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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 4
April 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 91
Human Resource Turnover: A Comprehensive Desk Review
on the Causes, Consequences and Strategies
Belayneh Bogale Zewdie (BA, MPMP)
Lecturer, Department of Public Administration and Development Management, College of
Business and Economics, Dilla University, P.O. Box 419, Dilla, SNNPRS, Ethiopia
E-mail: belaybog@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Although much has been studied on human
resource management in general and
employees’ turnover in particle, most of the
studies focused on the negative
consequences of employee turnover, but
little study have been conducted to
systematically investigate the concept from
its root causes up to various strategies
which can be used by managers to curb
turnover. Understanding this problem this
article examines the causes, effects,
measures and theories of employee turnover.
Moreover, By way of comprehensive desk
review, the paper attempts to point out some
strategies to tackle the problem of human
resource turnover so as to enhance
organizations productivity and performance.
Key Words: Human resource, employee,
turnover, causes, consequences, strategies.
1. INTRODUCTION
Employee turnover is a cause for concern
when the best and brightest employees are
leaving organizations for another, and there
may be something that could be done to
retain those employees. Turnover is costly
for organizations. Direct costs such as
recruitment, selection, and training of new
employees, as well as indirect costs, such as
stress on remaining workers, reduced
productivity, and low morale for
organizations, can cost as much as two
year’s pay and benefits (Ramlall, 2004).
Although, there is no standard framework
for understanding the employees turnover
process as whole, a wide range of factors
have been found useful in interpreting
employee turnover. Hence having an all
encompassing understanding of human
resource turnover is vial, more especially,
the causes or determinants of employee
turnover, consequences and strategies that
Page 2 of 23
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 4
April 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 92
managers can apply to minimize turnover
are the core ones. It is generally accepted
that of all resources of organization, human
resource (HR) is the most critical one that
makes a difference in an organization’s
performance. For employees to work for an
organization with interest and commitment,
it is true that organizations should place an
effective HR management system in
practice. According to Martin (2011),
among other HR activities reducing
employee turnover through retention
practices is an area of great interest to
employers who depend on a highly skilled
workforce.
This comprehensive literature review
includes the meaning, nature and measures
of turnover; the causes and consequences of
turnover; and strategies that are
recommended to be used by managers so as
to tackle turnover.
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE REVIEW
The general objective of the review is to
systematically outline causes, consequences
and strategies of human resource turnover.
More specifically:
To look into the definition, concepts
and measures of turnover;
To outline the major causes and
effects of human resource turnover;
To critically examine different
theories explaining the voluntary
turnover process;
To present strategies that can be used
to reduce human resource turnover.
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
By way of comprehensive desk review
(relays on secondary sources) this article
tired to portray the full-fledged picture of
human resource turnover. Accordingly, the
article utilized different publications on
academic and science journals. In addition,
the author reviewed books written by
different scholars in the area. The data
collected from the aforementioned sources is
then analyzed and interpreted through
narration.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Definitions and Measures of
Turnover
It is generally accepted that understanding
what employee turnover exactly is and
knowing the techniques of measurement
should be the first step before any turnover
related inquiry. Accordingly, the view of
deferent scholars on definition and measures
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Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 4
April 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 93
of employee turnover are discussed as
follows.
A) Definitions and Concepts of Turnover
Robbins (2003) defines turnover as the
voluntary and involuntary permanent
withdrawal from an organization, and a high
turnover rate results in increased recruiting,
selection, and training costs. In an
organizational context, turnover can be
defined as the termination of an employee’s
intra-organizational career trajectory, which
is composed of a sequence of job changes
from job entry to exit (Zhao and Zhou,
2008). Employee turnover could refer to a
situation whereby employees exit the
organization voluntarily for various reasons,
and thereby affecting the organization
negatively in terms of costs and the capacity
to deliver the minimum required services.
In words of Price (2001) employee turnover
.... is individual movement across the
membership boundary of an
organization[...] The concept
“individual” refers to the employees
within an organization and the notion
of movement can be interpreted either
as an accession or a separation of the
company. In turnover literature,
authors also used other labels for
turnover, such as quits, attrition, exits,
mobility, migration or succession
(Price, 2001:600).
Beam (2009) also defined employee
turnover as a ratio-comparison of the
number of employees a company must
replace in a given time period to the average
number of total employees. A huge concern
to most companies, employee turnover is a
costly expense especially in lower paying
job roles, for which the employee turnover
rate is highest. Companies take a deep
interest in their employee turnover rate
because it is a costly part of doing business
(Beam, 2009).
Companies incur direct and indirect
expenses, which include the cost of
advertising, headhunting fees, human
resource costs, loss of productivity, new hire
training, and customer retention, every time
they have to replace an employee. These
expenses can add up to anywhere from 30 to
200 percent of a single employee's annual
wages or salary, depending on the industry
and the job role being filled. While lower
paying job roles experience an overall
higher average of employee turnover, they
tend to cost companies less per replacement
employee than do higher paying job roles
