Conceptualizing employee turnover and organisational performance
Employee turnover and organisational performance are conceptualised below.
Organisational performance
Organisational performance can be defined in numerous ways, due to it
being a multi- dimensional concept. Hendry (2012) asserts that because
performance can be defined in multiple ways, it cannot be measured
utilising only one measurement tool. Nonetheless, numerous researchers
have attempted to establish the meaning of performance. According to
Karamat (2013), organisational performance has been defined as
transforming of inputs into outputs to achieve specific results. Musmuliana
(2012:14) further defines organisational performance as a “process to
enhance both the effectiveness of an organisation and the well- being of its
member through planned interventions”.
Even though organisational performance can be conceptualised in a number
of ways depending on the stakeholders. Cocca & Alberti (2010) suggest that
there are areas which should be focused on when looking into performance,
such as; innovativeness, quality, efficiency, effectiveness, financial,
performance and productivity. All these elements shall be discussed further
later. Tariq, Ramzan & Riaz (2013) point out that measuring organisational
performance is essential because it measures the value that personnel brings
into the organisation. The researcher concludes that organisational
performance is a vital measure of organisational success.
Employee turnover
Due to the development of different organisations in South Africa and the
interrelated rise in the qualification of skilled employees, this has led to a
competition among organisations to recruit and retain the best-experienced
employees. Employee turnover can be very destructive to organisations if it
is not managed properly.
According to CIPD (2016: 1) “employee turnover refers to the proportion
of employees who leave an organisation over a set period (often on a year-
on-year basis), expressed as a percentage of total workforce numbers”.
Employee turnover is a ratio of the number of workers in an organisation
who have left voluntarily or involuntarily in a particular period divided by
the number of employees who remain in the organisation in a period
(Ongori, 2007). Correspondingly, other researchers (Ngcobo, 2014; Yezina,
2014) have defined employee turnover as a decrease in the number of
employees in an organisation because of death, retrenchments, resignation,
relocation, or even retirement. Naseema (2015) further expresses that
employee turnover fundamentally emerges when individual employees are
unhappy at their workplace. Being unhappy in the workplace is not by any
means the only reason why an individual abandons their organisation for
another. Hence, if an individual employee possesses a unique skill that is in
demand, they might be baited away because of higher pay, excellent
benefits and organisations that offer better personal development
(Arokiasamy, 2013). That is the reason why it is critical to understand the
distinction between workers who leave the employment because they are
unhappy and employees who leave for entirely different reasons.
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