INTRODUCTION TO THE TOPIC

In the best of worlds, employees would love their jobs, like their co-workers, work hard for
their employers, get paid well for their work, have ample chances for advancement and
flexible schedules so they could attend to personal or family needs when necessary.
Specifically, atHOTEL NEEDS (INDIA), DELHI, normally no. of employees leaves
organization is always high. Therefore, for a HR manger it is a big challenge to maintain the
attrition rate of the organization. HR Manager is not only required to fulfil this responsibility,
but also find the right kind of people who can keep pace with the unique work patterns in
organization. The toughest concern for an HR Manager is however the attrition rate.

MEANING OF ATTRITION:

The Webster’s Dictionary defines the term attrition as “the process or state of being gradually
worn down”. Accordingly, attrition process sometimes starts after a person is employed in an
organization and ends when he quits or retires. But in modernday business and employment
relations attrition is often not a gradual process. It is often abrupt, quick, sudden, and
sometimes dramatic especially in tight labour market conditions where employers compete
with one another to employ people considered to be suitable to the jobs they have in their
organizations. The term employee attrition is used rather interchangeably with employee
turnover.

The process of reducing the number of people who are employed by an organization by not
replacing people who leave the job.

” What Is Employee Attrition: “The action or process of gradually reducing the strength or
effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure. The gradual
reduction of employees leaving and not being replaced rather than by their being laid off?

What Is Attrition Rate: “The rate of shrinkage in size or number.” The rate of shrinkage in
size or number of employees is known as Attrition Rate. It is usually expressed in percentage.
An Attrition Rate also known as churn rate can be a measure of two things. It can be a
measure of how many people leave over a certain period of time or how many employees
leave over a certain period of time. Employee attrition is a serious issue, especially in today’s
knowledge-driven marketplace where employees are the most important human capital
assets; attrition impacts an organization’s competitive advantage.
Calculation of attrition:

Attrition: The two faces of attrition

Like a coin attrition also has two faces. All attrition cannot be termed as bad attrition as it has
a flip side also. It has to be viewed in the context of performance/contribution, skills,
longevity and growth. Performance here signifies the level of performance delivered by the
employees, skills denote the relevance of the employees’ skills in today’s world and
longevity and growth implies that he is reached the peak performance and job saturation
state. The factors are not static for a long period and hence attrition is bound to happen.
While organizations lament the challenges they have constantly encountered as a
consequence of employee turnover, the truth is that all attrition is not detrimental for an
organization. It is a myth that every time an employee walks out of the door, the organization
suffers. Some attrition is desirable and necessary for the growth and development of the
organization. Basically one should be able to differentiate between the two different concept:
bad attrition and good attrition. It us being a thin line is not easy to understand. It benefits an
organization when certain employee leave, whose continuation of service would negatively
impacted productivity and profitability of the company. There are also some people who have
a negative or a demoralizing influence on the work culture and team spirit. This in long term
is detrimental to organisational health.

On the contrary, when the departure of certain employees create a setback (most often
temporary) in terms of work continuity and progress is considered as bad attrition. The time
and investment lost in hiring and developing these people along with the cost of finding a
replacement and bringing him up to the productivity level, all comes at a high price.
f
C
I/R
n
A
G
y
tiv
u
o
P
sd
a
r
c
e
D
Cycle of attrition:

•
Attrition brings decreased Productivity.

People leave causing others to work harder.

This contributes to more Attrition, which contributes to increased costs and lowers
Revenue.

This forces additional cost reduction and austerity measures.

This in turn makes working more difficult, causing the best performers with the most
external opportunities to leave.

Cost of Attrition:

• Cost of advertising for new positions

• The cost and time involved in interviews and background checks

 • Costs associated with search firms or placement agencies

• Relocation costs of new employees

• Training and orientation costs

The tangible costs of employee attrition would be the cost of training new employees, the
recruitment and selection costs, adjustment time, possible product and/or service quality
problems, costs of agency workers/temporary staff, the cost of loss productivity, the cost of
lost knowledge and the cost of the position remaining vacant till a suitable replacement is
found.

The intangible costs, which may be even more significant than the tangibles, involve the
effect of turnover on organizational culture, employee morale, social capital or organizational
memory. All these costs would significantly take away the profitability and the competitive
advantage of the firm.

Reasons for attrition:

Leigh Branham, The author of the book “The 7 hidden reasons employees leave” lists the
following reasons for employee turnover:-

• The job or workplace not living up to the expectations of employees.

• Lack of proper guidance or feedback.

• Mismatch between the person and the job profile.

• Too few growth and advancement opportunities.

• Feeling not valued and recognized (which includes pay)

• Stress from overwork and work life imbalance.

• Loss of trust and confidence in senior leaders.

The brighter side of attrition:

Some employee turnover positively benefits organizations. This happens whenever a poor
performer is replaced by a more effective employeeand can happen when a senior retirement
allows the promotion or acquisition of welcome 'fresh blood'. Moderate levels of staff
turnover can also help to reduce staff costs in organizations where business levels are
unpredictable month on month. In such situations when business is slack it is straightforward
to hold off filling recently created vacancies for some weeks.

Diagnosing Attrition:

Employers who experience high rates of employee turnover/attrition are generally interested
in understanding the complex nature of the problem. They are rather interested in taking
suitable or effective measures to reduce the turnover rates. In this direction, the commonly
used techniques in the Industry are:

• Exit Interviews: Exit interviews provide an excellent source of information of internal

problems, employees' perceptions of the organization, underlying workplace issues, and
managers' leadership abilities. Exit interviews are used by the majority of companies.
They tend to be conducted just before an employee leaves, though some firms wait until
after the departure. Exit interviews are normally conducted using a questionnaire, though
one to one interviews are also used. Obtaining accurate information on reasons for
leaving is difficult. Where exit interviews are used it is best to conduct them a short time
after employees serve the notice. The interviewer should not be a manager who has
responsibility for the individual or who will be involved in future reference writing.
Confidentiality should be assured and the purpose of the interview explained. It is widely
held that the exit interviews should be preferably conducted by an external agent. It will
help employers capture more accurate data about why people are leaving, as individuals
are more willing to tell the truth when there is reassurance of anonymity.

• Surveys: Alternative approaches to collecting exit data is the use of confidential attitude
surveys which include questions on intention to leave and questionnaires sent to former
employees on a confidential basis around six months after their departure. They are
commonly used as part of the information gathering process. They are a reasonable way
of obtaining relevant information, though response rates are often disappointing.
Questionnaires need to be designed carefully to be effective. They should be easy to use,
anonymous and fairly brief. Questions can be open or closed, multiple choice answers,
ranking of items or checklist format.
Advantages of desired attrition:

The term “healthy attrition “is used to signify the importance of less productive employees
voluntarily leaving the organization.

Desired attrition includes termination of employees with whom the organization does not
want to continue a relationship. It could be through resignation or by the employer.

Advantages are:-

• Infuses new blood into the organization.

• Enhances ability for execution.

• New thoughts, ideas and hence more innovation and creativity at work.

• Knowledge of best practices from across the industry is brought in.

• Challenging status quo, which is very important and hence challenges the way we align
work.

• It is also an opportunity to induct employees at a lower cost with fresh skills and
competencies aligned to the current need of business.

Ways to Manage Attrition:

To manage employee attrition in an organization some 12 tips are given to us. These are:

• Compensation and Management: Compensation and Management must be managed

based on the KSAEs (Knowledge, Skills, Attitude and Experience) of the employees.

• Create Opportunities for Employees: The Company has to create growth opportunities
for employees to enhance their learning experience and earning abilities.

• Engaging Employees: Employees must be engaged on continuous basis and they should
not get bored with their work, which can be managed through internal transfers and
training from time to time.

• Review Recruiting Practices: Selection and Recruitment policies must be reviewed to

suit the growing needs of the organization.
 • Technology Opportunities: Leveraging technology to manage the organization and
enhancing the technical expertise of the employees will help organization grow without
much problem of attrition.

• Career Path for Employees: Employee career path must be declared during the
recruitment process and should be explained to the recruited people.

• Feel Valued in Organization: Non-financial rewards, a pat on the back in time and
celebrating small achievements with great fan-fare will help employees feel valued in the
organization.

• Contact with Senior Management: Senior Management should address employees

periodically and should make them feel like a family.

• Feel Part of the Company's Mission: The Company's mission must be reiterated from time
to time to reinforce the learning and experience of the people.

• Attendance: Policies with regard to attendance must be creative and flexible.

• Educate Employees on their Impact: Educate employees regularly on what kind of impact
they are creating on organization through their contribution.

• Flexibility: Immediate bosses and middle level managers must be flexible and act as
Chief Happiness Officers to avoid triggers of attrition.
EMPLOYEE RETENTION:
Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employees stick
to an organization for a longer period of time. Every organization invests time and money to
groom a new joined, make him a corporate ready material and bring him at par with the
existing employees. The organization is completely at loss when the employees leave their
job once they are fully trained. Employee retention takes into account the various measures
taken so that an individual stays in an organization for the maximum period of time. It is a
process in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the
maximum period of time or until the completion of the project. Employee retention is
beneficial for the organization as well as the employee.

What is Retention all about?

R- REMUNERATE COMPETITIVELY

E-ENCOURAGEMENT AND EXPECTATION

T-TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

A-ANNUAL REVIEW CYCLES

I-INFORM AND INVOLVE

N- NURTURE

Need and Importance of Employee Retention:

Let us understand why retaining a valuable employee is essential for an organization.

• Hiring is not an easy process.

• An organization invests time and money in grooming an individual and makes him ready
to work and understand the corporate culture

• When an individual resigns from his present organization, it is more likely that he would
join the competitors

• The employees working for a longer period of time are more familiar with the company’s
policies, guidelines and thus they adjust better
• It has been observed that individuals sticking to an organization for a longer span are
more loyal towards the management and the organization

• It is essential for the organization to retain the valuable employees having high
potential.
C
A
L
W
G
M
V
E
T
R
U
P
H
S
N
IO
Key areas in Employee Retention:-

•
 Compensation: It includes

Basic wage
 • House rent allowance

• Dearness allowance

• City compensatory allowance

 Environment: Types of environment the employee needs in an organization:

• Learning environment

• Supportive environment

• Work environment

 Growth: Growth and Career Growth and development are the integral part of every
individual’s career. If an employee can not foresee his path of career development in his
current organization, there are chances that he’ll leave the organization as soon as he gets an
opportunity. The important factors in employee growth that an employee looks for himself
are:

• Work profile

• Personal growth and dreams

• Training and development

 Relationship: It includes

• Relationship with the immediate manager:

• Relationship with colleague

• Induce loyalty

 Support: Employers can support their employees in a number of ways as follows:-

• By providing feedback

• By giving recognition and rewards

• By counselling them

• By providing emotional support

Common Employee Retention Practices:

In all modern industries, employee retention is the most critical problem. It not only results in
the loss of good and performing employees but also in hiring people as and when people
leave, loss of production, loss of market and consumers, and loss of the image of the
Company. The management may be able to get recruited people to replace those who leave.
But hiring new employees when those in employment of the company leave is not an
important issue. For any organization suffering from high rates of employee attrition the
question of retaining employees is quite important. Hence, the study of employee retention
achieves significance. Employers seek to adopt different strategies to retain employees. But
before understanding what are these strategies that the employers adopt let us understand
what we mean by the term “strategy”.
What is a Strategy? The term strategy means a large scale future oriented plans of
management for interacting with the competitive environment to achieve the company
objectives. A strategy is a company’s game plan. Although that plan does not precisely detail
all future deployments, it does provide a framework for managerial decisions. A strategy
reflects a company’s awareness of how, when and where it should compete; again whom it
should compete; and for what purpose t should compete” (John A Pearce II and Richard B.
Robinson Jr.: 2005: 3-4). It is an overall plan of how to proceed in the task of achieving the
objectives of the organization. It is concerned with mapping out the planned basic policies to
be followed in the process of achieving the objectives.
“Retention in any industry or occupation is multifaceted and situation specific; accordingly,
retention strategies need to be evidence based, grounded in organizational, industry and
occupat6ion specific r4ealities and reviewed periodically. There is no silver bullet when it
comes to employee retention as it will always be” (Mohan Thite: 2008: 19-20). Any
employee retention strategy would necessarily include a plan for redressing employee
grievances and ways and means to address employee issues. This would mean that the
employees would be enabled to take their issues regarding pay, their work, their role etc., to
the HR manager and expect to get a fair hearing in the process. There should be a plan where
the HR manager in conjunction with the manager of the employee who has raised the issue
works towards resolving the issue.

Retention strategies for the first time on an extensive basis were researched, analyzed and
presented in 1991 by Roger E, Herman, the Father of Employee Retention, in his book titled
“Keeping Good People: Strategies for Solving Dilemma of the Decade”. He grouped the
strategies into six categories and under each of them he lists the subcategories. The list is as
follows:

Table 1.1
S No. Category of strategies Strategies under the Category
1 Environmental 1. Share a Common Vision.
Strategies 2. Value Each Individual
3. Work together as a Team
4. Loyalty is a two-way Relationship
5. Enthusiasm is justified and appropriate
6. We are all here for the Customer
7. Have a set of Guiding Principles
8. Offer stability, security, risk, as Needed
9. Prohibit Discrimination of any Kind
10. Eschew profanity
11. Be Fair and Honest
12. Facilitate a Family Feeling
13. Value professional Standing
14. Promote integrity
15. Encourage Camaraderie
16. Promote a Healthy Working Environment
17. Insist on Work[;lace Safety
18. Avoid Stupid Rules
19. Provide Flexibility in Working Hours
20. Apply Progressive Discipline Fairly
21. Make Work Fun
22. Celebrate Achievements, birthdays, etc.
23. Don’t tolerate, remove Unsuitable People
24. Conduct Exit Interviews
25. Establish Clear Policies
26. Administer policies Uniformly
27. Provide advancement opportunities, promote
from within
28. Give permission to Fail or succeed
29. Management Commitment: people are our most
importing resource
30. Share information
31. Value all your people
32. Respond to Complaints with solutions
33. Within safety constraints, permit refreshments

2 Relationship Strategies
at
work stations
34. Use your business plan
35. Offer freedom of choice: break times, dress,
vacations
36. Choose employees carefully the first time
37. Locate your company in a suitable
Environment
38. Encourage people to personalize their work
areas
39. Eliminate reserved personal parking
40. Provide effective communications systems
41. Equip people to be productive
42. Provide for appropriate child care services
43. Maintain comfortable atmosphere conditions
44. Use color constructively in decoration
45. Provide a safe, secure environment.
1.Understanding Behavioral style
2. Appreciate values and ethical standards
3. Resolve conflicts
4. Hold Regular Meetings of your team members
5. Call spontaneous meetings
6. Facilitate open communication
7. Stick to your people
8. Give recognition strategically and deliberately
9. Recognize the “new woman”
10. Recognize other “special employees”
11.Be patient
12. Show respect for others
13.. Give people freedom and flexibility
14. Trust your people
15. Show genuine, sincere appreciation
16. Listen
17. Let people be who they are
18. Find opportunities to talk with people
19. Balanced praise and criticism
20. Build everyone’s self esteem
21. Don’t gossip
22. Look for positives, not negative.
23. Express confidence
24. Enable people to be together
25. Care about people as individuals
26. Be accessible
27. Have a sense of humor
 28. Set an example
29. Show leadership at the top of your
organization
30. Reduce stress. Keep anxiety to stay sharp
31.Don’t question or second-guess people all the
time, and Be firm and fair.
3 Task-focused 1. Give people real things to do
Strategies 2. Provide challenges
3. Fight frustration
4. Remove barriers to accomplishments
5. Adjust jobs to fit strengths, abilities and talents
6. Empower people to work as tea,
7. Mickey mouse should be fun, not fundamental
8. Keep the promises you make
9. Provide the resources to get the job done
10. Avoid rejection, raw criticism, humiliation
11. Encourage and welcome new ideas
12. Define responsibilities
13. Define accountabilities
14. Define authority
15. Encourage initiative
16. Inspire and enable creativity and innovation
17. Establish limits, parameters
18. Know what your people are doing
19. Respond when people ask for approval or
guidance
20. Give clear direction
21. Get people involved
22. Reduce reporting requirements
23. Don’t look people’ shoulders
24. Don’t keep people overtime without previous
notice
25. Appreciate routine work
26. Enter into performance contracts
27. Fight boredom
28. Design tasks to meet personal needs
29. Give people a break, and
30. Give specifics in performance feedback.
4 Compensation 1.Present the full value of compensation
Strategies 2. Provide linking incentive opportunities to all
employees
3. Link performance with rewards
4. Leverage the total cash compensation for
maximum Effectiveness
 5. Design reward system for employee involvement
6. Compensate high potential/low skill employees
with skills-based system
7. Use flexible benefits in a changing workforce,
and
8. Consider ESOPs and employee stock
Ownership.
5 People Growing 1) Give people challenging responsibilities
Strategies 2) Support formal education
3) Offer learning materials for personal growth
4) Connect with outside resources for learning
materials
5) Send people to outside seminars
6) Have learners pass their training along to others
7) Help people grow into bigger jobs
8) Enable people to discover the wealth of talents
they have and encourage intellectual growth
9) Assign special projects
10) Build competency deliberately, and
11) Provide incentives.

This list of retention strategies is certainly a detailed and perhaps exhaustive one. Perhaps for
that reason the views of Mr. Herman were received warmly and he was given the title as
“Father of Employee Retention” by the American industries. The employee retention
strategies advocated by him were adopted and put into practice by all industries who had the
problem of keeping their (good) employees.

The basic practices specific to pharmaceutical industry culture which should be kept in mind
in the employee retention strategies are:

• Create statement of values of the organization, share common vision and offer open
management style.

• Provide career growth, learning and development; create exiting work and challenges and
provide purposeful work with the intention to expose the talent of employee.

• The organization remains flexible over the working hours, dress; work rules and
telecommuting; develop culture to work together as team.
• Create trust in senior leadership, provide job security to possible extent and minimize
work related stress.

• Increase competitiveness of rewards. Provide opportunities to apply skills on the job; trust
employees and never express feeling of mistrust against any employee or group of
employees.

• Appreciate excellent things of employees on regular basis and reward leaders, who listen
and act on employee input.

• Provide proper resources, encourage creativity and innovation and establish learning
culture.

• Provide performance-based rewards, involve employees in decision-making at different

levels and encourage collaboration.

• Build employees self-esteem, demonstrate integrity in all business endeavours and

provide support with managing change.

• Facilitate open communication, make work fun and create balance between work and
family.

• Assign coaches or mentors to help employees with specific jobs but developing their
careers.

These practices can be categorized in 3 levels:

• Low,

• Medium and

• High Level
Role of HR in Employee Retention:-

The Human Resource team plays an important role in employee retention. Let us find out
their role in the same:

• Whenever an employee resigns from his current assignments, it is the responsibility of

the HR to intervene immediately to find out the reasons which prompted the employee to
resign It is the duty of the HR to sit with the employee and discuss the various issues
face to face. Understand his problems and listen to his side of the story as well.

• The HR person must ensure that he is recruiting the right employee who actually fits into
the role. A right person doing the wrong job would never find his job interesting and
certainly look for a change.

• The human resource department must conduct motivational activities at the workplace.
Organize various internal as well as external trainings which help the employees to learn
something extra apart from their routine work.
• The HR must launch various incentive schemes for the top performers to motivate them.
This way the employees feel important for the organization and strive hard to perform
even better the next time.

• Performance reviews are a must. The HR along with the respective team leaders must
monitor their team member’s performance to ensure whether they are enjoying the work
or not.

The HR professional must try his level best to motivate the employees, make them feel
special in the organization so that they do not look for a change.

Challenges in Employee Retention:-

• Monetary dissatisfaction is one of the major reasons for an employee to look for a
change. Retention becomes a problem when an employee quotes an exceptionally high
figure beyond the budget of the organization and is just not willing to compromise.
• In the current scenario, where there is no dearth of opportunities, stopping people to look
for a change is a big challenge. Employees become greedy for money and position and
thus look forward to changing the present job and join the competitors.
• Individuals speak all kind of lies during interviews to get a job. It is only later do people
realize that there has been a mismatch and thus look for a change. Problems arise
whenever a right person is into a wrong profile. The human resource department should
be very careful while recruiting new employees.
• Some individuals have a tendency to get bored in a short span of time. They might find a
job really interesting in the beginning but soon find it monotonous and look for a change.
The management finds it difficult to convince the employees in such cases.
• Unrealistic expectations from the job also lead to employees looking for a change. An
individual must not look for a change due to small issues. One needs time to make his
presence feel at the organization and must try his level best to stick to it for a good
amount of time and ignore petty issues.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter reviews literature relevant to the research objectives. It specifies the abstracts of
research conducted by eminent researchers with regards to the same topic.

Organizations attribute, Better Career Prospects, Personal Reasons and Pursuing Further
Studies as the main reasons for attrition. Many studies have been conducted on employee’s
attrition to find out the reasons of attrition such as:

Cotton & Tuttle(1986),in their book “Employee Turnover –A Meta analysis and review”
presented a review on turnover at the individual- or job-level analysis, examining the
cognitive processes that precede a jobholder's decision to leave a firm at the firm level, has
been typically examined the dysfunctional consequences of turnover, particularly its costs for
employers. But Dalton, Krackhardt, & Porter (1981) in their book “Research in
Organization behaviour” have argued that some employee attrition is functional (e.g.; Dalton
& Todor, 1979, 1982). They reason that employees who quit because of a recognized lack of
fit between their abilities and job demands save managers and firms from further investment
in efforts to provide training. Moreover, more costly senior employees can be replaced with
less expensive, albeit often less experienced junior employees.

Employees today are different. They are not the ones who don’t have good opportunities in
hand. As soon as they feel dissatisfied with the current employer or the job, they switch over
to the next job. It is the responsibility of the employer to retain their best employees.

“Any attrition in any form is bad for an organization. It means that a wrong choice was made
at the beginning" says NR Ganti Chairman and MD, SQL Star International.

High attrition implies that certain necessary skills are vulnerable or are not present due to
employees being lost" says Vikram Bhardwaj, Managing Director, Redileon.

M V Nappinai an N Premavathy published an article in Impact journals on Employee

Attrition and Retention in global competitive scenario citing that despite increased
globalization and fluctuating economic times of American jobs, most employers are now
struggling hard to keep good workers who are expecting more from their management and
can willingly shift if their needs are not met. If an organization succeeds in managing its
people well, employee retention will take care of itself. It is high time organisations realize
that each employee is valuable and with time their added experience makes them even more
valuable. Retention plans are an inexpensive way of enhancing work place productivity and
engaging employees emotionally. Proficient employees keep the quality up and business
operations run smoothly along with cost saving in the longer run.

In a work done by John E Sheridan – “ Organizational Culture and Employee Retention” , he

investigated the retention rates of 904 college graduates hired in 6 public accounting firms
over 6 year period. He cited that Organizational culture values varied significantly among the
firms. The variation in cultural values had a significant effect on the rates at which the newly
hired employees voluntarily terminated employment. The relationship between the
employees' job performance and their retention also varied significantly with organizational
culture values. The cultural effects were stronger than the combined exogenous influences of
the labor market and the new employees' demographic characteristics.

In the book Recruitment, Retention and Employee Relations, D. Keith Denton explains that
“In emergency services, team stability and reliability in responders is essential to safely and
efficiently mitigate the variety of dangerous situations faced daily. Turnover of personnel can
definitely affect this although the effect may not be easily measurable. Many other
consequences are tangible as, in the book contends that the problem of turnover should be
addressed proactively. One of the most effective ways of both recruiting and retaining
employees is to be the employer of choice. Denton adds that employees can be attracted and
retained by offering them career opportunities, job variety, responsibility, training and giving
them a sense of ownership.

Deloitte Human Capital Consulting has done a compensation trend survey for year 2013-14
in which following thing has been observed that, the overall average attrition rate across
industries is 14%. “Better career opportunities and better pay have been cited as the key
reasons for attrition across most sectors” Overall attrition rate for automobile industry at the
junior management level is 14%,pharmaeutial 14%,BPO industry is 15%, highest attrition
rate has been observed in ITeS industry i.e.17%, followed by advertising and media 16%, IT
industry 15% this particular attrition rate was due to highest salary increment in the ITeS, IT,
pharmaceutical, health care and life science industry which is about 13.1% which it leads to
employee being attracted by other foreign companies which turns vacancy into parent
organization in which employee is presently working.
Also, attrition in India is alarmingly high today. The striking aspect is the insights different
surveys and studies throw. According to Mercer’s study (2011), almost 54% of Indians are
seriously considering leaving their organizations. 66% employees aged <25 are seriously
considering leaving.

In a study of 31200 Boeing employees, Colledge& Johnson (2000) found a strong correlation
between the incidence of lost-time soft tissue injuries and a poor supervisor relationship,
while Foreman et al.(2006) identify low or inadequate support from supervisors and
colleagues that have a negative impact on job retention/ return to work outcomes.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of

studying how research is carried on. It is we study the various steps that are generally adopted
by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind it. Hence, I used
qualitative and quantitative approach where qualitative approach gave me freedom to analyse
the attrition data of the company quantitatively while qualitative approach helped in
assessment of attitude, opinion and behaviour of employees.

Objectives of the Study

• To find out the various reasons for employee attrition.

• To find out the cost of employee attrition.
• To find out the strategies for employee retention.

Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is confined to Hotel Needs (India), (HNI) located in Delhi. The study
throws light through valuable suggestion to decrease attrition level in the organization.
The purpose of this study is to examine, at thefirm level, variables that have been linked to
employee turnover in micro level investigations.
Four categories of variables are considered:
• firm characteristics,
• firm setting,
• work force characteristics, and
• benefit practices

Thus, at HNI the issue is to analyse the attrition trend and the measures which can be taken
by the organization to deal with the problem. The study was conducted in all the different
departments of HNI, randomly selecting 50 employees to get an overview of the reasons of
attrition.
Methodology

The project on “Attrition and Retention” in Hotel Needs India in Delhi was undertaken to
understand and analyse whether the organization is able to retain personnel of the desired
standard and calibre for the respective designation and when it fails to do so what are the cause
and cures behind the failure in retention. The information is collected according to the
requirements of the study through questionnaire survey of present employees.

Type of research

This study is an exploratory research, which is an attempt to provide insights into attrition
trends and practices. The study is basically an analysis of the employee attrition and measures
adopted to retain them in the organization. In this study representatives of employees working
in different departments have been selected randomly according to the convenience.

Sources of Data collection

The study relies on both primary and secondary data i.e. data collected afresh is referred to as
the primary data and secondary data thereby meaning reviewing literature and data already
available on the subject.

Primary Data: It was collected through Questionnaire survey with a mix of open and closed
ended questions in it.

Secondary Data: The secondary data was collected from the organizations manuals,
journals, books and brochures. For the theoretical overview various books on Employee
Attrition & Retention were consulted. Internet has played a major role in finding facts related
to the study of the project.

Sample Design and sample size

For the research, convenient sample design is chosen, as it is probably the simplest
experimental design in terms of data analysis and convenience. With this design, subjects are
randomly assigned to treatments.
The sample design is constructed so as to gain information about causes of employee
turnover.
The sample size includes 50 employees of HNI, Delhi
Data Analysis
The response gathered through questionnaires was then tabulated in the form of raw data
chart i.e. through pie charts and then the data was analysed on the basis of which the
interpretations were made. After analysing the interpretationthe relevant findings and
recommendations were arrived at.

Limitations of the Study

• Time is the important limitation. Due to time limitation, only limited sample size is taken
for the study.
• Findings based in this study cannot be used in other organizations.
• The biased view of the respondent is another limitation.
 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Demographic No. of respondents Percentage

Upper level employees 11 22%
Middle level employees 22 44%
Lower level employees 17 34%

1) Is your remuneration package at par with that provided in the market?

Table 1

Remuneration package No. of Respondents Percentage

Yes 17 34%
No 33 66%

22%

Yes
No

78%

Fig 1
Interpretation: - The pie diagram clearly indicates that 34% of the employees are satisfied
with the remuneration being offered to them whereas 66% of the respondents are not too
content with it as compared to the competitors in the market.

2) Provision of adequate resources to execute the job responsibilities successfully.

Table 2
 Adequate Resources given No. of Respondents Percentage
Yes 21 42%
No 29 58%

22%

Yes
No

78%

Fig.2
Interpretation: - From above table it is observed that 42% of the respondents are satisfied
with the resources and 58% of the respondents are not satisfied with the resources offered to
them for the successful completion of the task.

3) Lack of Communication between the employees and employer.

Table 3

Lack of Communication No. of Respondents Percentage

Yes 39 78%
 No 11 22%

22%

Yes
No

78%

Fig. 3

Interpretation: - It is to be concluded that 78% of the employees found a lack of

communication and 22% respondents found that there is no lack of communication with
employees and employer.

4) Overall level of satisfaction

Table 4

Parameters Dissatisfied Mildly Undecided Satisfied Highly

dissatisfied satisfied
Satisfaction 0 15 0 30 5
 level from the
Work life in
HNI
Perks and 8 21 5 8 8
Benefits
provided by
HNI

Figure 4

100%
8
90%
80%
21 8
70%
60%
8 5
50%
30
40%
30%
15 5
20%
10% 0 0

0%
Dissatisfied Mildly dissatisfied Undecided Satisfied Highly satisfied

Work Life Perks and Benefits

Interpretation: - According to the findings it was seen that there was a high level of overall
satisfaction among employees. The employees were mostly satisfied with the company for its
brand name, its facilities and its overall performance. Other than that, it was found that the
perks and benefits and services offered to them were not up to their expectations as in
comparison to other employees in the market. So it could be interpreted that the majority
ofemployees lacks satisfaction in relation to perks offered to them.

5) Satisfaction level in comparison to other employees

Table 5

Parameters Dissatisfied Mildly Undecided Satisfied Highly

dissatisfied satisfied
Satisfaction 0 19 8 15 8
 level from the
relationship
with Seniors
Satisfaction 0 0 0 35 15
level from the
relationship
with Peers
Self 0 0 0 43 7

Figure 5

100% 8 7
15
90%
80% 15
70%
60%
8
50% 43
35
40%
30% 19
20%
0 0 0
10%
0%
Seniors Peers Self

Dissatisfied Mildly dissatisfied Undecided Satisfied Highly satisfied

Interpretation: - In a comparative study of the employees with their team mates it was found
that about half the sample was content with performance of their seniors, whereas the
majority was more than satisfied with the performance of their peers and themselves. It was
observed that the performance was found mostly satisfactory in case of the team members but
in case of senior personnel it was not up to their expectations and it has scope of
development.

6) Factors leading to attrition.

Table 6

Factors Least Less Neutral Important Very

leading to important important important
attrition
Insufficient 5 13 0 5 27
 salary
Job 0 0 30 8 12
description
Overstress 5 7 8 5 25
from work
Loss of trust 23 7 3 10 7
and
confidence in
seniors
Lack of 18 5 0 20 7
proper
guidance
Career growth 8 15 15 0 12
and
development
opportunity
Less 8 5 15 22 0
cooperation
among
colleagues
Less value 3 5 15 22 0
and
recognition
Higher 5 28 5 0 12
education
Working 0 8 10 12 20
hours
No personal 5 8 7 10 20
life
Insufficient 0 0 8 20 22
leaves or
holidays
Physical strain 0 15 5 8 22
Transportatio 8 7 5 10 17
n

a) Insufficient salary

Figure 6.1
 Insufficient salary
22% 22%

Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important

57%

b) Job description

Figure 6.2

Job description
24%

Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important
60%
16%

c) Overstress from work

Figure 6.3
 Overstress from work
20% 20%

Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important

28%
32%

d) Loss of trust and confidence in seniors

Figure 6.4

Loss of trust and confidence in seniors

14%

46% Least important

20%
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

6% 14%

e) Lack of proper guidance

Figure 6.5
 Lack of proper guidance
14%
36%

Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

40%
10%

f) Career growth and development opportunity

Figure 6.6

Career growth and development opportunity

24% 16%

Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

30%

30%

g) Less cooperation among colleagues

Figure 6.7
 Less cooperation among colleagues

16%

10%
44% Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

30%

h) Less value and recognition

Figure 6.8

Less value and recognition

11%
7%

Least important
Less important
49%
Neutral
Important
Very important

33%

i) Higher education

Figure 6.9
 Higher education
24%
10%

Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important
10%

56%

j) Working hours

Figure 6.10

Working hours
16%

40%
Least important
Less important
Neutral
20%
Important
Very important

24%

k) No personal life

Figure 6.11
 No personal life
10%
16%
40%
Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

14%
20%

l) Insufficient leaves or holidays

Figure 6.2

Insufficient leaves or holidays

16%

44% Least important

Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

40%

m) Physical strain

Figure 6.13
 Physical strain
30%

44%
Least important
Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

16% 10%

n) Transportation

Figure 6.14

Transportation
17%
36%

Least important
15% Less important
Neutral
Important
Very important

21% 11%

Interpretation:- From the above pie diagrams it could be seen that the major contribution for
the attrition in the organization was a result of insufficient salary, overstress from work ,
working hours, no personal life , insufficient leave , physical strain , and transportation. The
 other factors are of lesser intensity are job content, loss of trust and confidence, higher
education and career growth and development.

7) Impact of employee attrition in different areas.

Table 7

Areas Unaffected Mildly Undecided Affected Highly

unaffected affected
Higher 0 13 5 5 27
recruiting cost

Higher training 0 0 2 18 30
cost
Lost 0 0 0 15 35
productivity
Lost customer 5 0 5 15 25
Employee 0 10 2 15 23
Morale
Lower 0 10 2 33 5
Profitability
Service quality 2 2 0 5 41

Additional 5 8 5 10 22
turnover
Weakened 0 0 5 23 22
mentoring and
peer coaching

Lost sales 5 2 8 20 15
prospects
Lost 5 12 3 15 15
organizational
knowledge
More stress 0 0 0 10 40

a) Higher recruiting cost

Figure 7.1
 Higher recruiting cost
26%

Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
54% Affected
Highly affected
10%

10%

b) Higher training cost

Figure 7.2

Higher training cost

4%

36% Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected
60%

c) Lost productivity

Figure 7.3
 Lost productivity
30%

Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

70%

d) Lost customer

Figure 7.4

Lost customer
10% 10%

Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
50% Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

30%

e) Employee Morale

Figure 7.5
 Employee Morale
20%

4% Unaffected
46%
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

30%

f) Lower Profitability

Figure 7.6

Lower Profitability
20%
10%

4% Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

66%

g) Service quality

Figure 7.7
 Service quality
4% 10%
4%

Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

82%

h) Additional turnover

Figure 7.8

Additional turnover
10%
16%

44% Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

10%

20%

i) Weakened mentoring and peer coaching

Figure 7.9
 Weakened mentoring and peer coaching
18%

Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected

82%

j) Lost sales prospects

Figure 7.10

Lost sales prospects

4%
30% 10%

16% Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

40%

k) Lost organizational knowledge

Figure 7.11
 Lost organizational knowledge
30% 10%

24% Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

30% 6%

l) More stress

Figure 7.12

More stress
20%

Unaffected
Mildly unaffected
Undecided
Affected
Highly affected

80%

Interpretation: - In the Analysis it was found that most effective areas impacted due to
employee turnover were stress, service quality, lost productivity, and higher training cost,
weakened mentoring and peer coaching and low sales prospects. Other than that the less
credited factors include higher recruiting cost and additional turnover as most of these factors
are assumed to be the major influential factors for HNI.

8) Rate the effectiveness of Superior in maintaining a good rapport between the staff and
other employees.

Table 8

Parameter Highly Inefficient Neutral Efficient Highly

inefficient Efficient
Effectiveness 0 0 8 17 25

Figure 8

Effectiveness of supervisor in maintaining rapport

16%

Highly inefficient
Inefficient
50% Neutral
Efficient
Highly Efficient

34%

Interpretation: - From the above chart it can be seen that effectiveness of supervisors in
maintaining rapport is more than efficient.The complete sample is more than satisfied with
their effectiveness. None of the employees had an issue with the supervisor’s role in
building team spirit and maintaining the manpower HNI.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
The findings are as follows:-

 50% of the employees were satisfied with the remuneration being offered to them
whereas the other half were not too content with it as compared to the competitors in
the market.
 70% of the respondents are satisfied with the resources offered to them for the
successful completion of the task.
 Only 16% of the employees found a lack of communication between them and their
employers.
 According to the findings it was seen that there was a high level of overall satisfaction
among employees. The employees were mostly satisfied with the company for its
brand name, its facilities and its overall performance. Other than that, it was found
that the perks and benefits and services offered to them were not up to their
expectations as in comparison to other employees in the market. So it could be
interpreted that the majority of employees lacks satisfaction in relation to perks
offered to them.
 In a comparative study of the employees with their team mates it was found that about
half the sample was content with performance of their seniors, whereas the majority
was more than satisfied with the performance of their peers and themselves. It was
observed that the performance was found mostly satisfactory in case of the team
members but in case of senior personnel it was not up to their expectations and it has
scope of development.
 It was found that most effective areas impacted due to employee turnover were stress,
service quality, lost productivity, and higher training cost, weakened mentoring and
peer coaching and low sales prospects. Other than that the less credited factors include
higher recruiting cost and additional turnover as most of these factors are assumed to
be the major influential factors for HNI.
 It can be seen that effectiveness of supervisors in maintaining rapport is more than
efficient. The complete sample is more than satisfied with their effectiveness. None of
the employees had an issue with the supervisor’s role in building team spirit and
maintaining the manpower HNI
CONCLUSION

Attrition is a serious issue and puts HNI in a huge loss and thus it’s a challenge for the
organization to retain the employees. Human resource management team plays a vital role in
retaining employee in the company. Their role starts right from the selection of right
candidates through stringent recruitment procedures, proper training to the employees and
taking some anti-attrition measures or retention policies. A better approach is to address
retention proactively as a strategic issue. HRs should look forward to commitment, enhance
job satisfaction and to provide support to facilitate employee retention. Similarly conducive
working environment, favourable organizational behaviour to increase the confidence, self-
esteem and morale of the representatives, reward and recognitions of
outstanding performers can reduce the higher attrition rate in the company like.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Following recommendations can be considered:-

• Increase the organization’s level of professionalism

• Making performance appraisal objective

• Involve employees in decision making process

• Ensuring a match between authority and accountability

• Measuring employee satisfaction

• Achieving a match between individual and organizational goal.

• Design a competitive package.

• Increase organizational transparency.

• Promoting employees from within.

• Help employee acquire new skills.

• Offer stock options

• Focus on welfare measures.

Suggestive Practices:-

 The best companies focus on professionalism, appraisal, employee satisfaction and

participative decision making. However, their higher than average retention levels
can be attributed to the way in which they go about these initiatives rather than the
choice of initiatives themselves. So HNI should set itself targets on each dimension,
and then, try and better them.
 The companies should conduct regular meetings to know about what exactly
employees expect. Organizations should focus on exit interviews. Even though the
employees are satisfied with their nature of job, it is identified in the study that many
employees prefer to change their job due to lack of growth opportunities in their job.
So, the companies can look for some innovative technologies to decrease their
attrition level by providing growth opportunities.
 Medical claim policy, accidental policies are used for higher job satisfaction as well
as to retain the employee.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books References

• Peter W Horn(1995)”Employee turnover” South-Western College Publishing

• Kothari C.R, 2ND Edition, 2004, Research Methodology Methods and techniques, New age
international (P) Ltd, Page No: 1-7.

• Rao , V.S.P.(2009), “Organizational Behaviour”, Excel Books, New Delhi, First Edition,
pp.465-482

• Branham, L. (2005). The seven hidden reasons employees leave. Business Book
Review™, 22(3), 3-6.

• Nappinal M V &Premavathy N (2013), Employee Attrition and Retention in global

Competitive Scenario, IMPACT journal, volume 1, issue 6, 3-9.

Website References

 http://www.managementparadise.com
 https://www.citehr.com/
 https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/256539

Corporate References

 http://www.hotelneedsindia.com/

QUSTIONNAIRE
A STUDY ON “EMPLOYEE ATTRITION AND RETENTION” IN

HOTEL NEEDS (INDIA), DELHI

Note: This data is being collected as a part of Dissertation project and data collected will be
kept confidential. Thanks for giving your valuable time to respond the questionnaire.

Part A

Name
(Optional): ____________________________________________________________
Age: _________________________________________________________________
Designation: ___________________________________________________________
Department: ___________________________________________________________

Part B

1. Is your remuneration comparable to the market?

[ ] Yes [ ] No
2. Do you feel that you were provided adequate resources to execute your job
responsibilities successfully?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
3. Is there a lack of communication between the employer and employees?
[ ] Yes [ ] No

4. Rate your level of satisfaction on the parameters mentioned below:

Parameters Dissatisfied Mildly Undecided Satisfied Highly

dissatisfied satisfied
Satisfaction
level with
your work life
in HNI
The perks and
benefits
provided by
HNI
Satisfaction
level from the
relationship
with Seniors
Satisfaction
level from the
 relationship
with Peers
Self

5. Rate the factors given below on how they affect the attrition on the given scale:
Factors leading to Least Less Neutral Important Very
attrition important important important
Insufficient salary
Job description
Overstress from
work
Loss of trust and
confidence in
seniors
Lack of proper
guidance
Career growth and
development
opportunity
Less cooperation
among colleagues
Less value and
recognition
Higher education
Working hours
No personal life
Insufficient leaves
or holidays
Physical strain
Transportation

6. Rank the areas given below which are impacted due to employee turnover in HNI.

Areas Unaffected Mildly Undecided Affected Highly affected

unaffected
Higher recruiting
cost
Higher training
cost
Lost productivity
Lost customer
Employee
Morale
Lower
Profitability
Service quality
Additional
turnover
Weakened
mentoring and
peer coaching
Lost sales
prospects
Lost
organizational
knowledge
More stress

7. Rate the effectiveness of your supervisor in maintaining a good rapport between the staff and

its employees?

Parameter Highly Inefficient Neutral Efficient Highly

inefficient Efficient
Effectiveness