Strategies for Minimizing Staff Turnover at Hilton Hotel, Sydney

This report investigates the issue of high staff turnover rates in the front office department of Hilton Hotel, Sydney. It aims to identify and analyze the underlying causes, including lack of recognition, poor work-life balance, and limited growth opportunities, as highlighted by the front office manager, James Cleansby. The report explores various mitigation strategies through a literature review, focusing on employee benefits, addressing the needs of millennial employees, creating a positive work environment, incorporating feedback systems, and promoting employee health and productivity. The findings and analysis highlight the importance of psychological benefits in increasing job satisfaction and employee retention. The report concludes with practical recommendations for the front office manager, emphasizing the implementation of employee benefit programs to maximize psychological profit from the workplace, ultimately minimizing staff turnover and improving overall organizational performance. The report also includes a transcript of an interview and a list of tables and figures.

Running head: MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
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1MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
Abstract
Hilton Hotel, Sydney has faced the problem of high employee turnover rates in the
recent past. Although the new front office manager has been able to reduce the rates in the
recent years, the issue still persists. The purpose of this report is to identify how the issue
could be minimized by the manager. The report concludes that providing psychological
benefits, can increase job satisfaction by significant levels and can make employees overlook
the other issues, resulting in maximum employee retention. For this, a range of employee
benefits can be provided to employees, such that their psychological profit from the
workplace is maximized.

2MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
Literature review....................................................................................................................5
Methodology........................................................................................................................13
Findings and Analysis..........................................................................................................15
Recommendations for future research.................................................................................18
Practical recommendations for the front office manager, Hilton Hotel, Sydney, James
Cleansby...............................................................................................................................18
Summary..................................................................................................................................19
Limitations of the study...........................................................................................................19
References................................................................................................................................20
Appendices...............................................................................................................................23
Transcript of interview.........................................................................................................23
Findings and Methodology..................................................................................................24

3MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
List of Tables and Figures
Fig. 1
Table 1

4MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
Introduction
This research has been conducted on the backdrop of the revelation that the staff
turnover rate in the front office department of Hilton Hotel has been high in the recent years.
James Cleansby, the front office manager in the hotel has listed several problems upon being
interviewed, pertaining to the high staff turnover in his department. These include lack of
coaching and recognition, poor work-life balance and lack of growth opportunities amongst
other issues. However, Cleansby claims that the turnover rate has decreased significantly
since he has implemented some strategies like providing competitive wages and maximizing
work-life balance.
The problem which this report will be aiming at resolving is the existing staff turnover
rates in the front office department of the hotel. The objective which this report will be
aiming at is minimizing or possibly even eliminating issues related to high staff turnover in
the department. High staff turnover rates can cost the company in multiple ways such as
incurring higher costs as a result of frequent expenditure on staff training according to Al
Mamun and Hasan (2017), and bringing in inexperienced employees to fill the gaps created
by the departure of existing employees (Li et al., 2016). Therefore, it is important that a
management strategy is adopted so that the issue is combatted effectively.
To be more precise, the question which the report will be answering as its conclusion
is how the staff turnover rates in the front office department of the hotel can be minimized by
adopting appropriate management and leadership theories.
This research is significant in a sense that it will be outlining the various strategies
and theories, which could be referred to by any organizational setting, due to the universal
nature of the management theories. The issue of high staff turnover has been significantly
prominent in the recent times according to Hom et al. (2017), with hotels such as The

5MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
Imperial Hotel, London, facing similar issues(Huang, Wu & Zhang, 2018). This report will
be important in figuring out the reasons and loopholes which organizations must fill in order
to avoid the issue of staff turnover, and also be able to attain a sustainable development and
growth as a result of employee retention.
The discussion in the report will be focusing on literature review of how many
organizations in the past have been able to combat the issue of high staff turnover, as well as
research papers prioritizing the same, followed by research methodologies adopted for the
report, findings and analysis from the research data and finally recommendations and
implementation based on the same.
Discussion
Literature review
Mitigation strategies
In an article published by The Journal of Hotel and Business Management, Olfa
Moussa Skhiri, the author takes the hotel industry of Tunisia in account to determine and
evaluate what managers in the industry do in order to minimize crisis situations in their
hotels. The article mainly talks about the various mitigation strategies which managers tend
to use to mitigate common crisis situations in the hotel industry. Amongst this, is the issue of
high staff turnover rates. Skhiri points out that the most common way in which managers
have been combatting the issue of employee turnover is by adopting a mitigation strategy, in
which managers monitor the trends in the employee turnovers. Every feedback of exiting
employees are recorded, and when one particular issue gets highlighted more than once,
managers immediately look into the matter and aim at resolving them so that further turnover
pertaining to the same issue does not occur. According to Skhiri, this has been one of the

6MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
main reasons why the employee retention and satisfaction rates have been so much high in
the hotel industry of Tunisia (Moussa Skhiri, 2019).
Addressing needs of millennial employees
An article published by renowned journal, International Journal of Hospitality
Management, outlines the various reasons why employee turnover is a problem in the hotel
industry across the world. If McCann (2017) is to be believed, this is primarily because
millennials have an openness to experience and also the desire for fixed working schedules,
which the hotel industry does not provide them with abundance. The article specifically
points out that strategies like employee well-being and expenditure on providing the best
quality infrastructure, which has been adopted by none other than Hilton Hotel itself, has
been effective in reducing staff turnover rates by six percent over the last years. However, the
existing number of staff turnover continues to be high enough for the hotel. The article also
points out that the issue of staff turnover has immense costs to pay for the hotel, including
staff training, recruitment, orientation and productivity loss. The article concludes by pointing
out that employee benefit and addressing employee needs are the ways in which the issue of
high staff turnover can be minimized. It points that according to a study conducted by
Paychex, the one benefit that has been sought after by numerous organizations, is daily pay.
The study suggests that organizations who offer the benefit experience a 42% employee
retention rate than organizations that do not offer the same (Bonn & Forbringer 1992).
Spending to keep staffs content
The very popular Journal of Indian Management & Strategy published a research
paper by Parag Aryn Narkhede, which outlines the various issues basing the major issue of
staff turnover in the hospitality industry. Narkhede points out that the reasons like work
culture, work environment, low wages and lack of other benefits lead to employees leaving
the organization after a certain period of time. The paper however concludes that if sufficient

7MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
benefits are given to employees, the need for external experience and low wages are
overlooked by employees, which lead to high employee-retention rates. This, according to
Narkhede (2014), benefits the company in the long run. Buchan et al. (2015) suggest that
although expenditure is required to some extent to resolve the issue, a much of the finances
are saved too as a result of the resolution of the issue. This is because organizations save
more finances as a result of decreased expenditure on orientation and training of new staffs,
alongside putting an end to low productivity as a result of an inexperienced workforce. The
author concludes that the establishment of a healthy work environment for staffs is the basic
necessity for organizations of any kind to combat high staff turnover rates.
Incorporating feedback systems
The Aorn Journal has also published a paper by David Johnson, in which the author
lays out the various questions which a manager must ask the employees of the organization in
order to make sure that they are satisfied and also have perfect technical knowledge about
their work. The author points out that not only do the questions help in making the employees
efficient in their work, but also makes sure that the managers end up making the employees
believe that they are valued and cared by the organization, which gives high amount of job
satisfaction to the employees (Johnson, 2004). The paper outlines various psychological as
well as technical questions which must be asked to the employees to get their feedbacks and
queries known. These include their work related problems, their personal problems and also
their issues with the management. The author lays out the fact that these sessions when
conducted under controlled circumstances relating to adult learning, can yield valuable
insights into the employees. These can be then assessed to find out the areas in the
management which must be improved, in order to ensure employee satisfaction and retention.

8MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
Health and productivity
The Wall Street Journal published an essay in February earlier this year, titled “The
Hidden Costs of Stressed-Out Workers”, written by Jeffery Pfeffer. Pfeffer in his essay points
out that that the most amount of costs which a company incurs on its human resources is due
to stressed out workers. Amongst expenditures on particulars such as health and benefits
costs and sacrificing maximum profit by ensuring flexible working hours, Pfeffer briefly
states that one of the biggest prices which an organization can pay as a result of a stressed out
workforce, is high staff turnover. According to Tongchaiprasit and Ariyabuddhiphongs
(2017), like most of the other authors mentioned earlier, organizations who face high staff
turnover rates as a result of stress, incur costs on frequent recruitment and low profit due to
an ever changing inexperience workforce. Pfeffer humorously states that every organization
is a healthcare business, pertaining to the fact that most of them spend more on employee
health than on actual business, like General Motors spends more on employee health than
steel purchase. But Pfeffer points out that this is the reason why these companies have been
able to sustain itself as a result of a happy and healthy workforce, and subsequently high
employee retention.
Resignation protocols
Ray Elbo got his article published in the popular business journal, Business World.
According to the author, management protocols for resigning employees play a bigger factor
than managers realise. He lists down five protocols which managers must follow in order to
make sure that an employee leaves a company on good terms. Elbo (2019) states that being
rude to resigning employees might directly imply burning bridges, because one may never
know what implications that would have on the other aspects of the management or the
organization as a whole. For example, Klotz and Bolino (2016) state that if an employee
leaves on good terms with the company, he or she might consider returning to the company

9MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
sometime in the future more probably than not if the employee does not leave on good terms.
Furthermore, he states that good relations with employees until the day the employee actually
leaves the organization is essential in making sure that the other employees perceive the
company as having a good work culture. This in turn is significant in employee retention. As
Narkhede had pointed out in his article, a positive work culture and proper and adequate
attention to employees can be sufficient in making employees compromise with the
materialistic things at work.
Holistic HR investments
In a research article published by the journal of Tourism Management in the year
2015, the authors take a mathematical approach towards establishing the reasons relating to
why employees leave their jobs, especially in the Hotel Industry. The authors aim at finding
out whether the relationship between wanting to leave an organization and its antecedents are
linear or quadratic. The study concluded that although two of the antecedents proved to be
linear, the other two proved to be quadratic (Mohsin, Lengler, & Aguzzoli, 2015). On a more
qualitative analysis, Tam, Zeng and Wong (2016) state that managers can spend all they want
on a specific aspect of the workforce, and it might still prove to be ineffective in making the
employees not want to leave their jobs. The authors therefore state that the objective should
be to take a more holistic approach towards investments on the human resources. By this, it is
meant that every aspect of the workforce should be invested upon, like benefits, healthcare,
incentives and ensuring work-life balance to ensure that the workforce stays satisfied with the
management of the company and does not intend on leaving. What the authors aim at
establishing through this study is the fact that managers must adopt a more employee-
oriented management style in order to make sure that staff turnover is reduced to minimum in
their organizations.

10MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
Avoiding Millennial Employees
Gary Carbaugh got his article published in the Central Penn Business Journal, in
which he states the problem of millennial employees having the urge to change jobs quicker
than the earlier generation, and terms them as a threat (Carabaugh, 2019). The author does
not clearly state a solution to the problem of millennial employees wanting to quit companies
in quick succession, but warns organizations against hiring new recruits with insufficient
work experience and reliable educational background. He says that the only way in which
organizations can make millennial employees stay in their organizations is by hiring selective
millennial employees. Coffey et al. (2018) say that mitigation strategies must be formulated
in a simple format, which would outline the process of determining the tendencies of turnover
in employees during the process of recruitment itself.
Psychological well-being
The Journal of Management, which is a very popular academic journal, published an
article in the year 2007, which lays down the relationship between job satisfaction,
psychological well-being and employee turnover. Conducting a field study for over two years
and involving over a hundred managers as samples for the field study, the research found out
that well being moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and job separation, in
such a way that job satisfaction strongly and negatively impacted employee turnover when
well-being was found to be low. The research was conducted under controlled circumstances,
which made for interviews as well as surveys into the internal data of various organizations,
which was not restricted to the hotel industry. The research report did not aim at providing
recommendations to the managers or evaluate the ways in which the reasons or mediators in
the issue of employee turnover could be minimized. However, the clear relationship which
the research provided comes to show that psychological well-being is a big factor in the
development of job satisfaction for employees, overlooking which can cost the company with

11MINIMIZING STAFF TURNOVER IN HILTON HOTEL
expenditure pertaining to repetitive recruitments. What the authors concluded was the fact
that organizations which did not show the signs of looking into the psychological well being
of the employees, ended up losing out on numerous employees (Wright & Bonnet, 2007).
Working environments
In a news article published by The BMJ, author Ingrid Torjesen takes the study of
NHS Digital, to look into the company’s work culture and how that affects the organization
as a whole. Bullying and harassment, according to Torjesen (2018), has been a distinct
feature in the work culture of the organization, with several studies discussing about it in the
same journal. Using internal sources and calculations, the study found that bullying and
harassment cost the organization over two billion euros in a year. McManus et al. (2016) find
that employees are harassed and bullied for even taking sick leaves from the company, and
this despicable work culture coupled with the comparatively low wages make employees
leave the organization in quick successions, and the management has done little to intervene
into the matter. The repetitive costs which the company has been incurring due to the high
rates of staff turnover, include recruitment, training and orientation costs, low productivity,
and even lawsuits. What distinguishes this study from the others in the literature review of
this report is the fact that this study provides a clear estimation of how much exactly a
company can lose as a result of high staff turnover.
Unobserved determinants
According to Horny, Mendes and van den Berg (2012), there are unobserved
determinants both at the worker level and the managerial level. The authors assess both of
these determinants with the MCMC model to arrive at their conclusion to find the correlation
between both of the determinants. The study concluded that the correlation is a highly
positive one. It also finds that unobserved firm characteristics lead to 40% of the employee
turnover annually. This is backed by the research which has been conducted by Ruck (2017),