Background to the study
As students, being on vacation is a time we dread because being at home for two to three
months straight without any source of income is painful. Due to that we look for jobs that we
can do to while up time as well as to receive a bit of income. In working at different companies
for the two to three months of vacation, we came to realise that the employee turnover rate of
some of these companies was very high and that the period that we would work is actually
more than that which the supposed to be permanent workers were actually working. With the
success of a business normally dependant on its employee’s skills, work rate, motivation,
commitment, and morale, employee turnover rate definitely has an impact on how well or
badly a company performs.
Even when working conditions for employees are almost perfect, a turnover rate is inevitable,
as some workers retire, or move to other organizations or leave for other reasons such as ill
health or death (Allen, Bryant and Vardaman 2010). Such a low turnover rate does not harm
the company.There are several factors which lead to employee dissatisfaction, causing an
employee to leave an organization. Such factors include a working environment that is not
conducive, very little to almost no growth opportunities, poor and inconsistent remuneration
and stress levels, to mention just a few.
Branham (2005) suggested that there are seven main reasons why employees leave a company:
“Employees feel the job or workplace is not what they expected.
 There is a mismatch between the job and person.
 There is too little coaching and feedback.
 There are too few growth and advancement opportunities.
 Employees feel devalued and unrecognised.
 Employees feel stress from overwork and have a work/life imbalance.
 There is a loss of trust and confidence in senior leaders”
Profitability of a firm may be affected by high rates of employee turnover (Bratton & Gold,
2012) as this may cause the quality and the quantity of products being produced to diminish, or
may cause the quality of the service being rendered to decrease. High rates of employee
turnover may also lead to loss of information especially if there is a poor system of records in
the organization. Further, an organization may fail to achieve its set objectives and mission
(Dessler, 2012). Within the period of Decemeber 2019 to 31 March 2020, several SMEs have
faced high employee turnover rates and we shall look at the specif factors that have caused the
high employee turnover rate.
Research problem statement
A Little Bit of London Harare, the SME under study, has faced a very high employee turnover
rate. It must be noted that on 1 December 2019, there was one employee and also in
December, the company acquired 5 new employees, to total 6 employees. At the end of
December, 4 employees left. Beginning of January 2020, 2 new employee were hired totaling
three employees. Within one week, one of the employees had quit and at the end of January,
another employee left. Also at the end of January 2 new employees were hired totaling 3
employees. Mid February, another employee was hired to total 4 employees and at the end of
February 2 employee left, with the another employee living mid March. In total, in a period of 3
to 4 months, the company had employed 10 workers who have all left. A little bit of London had
failed to retain most of it employees and so the research project is aimed at investigating the
factors influencing a high turnover rate at this enterprise.
Research objectives
1. To identify the factors that lead to a high employee turnover rate at A Little Bit of
London Harare
2. To determine the effect of employee turnover on A Little Bit of London Harare.
3. To establish initiatives that can be taken to reduce employee turnover rate or to retain.
employees at A Little Bit of London Harare.
Research questions
1. Which factors have led to employee turnover in A Little Bit of London Harare.
2. Do high rates of employee turnover or failure to retain employees affect A Little Bit of
London Harare, and if yes, how does failure to retain employees affect the entity?
3. What can A Little Bit of London Harare do to reduce or mitigate employee turnover
rate?
Significance of the study
Since high employee turnover rate is a real threat to the future of every organization, it is
hoped that the study will help identify why there are high turnover rates within some
organizations. Although this study focuses on only one entity, many other entities do relate in
that they too are facing high turnover rates because of exactly the same or very similar factors.
Even if the factors do differ, the research will allow organizations to identify areas that they
have to keep a close watch on to ensure that such areas do not ever become factors of a high
turnover rate. Further, this research will allow organizations to identify the areas that they
need to improve on to reduce the high employee turnover rate, and hence saving the resources
that they normally spend to replace and train employees. The research will lead to
organizations focusing on the development of a retention strategy to encourage employees to
stay in the company as well as to come up with initiatives to reduce employee turnover rates.
Scope of the study
The study is concerned with the factors that have led to a high employee turnover rate at A
Little Bit of London Harare. This will involve identifying the specific factors that have led to a
high employee turnover rate at the enterprise, and will also involve identifying the specific
remedy to each specific factor. Of the 8 employees, 5 are females and 4 are males. The results
of the study can be generalized to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) facing the issue of
turnover.
Assumptions
It is assumed that each employee’s experience at the company is different from that of the
other employees and as such, each one will have different reasons as to why they left the
company.
Literature review
Research methodology
The research methods we are going to use are as follows:
Zoom focus group
We are going to hold a focus group, but instead of the participants meeting physically, they will
use the zoom platform due to the prevailing COVID 19 pandemic. 8 former employees of A
Little Bit of London Harare will be participating, as well as two facilitators. The zoom focus
group will be recorded so as to allow facilitators to later replay and listen to the different
responses on why participants left the organization and ensure gathering of all the revevant
information. We have chosen this method because interaction of respondents who previously
worked together may stimulate very honest and rich responses, thereby allowing us to identify
the correct factors that have led to a high employee turnover rate in the organization as well as
to identify what the employees initially expected and these will become the remedies to the
factors. This method is not costly and is convenient to the respondents as they can participate
in the zoom focus group in the comfort of their own home. This method also allows for quick
gathering of information as it provides the opportunity to kill 8 birds with one stop, that is, one
zoom focus group will allow us to get information from 8 respondents.
Unstructured face to face interview
The second research method we have chosen is the unstructured face to face interview. In the
event that there are other factors that the respondent felt uncomfortable to bring up during
the zoom focus group, the face to face interview will provide a more conducive platform to
bring up the factors. The unstructured nature of the interview will allow flexibility to pursue
points of interest as they develop and allow the researcher to collect in depth info, that is the
researcher will not only find out what led to the respondent leaving the company, but also why
that specific factor led to the respondent leaving the company. These interviews will involve a
lot of planning in that the interviewer and the respondent have to agree on the date, time and
location to have the interview. The interviews will also require a trained interviewer, and this
may be costly.
Organisation of the research report