Effect of Training and Development on Employee Turnover in Selected Medium Sized Hotels in Kisumu City, Kenya

Abstract

Employee turnover in the hotel industry is problematic and can be dysfunctional. There cannot be a cohesive successful team, if the team members are always changing. However, it is not just the retention of the staff that is of interest here, it is the examination of those elements of human resource practices, over which these establishments have some control. Off the job training takes place away from the working station and most hotels rarely take this form of training because of the intensity of work. The broad objective of this study was to investigate the effects of human resource practices on employee turnover in selected medium size hotels in Kisumu City. The research sought to establish the extent to which training and development of employees contribute to employee turnover. The research adopted Herzberg’s two factor theory. The research design was survey. A target of 24 medium size hotels in Kisumu City comprising a population of 350 employees was used. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the hotels, while stratified sampling method was used to select departments and simple random sampling was used to select the respondents from the departments. A sample size of six hotels comprising 187 employees and 24 management staff was selected for the study. Questionnaires were administered to both the management staff and employees. The findings indicated that employee development significantly affected employee turnover (p=.005) 2-tailed. Training is a tool that can assist Hotels in building a more committed and productive workforce. Although training plays a major role in this process, Hotels need to look at additional strategies and practices that can enhance commitment. Training alone may offer many benefits but a much greater impact will be found when using a strategy to human resources that entails many different organizational practices and policies.

Keywords: Turnover; Hotels; Training; Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene; Human resource.