A hospitality industry

case study: The

impact of Absenteeism
on hotel industry

Research
Proposal

Chapter 1:
Nature and
Background of
the study

Introduction
Absenteeism is defined as a position not
being filled by a worker, this excludes leave.
Absenteeism is caused by employee
turnover and poor job satisfaction there are
many reasons for this, such as management,
work environment, work relate stress and
factors dependent on the individual.

Factors affecting employee

turnover
External factors
Employment brand
Candidate behaviours
Candidate skills
Job fit

Internal Factors
Recognition
Training & development
Performance management
Communication
Manager quality
compensation

Measurement of Labour
Turnover Rate
Separation Method:

Flux Method:

Replacement Method:

Types of employee turnover and

retention

Statement of the
problem
Maximizing profits while satisfying the
customer needs in a competitive
environment is the challenge of
hospitality industry.
The hotel made tremendous effort to
improve the service quality through
recruitment of potential staff and
training and still continue to enhance
their performance through human
motivation and training.

Background of the
problem
Absenteeism comprises different effects on a hotels
revenue and its performance. These affects include:
1. Over employment
2. Underutilisation of staff
3. Loss of goodwill
4. Increased risk in terms of penalties, poor service
and loss of customers

The problem that needs to be addressed is to

calculate the actual effect of absenteeism on a hotel
and to identify what percentage of absenteeism is
related to the staff compatibility with his/her
environment.

Rationale of the study

To identify the causes of the high rate of
absenteeism at hotels in Singapore
To identify the alternative solutions which can
alleviate absenteeism at hotels in Singapore
To analyse the losses suffered by hotels due to
absenteeism
To ascertain the absenteeism at different levels of
the hotels hierarchy

Research Question

A hospitality
industry case
study: The impact
of Absenteeism
on hotel industry

Hypothesis
The hypothesis would be as follows:
Hypothesis 1: Absenteeism rate in hotel
affects their revenue (Absenteeism rate being
the dependent variable)
Hypothesis 2: Motivation and personal
circumstances lead to high rate of
absenteeism (Motivation and personal
circumstances being the independent variable)

Chapter 2:
Literature Review

Prior Research
Following prior research on impact of absenteeism in hotel industry will
be reviewed:
Employee turnover and absenteeism in a workforce as a factor of
recruitment, J.D. De Villiers dated 10th November 2011
Employee Turnover in the hospitality Industry, by Daniel Kysilka, Ph.D
and Nagy Csaba, Ph.D
A model for costing Absenteeism in hotels, Venkat Chandrasekar and
Ronald F. Cichy, published in Hospitality Review Volume 8 Issue 2 Artilce 5
Internal Marketing Practices and Employees Turnover Intentions In
Tourism and Leisure hotels, Cheng Ping Chang & Wel Chen Chang,
Associate professor, Institute of technological and vocational education and
human resource development, Southern Taiwan University, Taiwan
A hospitality industry case study: The impact of workers absenteeism
at the Vineyard hotel and spa western Cape, Tana Guinsberg & Mohamed
Sayeed Bayat, published in Singapore journal of business economics and
management studies Vol 1 No. 3 2012

RESEARCH 1: Employee turnover and absenteeism in a

workforce as a factor of recruitment, J.D. De Villiers dated 10th
November 2011

Main Findings:
Absenteeism is related to the events
occurred in the organisation during work.
Cost of absenteeism are the cost of
training / retraining / hiring a worker to
fill the position and the cost of
production loss, if any.

RESEARCH 2: Employee Turnover in the hospitality Industry,

by Daniel Kysilka, Ph.D and Nagy Csaba, Ph.D

Main Findings:
Managers try to build employee friendly work
environment
There is substantial relationship between job
satisfaction and job turnover
Pay and welfare play significant position in
human resource management in hospitality
industry

RESEARCH 3: A model for costing Absenteeism in hotels, Venkat

Chandrasekar and Ronald F. Cichy, published in Hospitality Review
Volume 8 Issue 2 Artilce 5

Main Findings:
Absenteeism is not a problem of length,
but of frequency
Where, Frequency rate = (Total number of
times in which the leave was availed)/(Total
number of man-days schedule to work) * 100

Saturday is the highest absentee day

closely followed by Monday, Friday and
Sunday though these days require
personnel to handle peak demand

RESEARCH 4: Internal Marketing Practices and Employees Turnover Intentions In

Tourism and Leisure hotels, Cheng Ping Chang & Wel Chen Chang, Associate
professor, Institute of technological and vocational education and human resource
development, Southern Taiwan University, Taiwan

Main Findings:
Human is the most important resource
in the service industry.
It is necessary to keep employee / staff
motivated to improve revenue growth
rate.

RESEARCH 5: A hospitality industry case study: The impact of workers

absenteeism at the Vineyard hotel and spa western Cape, Tana Guinsberg &
Mohamed Sayeed Bayat, published in Singapore journal of business economics and
management studies Vol 1 No. 3 2012

Main Findings:
Absenteeism is seen as the biggest
cause of lost time and decreased
productivity in organisations.
It can generate direct financial costs as
well as indirect costs, such as reduced
productivity, work done by less
experienced and over-worked staff, and
the loss of customers

Related Literature
Effect of recruitment on employee turnover and
absenteeism
Cost implication of Absenteeism and employee turnover
Available models, tools and techniques such as Markov
chains model, Simulations models, Optimisation models,
system dynamic models, stochastic network models and
flexibility models, Chi Square model.
Motivation theories
Hotel industry and importance of quality service in hotel
industry

Chapter 3:
Methodology

Research Methodology
Both qualitative and quantitative
research method will be used.
Qualitative research method will be
Field Notes
Interviews
Analysis of documents and materials
available

Questionnaire
Statistical and mathematical
approaches

Questionnaire
Content, phrasing and structuring of
questions will be done as per the
requirement of research problem.
The main advantage of using
questionnaire is that it allow users to
complete the questionnaire at their own
convenience.
Disadvantage being the low response
rate and it could be time consuming.

Population
The staff population included staff
employed in all four categories of hotels,
namely 5 - star hotels, 4 - start hotels, 3 star hotels and other such as resorts,
guest house and below 3 star category
Allocated to the different departments of
hotels in Singapore.
The total size of the population was 270
hotels.

Sampling Method
The population can serve as a
sample for study.
All category of staff and workforce
are included in this study.
The respondents were hotel staff and
work force in different hotels of
Singapore
A total of 270 questionnaire is to be
distributed.

How the data is collected

A self-report method, using a structured
questionnaire, was applied.
A questionnaire was selected because it was
easy to administer. Mangers will be requested to
distribute it in their respective units. It was
relatively inexpensive because no postage costs
is involved. The respondents can complete the
questionnaires in their spare time.
Respondents were more likely to provide honest
answers because each one could complete the
questionnaire in private. This was of particular
importance because of the sensitive nature of
absenteeism in the workplace.

Research Design
This research involved the systematic collection of
numerical information, and the analysis of the
information by using statistical procedures.
Quantitative research is characterised by deductive
reasoning, objectivity, the use of a structured
instrument, and statistical data analysis procedures.
This study identified the impact of absenteeism on
hotel revenue.
Recommendations were formulated concerning how
absenteeism could be reduced among nurses.

Statistical Test
Following statistical test is likely to
validate the research report:
Chi Square Test
One Way Anova and KMO
Correlation and Regression Analysis

Chapter 4:
Analysis of
Data

Analysis
All the returned questionnaires will be coded into a
computer for Quantitative data analysis to be
performed by using a statistician approach.
The statistical tests performed included the
frequencies of responses, factor analysis and the Chisquare test of association.
Application of scientific measures to enhance the
external validity of the study and to ensure that
ethical principles were being adhered to.
The research findings are presented with the help of
graphs and diagrams.