BRH606: Defending a Research Project on Turnover at Hilton Hotels

This document presents a defense of a research project focusing on the challenges of employee turnover at Hilton Hotels. It begins with an introduction to the problem of employee turnover, highlighting its cost implications and impact on productivity. The research context is established by providing historical information about Hilton Hotel and Resorts, emphasizing its global presence and the industry-wide challenge of employee turnover. The business problem is articulated as the significant negative impact of employee turnover, including the loss of experienced staff and the costs associated with recruiting and training new employees. The research employs problem-solving theory to identify the root causes of turnover, considering factors such as advancement opportunities, work-life balance, and compensation. The generic decisions and actions that the company is likely to take based on the research findings are outlined, including job redesign, merit-based promotions, and competitive pay. The research seeks to determine the employee turnover rate, identify the most affected employee groups, understand the push and pull factors contributing to turnover, and provide recommendations for minimizing turnover. Finally, the research aims to contribute to the existing literature on employee turnover in the hospitality industry and suggest areas for future research. The document also includes references to relevant studies and sources.

Assessment 1: Defense of Research Project
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Challenges of Turnover at Hilton Hotel

Introduction
 Employee Turnover is the movement of workers in and out of the
organization (Cho & Lewis, 2012).
 High Turnover has cost implications on a company as it spends a lot
of its resources on training and orientation of the replacements of the
leaving employees.
 Also, the new employees take time before reaching optimum
production capacity (Vuyisile, 2013).
 Like any other business in the travel industry, Hilton faces many
human resources issues, with turnover being the most important

Research Context
Pertinent historical information about the Company
 The Hilton Hotel and Resorts started from a humble beginning in
1919, and close to a century, the hotel chain has expanded to be
come one of the most important players in the travel and hospitality
industry.
 The business has performed exemplary and now boast of many
branches in over 80 countries across the globe.
 The company employs thousands of employees with different cultural
background catering to clients with diverse backgrounds

Research Context
The circumstances which have led to the need to undertake Research
 The company realized that every year, a number of employees were
leaving employment with the company necessitating constant
employment of new employees. The Hilton Hotels
 On further investigations, there was realization that the problem was
not unique to Hilton Hotels and Resorts, but it is an industry-wide
challenge.
 In the hospitality industry, out of all the employees employed within a
year, about half of them are likely to leave the organization

Research Context
The impact and its magnitude to the Company’s Operation
 The need for research on the problem of employee turnover out of
the recognition that the company was spending a lot of resources and
losing value on keeping replacing staff
 Recruiting
 Training
 Lost time
 The most significant negative impact of employee turnover on Hilton
Hotel is loss of quality of customer experience due to constant
changes in the employees

Business Problem
 Employee turn over at Hilton Hotels has significant negative impacs
especially the loss of experience, accompanied by the costs recruiting
new employees
 The new employees need training and time before they can get to par
with the other employees production capacities.
 The trained and experienced workers that leave the company despoil
the company of the accumulated knowledge and experience in
customer care, the backbone of the hospitality business.

Business Problem
 The trained and experienced workers that leave the company despoil the
company of the accumulated knowledge and experience in customer care,
the backbone of the hospitality business.
 The main cadre of employees affected by the high employee turnover
 The information will support the company in focusing on the affected
employees and thus come up with relevant mitigating factors

Using Theory to Construct Business
Problem
 There are many theories advanced for identifying and providing
solutions to the problems found in business.
 The theories help researchers, consultants and management to get to
the root of a problem and find a relevant solution to the same.
 Theory of problem solving is a proper fit for the current study as it
endeavors to identify and define a problem and provides a systematic
way of arriving at a solution to the problem identified.

Using Theory to Construct Business
Problem
 Recent studies indicate a shift in employee characteristics with the a
more varied set of expectations compared to traditional typical hotel
employee
 Advancement opportunities
 Life-work balance issues
 Chances rapid promotion
 Being valued and involved in decision-making processes
 Better pay
 All these expectations if unmet by the employer pushes employees
out of the company.

Generic Decisions/
Action
 From the research, the management will get plausible
recommendations on how to resolve the issues of employee turnover
 The actions that the company is likely to take are:
 Job redesign and enrichment to increase the employee satisfaction
 Provide clear merit-based promotions pathways
 Competitive and commensurate pay to employees
 Provide life-work balance to the employees

List of the information Sought via
research accompanied by Validation
 The employee turnover rate at Hilton Hotels
 Learning the turnover rate will help the Hilton Hotels management
appreciate the magnitude of the problem
 The main cadre of employees affected by the high employee turnover
 The information will support the company in focusing on the affected
employees and thus come up with relevant mitigating factors

List of the information Sought via
research accompanied by Validation
 The push and pull factors leading to the employee turnover
 The information on the factors leading to the situation will support the
management in making relevant decisions on ways of retaining employees
and thus prevent the turnover
 Recommendations on minimizing, and if possible eliminating high
employee turnover
 The report will recommend various ways of stemming the tide of high
turnover which will make it easier for the management to move with speed
in the implementation process.