Employees are one of the important assets that a company can have. Each capability is useful in the organization in meeting the company’s goals and keeping good operation workflows. Ideally, they are expected to constantly perform productive service to the organization to which in reality cannot be done thus, introduces the concept of employee’s turnover (Akinyomi, 2016).According to Mayhew (2018), employee turnover is the numbers of workers who end their service in the organization and are replaced by new qualified employees. It is a method to track if a company has more employees leaving than is typically expected (Wilkinson, 2014).
There are different reasons why employees leave a company; one of it is the range of factors that lead to job-related stress, lack of commitment in the organization, and job dissatisfaction (Firth, et.al., 2004 as cited in Ongori, 2007, p. 2). Employees often get exhausted from work due to the high or insufficient workload with unrealistic deadlines making them feel rushed and that their skills are being underused, lack of control over activities, and over-management that leaves them feeling undervalued and affect their self-esteem (“How to deal with stress”, 2017). These factors somehow lead to the unhappiness of the job and taking it for granted where later on, employees will not find the value of what they are doing and therefore, quit their job. Role stressors also lead to employees’ turnover where it creates role ambiguity which causes uncertainty about what their role should be in the organization. Misunderstanding will likely to happen specifically on how to meet the expectations of the company based on their job performance.
According to Tor (1997), insufficient information on how to perform the job adequately, unclear expectations of peers and supervisors, ambiguity or performance evaluation methods, extensive job pressures, and lack of consensus on job functions or duties may cause employees to feel less involved and less satisfied with their jobs and careers, less committed to their organization, and eventually display a propensity to leave the organization. If the roles of each employee are not clearly defined by the management, this would heighten the will of the employees in quitting their jobs due to lack of role clarity. The turnover also tends to increase if there are no career opportunities in the employment. Discontent with career prospects is a foremost cause of turnover. Employees who urge to be promoted and have a shift of their value in an organization is increasing. The motivation is not solely on the compensation but also the prestige and power it brings to them but today, most companies offer little promotion prospects. These types of employees who acquired various skills may intentionally change their career paths numerous times.
Rampur (2009) cited in Akinyomi (2016) employees will choose companies that are better in providing opportunities for a higher position and higher remuneration packages. The reasons stated above as to why employees quit their job is crucial to every organization. Employees’ turnover rates are considered to be one of the persistent problems in an organization (Armstrong, 2004). Industries today have issues with hiring and keeping qualified and capable employees (Pires, 2009). The organizational performance and profitability are at stake because of the associated resources and assets linked to these employees (Holston-Okae, 2017 as cited in Guilding, Lamminaki, & Mcmanus, 2014). Amour (2011) also cited that, increased labor turnover is very costly for all businesses.
Performance and profitability are fundamental well-studied factors involved in organizational performance (Delmar, McKelvie, & Wennberg, 2013). The usual costs that each company is experiencing are the amounts of funds expended to fill-in vacancy of position, interview, recruitment and training of new hire, loss of productivity, and cost of inefficiency of the new staff. But the performance and profitability also help the management to foretell turnover that affects the performance of the organization. Instead of an organization to incur expenses on finding new replacements, it could have been or will be used in productive activities that will contribute to the organization’s profitability and development.
According to Amour (2011), “organizations that spend fewer amounts of time and financial resources on solving employees’ turnover problems could actually focus on increasing productivity and improving customer satisfaction.” There are strategies that can be implemented in every organization to address the problem of employees’ turnover. The management needs to strengthen their policies or make amends to maintain human resources and improve employee engagement, motivation, job satisfaction, and work environment. These ways might not totally eliminate employees’ turnover but it will reduce the percentage or its numbers (Ngethe, Iravo ; Namusonge, 2012 cited in Akinyomi, 2016).
