Research Proposal: High Employee Turnover in the Retail Industry

This research proposal investigates the management problem of high employee turnover within the retail industry, focusing on Amazon. The study aims to identify the reasons behind high employee turnover, the challenges faced by organizations due to this issue, and the strategies implemented to reduce turnover and retain talent. The proposal outlines the research questions, objectives, and purpose, emphasizing the significance of employee retention for organizational success. It reviews relevant peer-reviewed articles to provide context and support the proposed research. The research methodology will employ a quantitative approach, utilizing primary data collection through questionnaires and secondary data from various sources. A survey strategy will be used, with a questionnaire as the instrument, and probability sampling will be employed to select participants. The study also includes a contingency plan for data collection, with a focus on secondary data if primary data collection is not feasible. The proposal details the chosen research methods and their justification, including the advantages of quantitative research and the use of surveys and questionnaires to gather relevant information. The research is expected to contribute to the understanding of employee turnover dynamics and provide insights for developing effective retention strategies.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Contents
1. WORKING TITLE......................................................................................................................3
2. The management problem that seeks to solve.............................................................................3
3. Useful peer reviewed articles.......................................................................................................5
4. Proposed primary research...........................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

1. WORKING TITLE
To identify the reasons behind high employee turnover within retail industry.
2. The management problem that seeks to solve
Background of the research
In every type of organisation, employees are known as the most significant asset to a
company because they are ones who consistently contribute towards the successful operations of
a company. They put efforts for delivering their best and attain the assigned goals within the
decided time duration. The workforce plays significant role in forming positive working culture
in the workplace (Khana and et. al., 2021). However, organisations fail to keep their employees
engaged, motivated and empowered in the workplace and eventually it results in employees
leave the existing organisation for other best organisation. Amazon will be selected as an
organisation to collect insights, figures and facts about the reasons of high employee turnover in
their workplace. Consistent high employee turnover in Amazon has intended researcher to
conduct research on reasons of high employee turnover. The other reason is to find out strategies
through which level of high employee turnover could be reduced (Sithole and Pwaka, 2019).
Through identified management problem of high employee turnover in the existing research,
retail industry will benefit the most as they can learn about strategies through which employees
can be retained.
Identified management problem
The present study is focusing over problem of high employee turnover in an organisation.
In simpler language, high employee turnover refers to the number of employees who leave the
company (Ratnasari and Lestari, 2020). Thus, an organisation needs to replace these leavers by
new worker or employee. This directly increases cost of the company as they have to create job
advertisement, conduct interview, arrange training sessions and many more.
Research questions
 What are the reasons that influence high employee turnover within Amazon?
 What are the challenges faced by Amazon due to high employee turnover?
 What are the strategies adopted by Amazon to decrease high employee turnover and
retain talent?
Purpose of the research

The main purpose of conducting the investigation is to assemble in-depth information
about the problem called high employee turnover in an organisation. Thus, this study aims
carrying out major causes that influence an employee to leave the organisation and switch to
another company (Saengchai, Duangkaew and Jermsittiparsert, 2019).
Research Aim
To determine the reasons that increase high employee turnover along with strategies
adopted by an organisation to retain talent: A study on Amazon
Research Objectives
 To examine the reasons that influence high employee turnover within Amazon
 To analyse the challenges faced by Amazon due to high employee turnover
 To discern the strategies adopted by Amazon to decrease high employee turnover and
retain talent

3. Useful peer reviewed articles
High employee turnover
According to Heubl (2020), in a human resource context, high employee turnover defines
the number of employees who leave the existing organisation and switch to another company. It
is the responsibility of organisation to replace these vacant job positions with talented and skilled
employees. High employee turnover is generally an outcome of poor recruiting decision and poor
management. Generally, high employee turnover happens because of termination, employees
leaving existing job for a job they believe is excellent and better or they think they cannot find
any career growth opportunities in the current job. An increasing high employee turnover rate
means that employees of the company are quitting organisation over a certain period of time.
Thus, it is necessary for company to always have lower employee turnover rate.
Reasons that influence high employee turnover within Amazon
According to Shulga and Muhizi (2021), it takes a lot of effort and time for finding right
people for the business and it is generally apparent when recruiting for large scale or small scale
companies. Some of the common causes that influence high employee turnover within Amazon
are:
Lack of recognition: Employees do not get appropriate recognition for their hard work
and this creates lack of motivation among them. Thus, they look for companies which can
appreciate them for their great performance.
Company culture: The other reason of high employee turnover within Amazon is culture
of the company. Poor company culture within Amazon results in demotivated and miserable
employees in the workplace.
Challenges faced by Amazon due to high employee turnover
According to Oruh and et. al., (2020), when an employee leaves the organisation it
creates many challenges and barriers for the company. Some of challenges may include:
High recruitment cost: This is the most common challenge of high employee turnover as
it increases cost of company by putting job advertisement of vacant position, taking interview,
providing training etc.
Project hindrance: The other challenge faced by organisation is project hindrance. As
many project of the company do not get completed on stipulated time period due to chaos created
by employees leaving the organisation.

Short staffed: One of the common challenge of high employee turnover is shortage of
staff because when an employee leaves the organisation then it takes time in recruiting and
selecting the new candidate for that particular vacant position.
Impact of high employee turnover
According to Lim and Parker (2020), high employee turnover has direct negative impact
over profitability and revenue of the company. The impact of high employee turnover involves
reduced productivity, increased cost of recruitment, increased time on offering training to newly
recruited employee and decreased sales. Company with high employee turnover experiences low
productivity rates and low morale among employees. Thus, it creates pressure of work on current
employee of the organisation as they get burden of their own work as well as employees who
have left the organisation. Hence, this decreases morale of existing employees.
Strategies adopted by Amazon to decrease high employee turnover and retain talent
According to Haque, Fernando and Caputi (2019), it is necessary to form strategies and
make changes as per the needs and expectations of employees so that they can be retained in the
workplace and employee turnover rate can be controlled. Some of the common strategies that are
adopted by Amazon are: offering rewards and recognition, arranging training sessions, offering
flexibility, prioritising work-life balance, attention to engagement of employees, standardising
performance reviews, availing career development opportunities and many more. Hence, these
strategies are playing important role in keeping interest of employees within the existing
company so that they do not leave organisation for some other company.

4. Proposed primary research
The existing study will choose certain research methods with the purpose of collecting,
examining and evaluating information. It will depend upon quantitative methods of research so
that statistical figures and facts can be assembled to understand the identified problem of the
investigation (Snyder, 2019). Hence, it gives justification of each selected research method in the
process of assembling and evaluating relevant data.
Quantitative research choice: It refers to the research method which assists in collecting
and analysing quantifiable information in a systematic and precise manner. Investigator will be
choosing quantitative research choice as it facilitates in gathering figures and facts about the
identified issue of the investigation in numerical form (Ryder and et. al., 2020). The significant
benefit will be gained by researcher through quantitative method is that it makes research
scientific, focused, relatable and fast. The efficiency and speed of the quantitative methods help
researcher to achieve pre-determined aim and objectives in stipulated time.
Primary and secondary data collection: Data collection method is very important in the
research work as it provides sources for the accumulation of apt information. Researcher will
select primary method to assemble raw insights and facts about the determined management
issue. Thus, the main benefit of primary method for investigator is that it directly collects data
from the source of information. So, questionnaire will be used by researcher to collect raw data
from chosen respondents (Djafar and et. al., 2021). On the other hand, secondary data collection
will also be considered by researcher as it saves time and efforts of the investigator because it
focuses on information which is already published and used by other people. For this secondary
sources such as articles, newspapers, publications, books, articles, journals will be used to collect
apt data.
Research strategy and instrument: Research strategy helps in accumulating information as
per the need of research. There are several strategies which include: action research, grounded
theory, archival research, survey, interview and so on (Sileyew, 2019). Researcher will use
survey as strategy because it helps in collecting numerical insights, figures and facts. The main
benefit of using is that it collects information directly from the respondent. On the other hand,
researcher will choose questionnaire as an instrument because this helps in accumulating raw and
statistical piece of information in a systematic manner.

Sampling: There are two kinds of sampling which include: probability and non-probability
sampling. Investigator will depend upon probability sampling because it facilitates in selecting
large number of respondents without setting any particular criteria to select them (Dzwigol,
2020). Thus, 50 managers will be selected by investigator from Amazon.
Short Plan B: Conducting an investigation is not an easy task because researcher has to face
certain limitations such as shortage of funds, lack of time, unavailability of reliable source to
collect information (Sadık, 2019). Thus, a short back up plan researcher will depend upon is
conducting whole investigation on the basis of secondary piece of information. Thus, secondary
data is available on different platforms to accumulate appropriate information.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Djafar and et. al., 2021. Qualitative and Quantitative Paradigm Constellation In Educational
Research Methodology. International Journal of Educational Research & Social
Sciences, 2(2), pp.339-345.
Dzwigol, H., 2020. Innovation in marketing research: quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Haque, A., Fernando, M. and Caputi, P., 2019. The relationship between responsible leadership
and organisational commitment and the mediating effect of employee turnover
intentions: An empirical study with Australian employees. Journal of Business
Ethics, 156(3), pp.759-774.
Heubl, B., 2020. Can the winner take it all?[Analysis-Amazon]. Engineering &
Technology, 15(5), pp.46-49.
Khana and et. al., 2021. The Impact of Organisational Commitment and Job Embeddedness on
Employee Turnover Intention in the Hotel Industry of Pakistan: The Mediating Impact
of Job Satisfaction. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 15(05),
pp.165-178.
Lim, P. and Parker, A., 2020. Employee Turnover. In Mentoring Millennials in an Asian
Context. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Oruh and et. al., 2020. Investigating the relationship between managerialist employment
relations and employee turnover intention: The case of Nigeria. Employee Relations:
The International Journal.
Ratnasari, S.L. and Lestari, L., 2020. Effect of Leadership Style, Workload, Job Insecurity on
Turnover Intention. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 10(2),
pp.2201-1315.
Ryder and et. al., 2020. Indigenous research methodology–weaving a research
interface. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(3), pp.255-267.
Sadık, O., 2019. A discussion of the concepts of validity and reliability in qualitative and
quantitative research.
Saengchai, S., Duangkaew, S. and Jermsittiparsert, K., 2019. Consequences of the Recruitment
and Selection Process on Employee Turnover & Absenteeism: Profitability in the
Textile Sector of Indonesia. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and
Change, 10(1), pp.40-57.
Shulga, A. and Muhizi, J.B., 2021. Innovations in warehouse logistics on the example of
Amazon.
Sileyew, K.J., 2019. Research design and methodology. In Cyberspace (pp. 1-12). Rijeka:
IntechOpen.
Sithole, D. and Pwaka, O., 2019. An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Skills-retention
Strategies in Curbing Staff Turnover: A Case of a Health Care Organisation in
Zimbabwe. Kuwait Chapter of the Arabian Journal of Business and Management
Review, 8(2), pp.40-56.
Snyder, H., 2019. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and
guidelines. Journal of business research, 104, pp.333-339.