CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF STAFFS services had become a matter of concern.

TURNOVER High cost and time overruns, and poor

IN ETHIOPIAN ROADS quality of project outputs are a result of poor
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT performance of supervision services mainly
SUPERVISION SECTOR due to lack of leadership and managerial
Tadele Amsalu qualities, lack of distinct managing
(BSc in Civil Engineering) functions, high turnover, conflict of interest,
Practicing Professional Highway Engineer - fraud and corrupt practices, unfair advantage
STADIA Engineering Works Consultant Plc., and competition among supervision firms,
Ethiopia and adversarial relationship among parties.
Employee turnover has become one of the
1. INTRODUCTION most imperative problems in the sector.
Extremely huge demand in part-time works
According to a study by Ethiopian
has left the employees with huge
Economic Association (2006/7),
opportunities to work on several projects
construction activities have continued to
and to several companies at same
flourish in Ethiopia in the last few years,
time.Currently, most of these road projects
mainly due to the huge infrastructure
supervision staffs are leaving projects and
projects undergoing by government
organizations prematurely due to unknown
including major road, telecom, and power,
reasons. Though the Ethiopian Roads
condominium house building, real estate
Authority through its modernization
development, growing construction works
program has started to implement measures
due to increased investment in social,
to control this high staff turnover, the causes
manufacturing, and service sectors in the
and effects of the supervision staffs turnover
country. Road construction is the major sub-
are not adequately dealt with. Hence, this
sector which takes the lion’s share of
study was opt to identify major causes of
construction expenditure on the construction
project supervision staffs turnover and its
industry. In order to effectively tackle
effect on the performance of road projects
poverty, the improvement of infrastructure
that will help in developing
mainly road transportation sector has
feasiblesupervision staffs retention strategies
become one of the major objectives of the
within the road construction projects in
Ethiopian government since the mid-1990.
Ethiopia.Consequently, this study attempted
The Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA),
to answer the following basic questions:
being delegated by the Ethiopian
Government launched a Road Sector 1) What are the major factorscontributing
Development Program (RSDP) to administer for staffs’ turnover in road construction
implementation of the Growth & project supervision sector?
Transformation Plan (GTP) on the road 2) What are the effects of supervision staffs’
transportation sector. turnover on road projects?
3) What areas of improvements could be
According to Ethiopian Roads Authority
proposed as a retention plan to reduce
(ERA), Modernization Document for
project supervision staffs turnover?
Contract Management Implementation
(2014), in spite of the fact that the road
sector has made tremendous achievement in
the past few decades in Ethiopia, declining
in the quality and efficiency of consultancy

1
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Employee Turnover
In today’s competitive and dynamic
business world, managing human resource is
considered to be an integral part of any
organization as it defines the overall
success. It is often believed that an
organization is only as good as its people
(Templer & Cawsey, 1999). Every
organization strives to have high
productivity, lesser turnovers and maximum
profitability.
Employee turnover is the rotation of workers
around the labor market, between firms, jobs
and occupations, and between the states of
employment and unemployment (Abassi &
Hollman, 2000).
Types of Turnover
Heneman and Judge (2009) have described
four types of employee turnover under two
categories: voluntary being initiated by the
employee, or involuntary, being initiated by
the organization.
Involuntary turnoverare because of the
decision of management (e.g. dismissal for
gross misconduct),which is further divided
into Discharge Turnover aimed at an
individual employee, due to discipline
and/or job performance problems and
Downsizing Turnoveroccurring as part of an
organizational restructuring or cost-
reduction program to improve organizational
effectiveness and increase shareholder
value.
Voluntary turnoverare those caused by the
employee out of his/ her own choice (e.g. to
take job in other organization for better
salary) which is also further distinguished
into Functional turnoversthe resignation of
substandard performers and Dysfunctional
turnovers refer to the exit of effective
performers i.e. is of greatest concern to the
management due to its negative impact on
the organization’s general performance.
Dysfunctional turnover could be further
classified into avoidable turnover (caused
by lower compensation, poor working
condition, etc.) and unavoidable turnovers
(like family moves, serious illness, death,
etc.) over which the organization has little or
no influence (Taylor, 1998).
2.2 Employee Retention
The Harvard Business Essentials (2002)
defined retention as the converse of turnover
being voluntary and involuntary. Retention
is a voluntary move by an organization to
create an environment which engages
employees for long term (Chaminade,
2007). The main purpose of retention is to
prevent the loss of competent employees
from the organization as this could have
adverse effect on productivity and service
delivery. However, retention of high
performing employees has become more
challenging for managers as this category of
employees frequently move from one job to
another as they are being attracted by more
than one organization at a time.
On the other hand, many scholars underline
that there are sensible reasons why a certain
level of staff turnover should be encouraged.
When turnover is too low, fresh blood and
new ideas are lacking and an organization
can quickly find itself turning into an ageing
machine, unable to cope with change. Some
staff turnover has benefits, and can help
increase productivity by ensuring better
matches between jobs and workers,
eliminates low performers, as well as
offering more flexibility to promote and
develop valued staff (Loquercio et al.,
2006).
2.3 Determinants of Employee
Turnover
Unfortunately, identifying why employees
voluntarily leave is easier said than done.
People who are dissatisfied with their jobs
2
are more likely to leave, but the sources of
dissatisfaction are many and varied. The
survey data collected from 262 U.S.
organizations revealed the five top reasons
high commitment/top-performing employees
gave for leaving (ranked from high to low)
were pay, promotional opportunities, work
life balance, career development, and health
care benefits. (Dessler, 2013).
In order to produce human resource plans
that address labor turnover problems,
organizations need to differentiate between
‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors. The former relate
to factors within the organization (e.g. poor
line management, inadequate career
opportunities, job insecurity, dissatisfaction
with pay or hours of work) that weaken the
psychological link between an individual
and their employer (IRS, 2001a). Once an
individual has decided to look for another
job they are likely to base their decision on
‘pull’ factors, i.e. the attractions of the new
job or organization in relation to their
existing circumstances.
2.4 Determinants of Employee
Retention
Employee retention and employee turnover
are two faces of a coin, giving emphasis that
both concepts are inseparable and each from
the point of view of research is impractical
to study in isolation or independently. The
main purpose of retention is to prevent the
loss of competent employees from the
organization as this could have adverse
effect on productivity and service delivery
(Samuel & Chipunza, 2009). Williams,
(2000) stated that ‘today’s high performers
are like frogs in a wheelbarrow: they can
jump out at any time’.
The study by Hausknecht (2008) revealed
that job satisfaction, extrinsic rewards,
constituent attachments, organizational
commitment, and organizational prestige
were the most frequently mentioned reasons
for staying. Advancement opportunities and
organizational prestige were more common
reasons for staying among high performers,
and extrinsic reward was more common
among low performers.The use of financial
inducements has been recognized as
extremely important in retaining employees
and it has been considered an important
reward to motivate the behavior of
employees (Brewer, 1996).
2.5 Impacts of Employee Turnover
Since turnover warrants heavy replacements
and training expenses, organizations are now
recognizing employee retention as an
important issue that merits strategic
attention (Glen, 2006). Besides, high levels
of employee turnover lead to low
performance and ineffectiveness in
organizations, and result in a huge number
of costs and negative outcomes (Ingersoll &
Smith, 2003). Curtis and Wright (2001)
opined that high turnover can damage
quality and customer service which provide
the basis for competitive advantage, thereby
inhibiting business growth. Turnover often
ends up in valuable talent moving to
competing entities (Stovel & Bontis, 2002).
Turnover is not only destructive to
organizations, it is also costly. Every time an
employee quits, a replacement must be
recruited, selected, trained and permitted
time on the job to gain experience. Bliss
(2007) and Sutherland (2004) contend that
organizations lost productivity, social capital
and suffer customer defection when a
productive employee quits. Knowledge,
skills and contacts that a departing employee
takes out of the organization constitutes a
huge loss. These attributes are, in most
cases, lost to a competitor organization that
may use this to gain competitive advantage.
As per a study by Justin (2013), the major
effects of employee turnover in the
construction industry are increased work
load;training and development cost; low
3
morale; lower productivity; management health
frustration; customer service; poor condition,
family issues,
performance; and costs. weather
2.6 Conceptual Framework condition,
geographic
As depicted on the various literatures review locations, etc.)
discussed under this chapter, staff turnover
is multidimensional and that no single factor
Figure: Formulated Conceptual Framework
would cause it. Thus, analysis of
(Source: Literature Review)
relationship between the various potential
causes of staff turnover i.e. independent 3. RESEARCH METHODS
variables that would instigate undesirable
This research adopted descriptive type of
employee turnover and its subsequent
research method to gather information about
effects i.e. the dependent variable is
the prevailing causes of project staffs
formulated under figure below which shall
turnover on road projects and explanatory
be tested within the scope of this study
research method to analyze the effects of
context.
project staffs turnover on road projects
performance. Furthermore, the study used
CAUSES EFFECTS
Compensation both qualitative approach to identify the
• Pay Satisfaction current major causes of project supervision
• Lack of Fringe Performance: staffs turnover and quantitative approachwas
Benefits • Poor also applied to analyze the trend of staffs
Job Context Performance
turnover causes and its effect in the
• Job Satisfaction STAFF • Lowered
Ethiopian road construction.
• Job Security TURNOVER Productivity
Job Opportunity Employee The target population of this research refers
• Perceived Behavior: to project staffs who are currently engaged
Alternative • Low Morale
Employment
on road projects that are being implemented
of staffs by the Ethiopian Roads Authority
Opportunity
• Increased
Career throughout the country. Accordingly, as per
work load
Development the latest ERA database published on
• Career Training and February 09, 2018 (http://www.era.gov.et),
Promotion development
cost
there are 65 ongoing road construction
Opportunity
Organizational projects that would make the target
Damaged population 780 project staffs.The
Commitment
relationship
Work
with corresponding sample size recommended by
Environment Saunders (1959) at a 95 confidence level
stakeholders
• Work-Home and 5% margin of error is 278 accounting
Life Balance
• Influence of co-
35.6% of the target population which is
workers representative enough to generalize the
• Non-Conducive characteristics being observed.The study
work used stratified random sampling techniques
relationship to achieve representation of the respondents
• Relationship on the basis of categories of staff’s as per
with Supervisor
• Unavoidable
their engagement on projects.
conditions (such

4
Primary data was collected through a self-
administered questionnaire of 35 questions
which are assessed by using a 1-5 Likert
scale to understand respondents’ degree of
agreement with each statement. Data’s
obtained through these questionnaires was
coded and analyzed using statistical package
for the social science software (SPSS), thus
descriptive statistics of frequency,
percentage, mode were applied to gather
information about the prevailing major
causes of project staffs turnover on road
projects and inferential statistics of bivariate
analysis and multiple logistic regression
were applied to check association of
independent variables with the dependent
variable.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
From the expected 278 sample size, a total
of 246 project supervision staffs filled and
returned the questionnaire making the
response rate of 88.5%., it is believed that
the data obtained from the respondents will
be sufficient enough to represent the study
population and come up with realistic
findings.
4.1 Descriptive Analysis on Causes of
Project Staffs Turnover
The summary of analysis and interpretation
of the data gathered from the respondents
are presented below:
 Most of project staffs respondents
183(74.4%) were not comfortably
satisfied with their current salary/pay
while majority of them 211(85.8%)
believe that attractive salary plays a
major driving role in their decision either
to stay or leave their job.
 A large number of project staffs
respondents 185(75.2%) agreed that they
can easily get another job if they leave
their job either voluntarily or involuntary
and 208(84.6%) of them express their
intention to quit their job due to
perceived better conditions being offered
by other companies.
 Regarding to the influence of co-
workers, 143(58.2%) of
respondentsagreed that the perception of
their co-workers significantly influence
their attitude towards their employers
and 156(63.4%) of the respondents’
agreed that commitments are affected by
sudden resignation of their co-workers.
 Respondents agreed on desire for further
studies or upgrading of educational
backgrounds accounts 201(81.8%),
agreed on desire to be self-employed
203(82.5%), closer care to their family
195(79.4%) and continuous illness or
deteriorating health conditions
209(84.9%) play major driver roles in
their decision to quit or stay their jobs.
 On the other hand, majority of the
respondents, 224(91%) believe that they
are satisfied with their current job aspect
and 202(82%) of them felt that they are
secured and comfortable with the
existing working environment at their
job. Majority of the study group (94.3%)
agreed that good working environment
has a major driving role that would make
one to either stay or leave on his/her
current job.
 Majority of the respondents 181(73.6%)
somehow indicated their agreement on
the existing balance between work and
personal life at their current job.
Importance of giving sufficient home
life time while out-stationed due to work
on projects was agreed by majority of
the respondents i.e. 209(85%). In line
with this, most of the study group
(61.4%) agreed that an imbalance
between work and home life plays a
major driving role on one’s decision to
either leave or stay on his/her current
job.
5
 4.2Summary of Major Causes of  177(72%) of the respondents felt that
Staff Turnover resignation of co-workers created
significant impact on their morale at
On the basis of descriptive analysis of data their current job.
gathered through distributed questionnaires,
factors causing project supervision staffs  182(74%) of the study group indicated
turnover were arranged by the study group that it requires extra cost and time to
from the most significant reason to the lesser train/develop and acquaint new
significant reasons as presented below. replacement staffs at their project.
 More than two third of the respondents
Percentage 184(75%) reflected that productivity
becomes lowered during the time
Unconducive work… 1.50% elapsed to acquaint new comers with the
Due to unavoidable… 2.60% job at their project.
Due to lack of career… 3.00%  Majority of the study group 206(84%)
Due to geographic… 3.20%
faced increased workload to cover up
jobs left by resigned co-workers at their
Due to lack of fringe… 3.20%
project.
Due to lack of job security 3.80%

Due to lack of… 5.40%

4.4 Summary of Major Effects of
Due to easily available… 8.20%
Staff Turnover
Due to dissatisfaction of the… 10.40%
In this regard, effects of project staffs
Due to unbalanced work and… 12.00%
turnover were arranged by the study group
Due to influence of resigned… 15.40% from the most significant effect to the
To get better pay/salary lessersignificant effects as presented below.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Percentage
Figure: Major Reasons /factors Contributed for Frustration of project
4.10%
Project Staffs Resignation according to their staffs due to…
Significance.Source: Own survey, April 2018 6.50%
4.3 Descriptive Analysis on Effects Incurred extra
8.90%
of Staff Turnover training and…
Damaged
12.20%
Descriptive analysis and interpretation of the relationship with…
findings with regards to effects of staff Lowered
17.90%
productivity of…
turnover on the basis of data gathered Increased workload
through the distribution of questionnaires 18.70%
due to vacated jobs
are summarized below: Resulted poor
31.70%
performance of…
 Majority of the respondents, 226(92%)
agreed that turnover of project staffs 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
created significant impact on the project Figure:Major Effects of Project Staffs
performance i.e. quality, cost, and time Turnover according to their Significance.
of projects. Source: Own survey, April 2018

6

4.5 Analytical Association of Causes
of Staff Turnover with its Effects
Association between dependent and
independent variables was checked
analytically using bivariate analysis and
multiple logistic regressions as shown
below. Hence, the following factors were
found to be statistically and significantly
associated with effects of staffs’ turnover at
p-value of < = 0.05:
• Project staffs who were not satisfied
with their salary/pay were 1.9 times
more likely to exert effects of staff
turnover as compared with those
satisfied with theirsalary [AOR=1.9,
95CI:1.23-4.67].
• Similarly those project staffs who are
not satisfied with their job were 1.8
times more likely to exert effects of
staff turnover as compared with those
who are satisfied with their job
[AOR=1.8, 95%CI:1.21, 3.43].
• Regarding to the perceived alternative
of employment opportunity, those
staffs with perceived alternative job
opportunity were 2.1 times more likely
to exert effects of staff’s turnover as
compared with those without having
perceived alternative job opportunity
[AOR=2.1, 95CI:1.16-3.72].
• Influence of co-workers is also found
to be one of the most significant factor
which exert major effect on staffs
turnover with p-value of 0.000: those
project staffs who were agreed about
the presence of influence of co-worker
were 2.9 times more likely to exert
effects of staff’s turnover as compared
with their counter parts [AOR=2.9,
95CI:1.69-4.93].
• Closer care to family (children,
parents, spouse, relatives, etc.) plays a
major driver role in decision to quit the
job: in this study those project staffs
who needed closer care to their
families were 1.6 times more likely to
exert effects on staffs turnover as
compared with those who were not in
needy of closer care to their family
[AOR=1.6, 95CI:1.32-4.32].
• Lack of fringe benefits, work-home
life balance, and desire to further
studies were observed to be
statistically significant at p-value of =
0.2 in the bivariate analysis while
being insignificant at p- value = 0.05
in the multiple logistic regression.
5. CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusions
On the basis of the research objectives
derived from research questions, findings
and subsequent interpretation, the following
conclusions are madewith regards to major
causes of project supervision staffs turnover:
• The influence of co-workers plays a
detrimental effect on other project
staffs perception towards their
employers and result with
dissatisfaction leading to resignation.
• There exists highly perceived
alternative employment opportunity
with “better conditions” offered by
other companies which resulted ease
of voluntarily job quitting.
• The prevailing compensation system
such as pay/salary offered to the
ongoing project supervision staffs is
not mostly attractive. Hence, most of
the project supervision staffs leave
projects looking for better offers.
• The project supervision staffs are
largely satisfied with their job and
job security exists adequately.
However, it was noted that job
satisfaction would be among the
7
 main sources of staff turnover when
perceived negatively.
• Closer care to family (children,
parents, spouse, relatives, etc.) was
observed to be another factor which
is both statistically and significantly
associated with effects of project
supervision staff turnover. Thus,
there should always be a good
balance between work and personal
life of the project supervision staffs
while out-stationed due to work on
projects.
In a similar manner, the following
conclusions are also drawnwith regards
to effects of project supervision staffs
turnover:
• The prevailing turnover of project
supervision staffs created significant
impact on the project performance
i.e. quality, cost, and time of
projects.
• Project supervision staffs resignation
has also caused undesirably
increased workload on the remaining
project staffs due to extra efforts to
bridge vacated job gaps.
• Project supervision staffs turnover
has also resulted lowered
productivity during the time elapsed
to acquaint new comers with the job.
• Project supervision staffs turnover
has also resulted with extra training
and development costs during
replacing the resigned project staffs.
• Resignation of co-workers created
significant impact on the morale of
remaining project supervision staffs
and resulted frustration.
5.2 Recommendations
In light of the above conclusions, the
following recommendations considered
helpful to reduce the prevailing project
supervision staffs turnover in road projects
being implemented by Ethiopian Roads
Authorityand minimize its undesirable
negative impacts:
• As the project supervision staffs are
not offered with satisfactory salaries,
these staffs still will be dissatisfied
and keep on hunting for new jobs
that pay them relatively well. In
order to resolve this problem, the
supervision consultancy fee should
be increased and allow a room to
provide competitive salaries that
would be satisfying to project
supervision staffs and result with the
desired project staffs’ stability. In
this regard, ERA, as a financier and
client, should devise a mechanism to
avoid abnormally low pricing of
supervision consultancy
fees.Besides, Ethiopian Consultants
and Architects Association,
Ethiopian Civil Engineers
Association, etc. should work in
collaboration towards curbing
abnormal low pricing.
• The prevailing highly perceived
alternative employment opportunity
due to the numerous road projects
being implemented and influence of
co-workers resulted with ease of
voluntarily job quitting are the major
causes of the prevailing project
supervision staffs turnover. As long
as there is such perceived better
employment opportunity among the
project supervision staffs and being
influenced by resigned co-workers,
these staffs will always tend to quit
the project engagement prematurely
and keep on jumping from one
8
 project to another. In order to curb
this problem, the supervision
consultant staffs should be
encouraged to stay longer on projects
till completion of projects through
proper motivational benefit schemes
such as promotions with clear
succession/upgrading plan which
will result more number of qualified
professionals to respective project
supervision job categories
minimizing alternative job
opportunities and subsequent
jumping from one project to another.
Besides, introduction of proper
controlling mechanism of such
premature job quitting i.e.
unjustifiable resignation from current
assignment as a result of perceived
alternative job opportunity with
transparent and consistent penalty.
• As the ongoing road projects are
located along the four corners of the
country and most of the project
supervision staffs are married with
subsequent family responsibilities, it
is prudent to make a provision that
would assure good balance between
work and personal life of the project
supervision staffs while out-stationed
due to work on such projects.
However, the prevailing road
implementation follows strict
attendance of project supervision
staffs to reside on projects from
commencement to completion
disregarding the balance between
work and home life causing
difficulty to undertake family
responsibilities rationallywhich has
become a prevalent major cause of
project staffs turnover. Therefore, an
introduction of home life time at
reasonable interval of staying on a
project with varying work schedules
among project employees would
minimize the turnover rate in this
regard.
• Though most of the project
supervision staffs are largely
satisfied with their job, it was noted
that job satisfaction is one of the
major causes of staff turnover when
perceived negatively being
analytically very significantly
associated factor. As job satisfaction
is principally an intrinsic
motivational factor, its presence will
motivate project staffs to perform
their duties well and be committed to
their project job, as well as the
organization. Thus, the project
supervision work itself should be
meaningful, interesting and
challenging for the staffs to perform
and get motivated and such exercise
should be well recognized with
meaningful valance.
• As construction of roads entails huge
capital which is a very
scarceresource in the case of
Ethiopia, the prevailing turnover of
project supervision staffs if not
timely addressed by all concerned
bodies, it will result significant
impact on the project’s performance
i.e. quality, cost, and time of projects
and also lowers productivity. The
magnitude of such impacts is very
significant that would jeopardize
value for money on such huge
investments.
• If the project supervision staffs
turnover rate is not addressed in
time, it would keep on causing
undesirable increased workload and
frustration on the morale ofproject
staffs in particular and subsequent
stakeholders at large. Project
Objectives become project team
culture when it is a shared norm and
value of the supervision staffs who
9
work along. Motivating project
supervision staffs to share the project
vision and enable them perform at
high levels will be tough as long as
the staff turnover rate is high and
project team members are vanishing
all around them.

10