Imperial Hotel Case: Strategies to Reduce High Employee Turnover

This case study examines the high employee turnover rate at the Imperial Hotel in London, which is impacting customer service, employee morale, and overall productivity. The study identifies factors contributing to the high turnover, including poor work culture, aggressive management, inflexible working hours, lack of training, and low wages. It analyzes the costs associated with employee turnover, such as pre-departure expenses, recruitment costs, training expenses, and lost productivity. The study suggests several treatment strategies, including improving the quality of service, boosting staff morale through appreciation and incentives, and enhancing operational efficiency and productivity through technological upgrades and strategic planning. The role of HR in monitoring turnover levels and implementing corrective measures is emphasized, noting that while managing turnover is possible, completely eliminating it may be unachievable due to the nature of the industry.

Running head: A CASE STUDY ON: HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AT IMPERIAL
HOTEL
A CASE STUDY ON: HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER AT IMPERIAL
HOTEL
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Introduction
The Imperial Hotel is among of the earliest and famous hotels in the whole UK. It is
situated at the centre location of London’s West End. The hotel serves tourists and international
business guests who have high expectation of facilities and services from the Imperial
community. The hotel is owned and managed by Star Hotels. In UK, 24 4-star hotels are owned
by the group of Star Hotels. The whole structure of the hotel consists of 500 lavish bedrooms,
facilities of conference for more than 1,000 people, swimming pool, 4 restaurant, 12 massive
conference rooms and 3 bars. The total calculated employees are around 450 (300 full-time and
part-time), 6 HOD with respect to Guest Services & Concierge; Housekeeping; Reception and
Front Department; Training; Food and Beverage; and Human Resources.
Currently, few problems have been observed to bother the smooth continuation of the
hotel’s business. Among them, the rate of employee turnover in all department was calculated to
be very high, that is, 80% a year. The following study aims to provide deep-insights on resolving
the issue of high turnover through proper planning of a strategy on operational, managerial and
business aspects to the hotel.
Discussion
Background
Employee turnover is the rate that indicates the percentage of employees leaving an
organization with respect to the average number of current employees in the organization while
the report is being stated. In UK, hotels and leisure industry are the sectors with highest scope of
staff turnover percentage. According to a survey by CIPD (2012), the percentage was calculated
to be 41%. The high rate of staff turnover has always been a concerning issue in the hospitality

business of UK (Lockwood & Guerrier 2018). A survey once identified that about 74% of
companies in UK has faced negative impacts on their respective performance in business due to
the same problem (Lashley 2014). In the following study, a popular London based hotel,
Imperial Hotel has been identified to be suffering through the same problem of high staff
turnover. Thus, it is essential to study the whole matter and come up with an appropriate solution
to mitigate the problematic scenario.
Identification
Moreover, four reasons such as career change, low wages, outside promotion of company
and low level of career development, are considered to be the primary factors for high staff
turnover in hospitality industry (Iverson and Derry 2014). Employee dissatisfaction is also
among one of the reasons due to poor relationship with the field managers and supervising
individuals. A journal by Leslie (2015) stated that the constant recruitment hardships in the
hospitality and leisure industry in UK due to the shortage in the work market which impacts the
human resources in the future. To all the issues with respect to the high turnover, HR is
considered to be appointed the key responsibility in close monitoring the turnover levels and to
take appropriate steps for discussing the issue to the managerial department and plan for
resistance in the future (Kusluvan et al., 2016).
For treatment of the calculated problems, identification of the reason of the high turnover
is the first step to successful outcome. Imperial hotel had gathered inputs from exit interviews
from the staffs who were ready to leave and also, left. They stated the reasons to be connected to
the poor work culture experience; aggressive supervisory and management methods; inflexible
and vague working hours; lack of proper training; poor wages compared to other scopes; little
opportunities to promotion or bonuses; expensive travelling cost and difficulty to find transport

at night. Few talented and reputed supervisory staff have also stated their reason to be a better
offer from a competitor hotel with better pay, working environment and extra added benefits.
Analysis
Increased levels of employee turnover degrades the high standard and quality of customer
service in an organization and has impacts on organization to the loss of honest customers,
sustainability and revenue (Poulston 2017). While, a well-developed and established employee
leaves, it has serious degradation factors to the industry as the workload of the other member
increases and also, the replacement is still in training period and learning the job. It is also
noticed that the high rate of employee’s resignation from a job directly influences the minds of
other staffs to become depressed and exhausted due to extra workload (Bonn & Forbringer
2012). This scenario often results with the staff having health deterioration and absence from the
workplace for a significant amount of time. According to an article by Hinkin and Tracy (2016),
the major cost implication that relate to the total cost in replacing an employee consists of pre-
departure, recruiting, selecting, training and lastly, lost productivity. There has also been record
statements where a many newly selected individuals have left their jobs within their first month
as the job did not suit their desired outcome. This questions the legitimacy of the selection and
recruitment methods that are being adopted and conducted in the hospitality sectors.
In the following context, Imperial hotel has been facing the same issue of employee
turnover at a rate of 80% which is very high compared to other. As for clarification, the normal
rate of staff turnover is calculated to be 10%, as the lower skilled candidates are replaced by the
highly efficient candidates (Daskin & Tezer 2012). Thus, it is evident that the recorded data of
turnover to staffs of Imperial hotel is extremely high with respect to other hotels. Accordingly,

pressure levels have impacted the staffing budget was around with whooping 35% of sales. The
cost of induction training is also calculated to be non-profitable while customer service and
customer count are both reducing. The impact of the following issue has direct action of loss to
customer satisfaction; negative work culture among the employees as they ask for many sick
leaves and maintain poor attendance due to demotivation; and, inefficient and low quality of
work process by the staff from both front and back-office. The total situation of Imperial hotel is
extremely vulnerable to extended risks in the future, as improvements were given less priority
than replacement.
Treatment
Issues are always needed to be mitigated before it spreads and affects the future scope.
There are certain ways to mitigate a risk after it has been identified, analyzed and checked
(Walmsley 2014). Management officials are responsible to allocate and decide for corrective
measures that will produce better results and less risk vulnerability.
In the following scenario, the increased rate of staff turnover has been a concerning
matter to Imperial hotel group that needs to be resolved as soon as possible. Thus, the first step to
mitigate the problem is to understand an employee’s issues, expectations and requirements
before appointing them to their job life. This enhances employee relationship. Secondly, an
accurate HR policy reflects the requirements of both employees and business. According to Ross
(2014), HR is the most vital thing to solute the problem of high turnover of staffs. However, to
treat the following issue, steps as follows are needed to be conducted.

 Improving quality of service: The management and operations officials are supposed to
be responsible for scrutinizing the current flaws of quality of service. While, it is
important for everyone to contribute to improvement, the calculation for the current
scenario is the vital task. Also, customer suggestions are required to be followed
(Blomme, Tromp and Van Rheede 2018). Hotel staffs must keep in touch with the
customer during their stay and listen to their complaints. A suggestion box will
strategically influence individuals to strengthen the weak spot as suggested by the
customer (Derry 2013). Models such as TQM (Total Quality Management) can be used
for effective calculation to provide better quality service. Ethics are also one of the most
important things that needs to be checked for improvement in quality of services (Cheng
& Brown 2017). Staffs are needed to be well trained and kept under inspection of
supervisors to check their eligibility of meeting the perfect criteria for the respective
Imperial hotel’s culture.
 Staff morale: Staffs, may it be from front office or the back, demand appreciation from
their respective seniors (Lamm & Lo 2015). This needs to be offered in order to increase
the morale development of staffs. Again, to the following vulnerable scenario, the
increase of workload to the staffs due to high staff turnover makes them exhausted. Thus,
incentive plans are very much efficient to increase their interest in work life. The HR
executives have to keep an eye on the following factors with respect to staff. Any
suggestions or complaints are always needed to be prioritized and appropriate reaction is
extremely necessary. Staffs, often compare their own hotel facilities to other competitive
ones, and react to the weak links (Kazlauskaite et al. 2016). Thus, extensive measures
should be taken that will make them feel engaged and special in their line of work at

Imperial. Another notable suggestion is to provide the employees a proper timely
maintained routine. An inflexible schedule (as previously seen) is unfriendly and difficult
to maintain for the staffs. Increased staff morale is equal to increased customer
satisfaction, improvement of work culture and most importantly, low scale of staff
turnover percentage.
 Operational efficiency and productivity: Operations department play a major role in
the hotel industry. They are supposed to enhance the efficiency, productivity and the
quality of the industry through appropriate distribution of their knowledge (Krakaver
2013). To the following context, Imperial hotels are facing major issues to the high
turnover rate to employees. Thus, offers like employee of the month; employee of the
month (Departmental); New-year parties; Payment of colleges by the hotel and more
services are being offered to the employees to make them feel satisfied and respected in
the hotel environment. These offers are subjected to increase the productivity. Also,
technological systems are to be kept under monitoring and should support upgrades.
Operations managers are recommended to conduct benchmark tests to spot the issues and
appoint the management team to handle it. Strategical planning is the next step to
increase the efficiency and productivity. Management team are again responsible to
create such profitable strategies. The results of all the efficiency and productivity by
management and operations are directed to the improvement of sales margin for the
respective hotel.
Conclusion
The task of understanding the behavior of employees and the reasons of staff turnover is
a very tricky task to operate. The purpose of the paper to implement empirical approach in

investigating the high staff turnover scenario at Imperial hotel industry. Finally, few solutions to
the problem has been envisaged that has the possibility to produce the corrective outcome. From
the above described context, the causes for the issue are identified and analyzed for better
clarification. To the remedy of the analyzed issues, the role of HR is observed to be important as
they create a link between different employees in the organization. Proper monitoring and
control is a corrective step to follow while increasing employee’s morale is the most significant
task to be continued. Employees are considered to be valuable assets to the companies. The loss
of each individual means replacement which initiates training procedure for the fresher. The
motivation of the new individual is needed to be consistently high. All of the processes in a
hospitality business are subjected to increase productivity, efficiency with customer satisfaction.
Technology, also needs to be kept under supervision for changes in the future. Sometimes,
however, the possibility of managing high employee turnover is a fact and inevitable. While, the
certain steps can be appointed for increased employee motivation and engagement, it will
however, help the issue, yet stopping the matter is an impossible task. Perhaps, the nature of the
job is considered to be of high-stress for simple handling; or maybe the fact of it being a simple
entry-level job. It is better to work with the issue rather than despite it.

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