Angela Pettry

Week 2 Assignment

An organization’s turnover rate has a big impact on their expenses and overall profit.

Organization’s with high turnover rates end up spending more time and money to recruit, hire,

and train replacement workers. To combat these unnecessary expenses, companies put a lot of

time, effort, and attention into reducing their overall turnover rate by focusing their efforts on

keeping their employee satisfaction up and increasing employee retention. The speaker in the

video proposed developing a new approach to reducing his firm’s turnover rate that I found quite

intriguing. He is the owner of a fast-food restaurant called Hot Chicken. He decided early on that

he not only wanted to be his own boss, but he wanted to make a difference and by taking this

stance he became what is known as a social entrepreneur. Early on, he decided that he not only

wanted to help the less fortunate in his community, but he wanted to reduce the amount of people

in his community who were affected by this poverty. He set about doing this by hiring people

who really needed the position, such as those affected by homelessness and incarceration, rather

than those who would usually receive those jobs but would not necessarily need them as much,

such as local high school and college students. Hiring students had a high turnover rate,

especially compared to his chosen workforce of individuals personally dealing with poverty, who

sincerely needed the job for financial reasons. The results of his new approach resulted in a

retention rate that is four times better the industry average. By avoiding all that turnover, he has

been able to save the money that would have otherwise been used on recruiting and training new

employees and his company has benefitted from his new strategy and is now a success. By

choosing to judge these people, who are normally seen as undesirable employees, on their future

potential instead of on their past, he has given them a chance at personal and financial stability

and professional development. His strategy on retaining employees instead of voluntarily hiring

a workforce with a known high level of turnover has set him up for future success, benefitting his
Angela Pettry
Week 2 Assignment

community by reducing local poverty and helping provide job satisfaction for him and his

employees.