion
For as long as I have worked in this company, almost six years, we have
struggling to retain many employees from semester to semester, but there was a drastic increase
this past semester. Losing almost sixty percent of our staff in a single semester, more than double
the number that Bureau of Labor Statistics gives for 2021, is a big issue that our company needs
to address. By utilizing the research done in this paper and the recommendations listed, our
department should see an increase in retention among our student workers from semester to
semester. Improving our orientations and initial instructions, being sure that everyone is included
in the social aspects of work, and keeping a consistent, healthy work environment, will help our
staff feel like they are heard, seen, and play important roles to the well-being of our department.
Proverbs 18:24 talks about loyalty as “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there
is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Nelson, 1982). We hope to create a sense of loyalty
and integrity among our student employees. By implementing these steps, I hope that my
company can see a rise in staff retention in the coming semesters.
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References
19 employee retention statistics that will surprise you (2022). Apollo Technical LLC. (2022,
April 7). Retrieved from https://www.apollotechnical.com/employee-retention-
statistics/#:~:text=As%20a%20general%20rule%2C%20employee,rate%20of
%2010%25%20or%20less.
Kinicki, A. (2017). 5 / Problem-Solving Application Case. In Organizational behavior (3rd ed.).
Essay, McGraw-Hill US Higher Ed USE.
Kroeger, Otto, Thuesen, Janet M. & Rutledge, Hile (2002). Type Talk at Work. Dell Publishing.
MAPPAMIRING, M., AKOB, M., & PUTRA, A. H. P. K. (2020). What Millennial Workers
Want? Turnover or Intention to Stay in Company. The Journal of Asian Finance,
Economics and Business, 7(5), 237–248.
https://doi.org/10.13106/JAFEB.2020.VOL7.NO5.237
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022, March 10). Table 16. Annual total separations rates by
industry and region, not seasonally adjusted - 2022 M01 results. U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t16.htm
