Employee turnover is the process of replacing one worker with another for any reason.

A turnover rate is the percentage of employees that a company must replace within a given time period. This rate is a concern to most companies because employee turnover can be a costly expense, especially for lower-paying jobs, which typically have the highest turnover rates. Having an employee leave a company, either because of his or her choice or after being fired or otherwise let go, might require various administrative tasks to be performed and severance pay or other payments made to the employee. Replacing the employee might require such things as advertising the open position, using a so-called headhunter or other service to find potential job candidates, bringing in candidates for interviews and eventually training the new employee.

Importance to Businesses
Companies often take a deep interest in their employee turnover rates because replacing workers can be a costly part of doing business. When a company must replace a worker, it incurs direct and indirect expenses. All of the tasks that must be performed during the process cost money, take time or do both. In addition, there can be a loss of productivity during the time after the former employee leaves and the new employee has been fully trained. For some companies, replacing employees also could make it difficult to retain clients or customers with whom those employees worked.

Contributing Factors
Many factors play roles in the employee turnover rate of a company. These can stem from either the employer or the employees. Wages, benefits, attendance and job performance are all factors that play significant roles in employee turnover. The workplace environment and employee morale also are important aspects.

Calculating Turnover Rates

Turnover rates can be calculated for any time period, but they usually are referred to in terms of monthly or annual rates. If a company has 100 employees and must replace an average of 10 of them per year, its annual turnover rate is 10 percent. A company that has 150 employees and must replace 36 of them per year could be said to have an annual turnover rate of 24 percent or a monthly turnover rate of 2 percent. These rates also can be calculated based on specific departments within the company, specific types of jobs or other categories. They also can be calculated for entire industries.

Employee Retention
Although lower-paying roles experience a higher average of employee turnover overall, they tend to cost companies less per replacement employee than higher paying jobs do. Companies typically incur these costs more often, however. For this reason, most companies focus on employee retention strategies regardless of pay levels. Most companies find that employee turnover is reduced when they address issues that affect the morale of employees. By offering employees benefits such as reasonable schedule flexibility that allows them to balance their work and family life, performance-based incentives and traditional benefits such as paid holidays or sick days, companies are able to reduce their employee turnover rates. The extent to which a company will go in order to retain employees depends not only on the costs of replacing its employees, but also on the company's overall performance. If a company is not getting the performance it is paying for from its employees, the replacement costs might be considered a small price to pay over the long term.

Turnover (employment)
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(January 2009)

In a human resources context, turnover or staff turnover or labour turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. Simple ways to describe it are "how long employees tend to stay" or "the rate of traffic through the revolving door." Turnover is measured for individual companies and for their industry as a whole. If an employer is said to have a high turnover relative to its competitors, it means that employees of that company have a shorter average tenure than those of other companies in the same industry. High turnover may be harmful to a company's productivity if skilled workers are often leaving and the worker population contains a high percentage of novice workers. In the U.S., for the period of December 2000 to November 2008, the average total non-farm seasonally adjusted monthly turnover rate was 3.3%.[1] However rates vary widely when compared over different periods of time or different job sectors. For example, during the period 2001-2006, the annual turnover rate for all industry sectors averaged 39.6% before seasonal adjustments,[2] during the same period the Leisure and Hospitality sector experienced an average annual rate of 74.6%.[3]

Contents
[hide]

1 Costs 2 Internal vs. external turnover 3 Skilled vs. unskilled employees 4 Voluntary vs. involuntary turnover 5 Causes of high or low turnover o 5.1 Investments 6 How to prevent turnover 7 Calculation 8 Models of turnover 9 References 10 Further reading o 10.1 Historical interest

[edit] Costs

When accounting for the costs (both real costs, such as time taken to select and recruit a replacement, and also opportunity costs, such as lost productivity), the cost of employee turnover to for-profit organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees' remuneration package.[4] There are both direct and indirect costs. Direct costs relate to the leaving costs, replacement costs and transitions costs, and indirect costs relate to the loss of production, reduced performance levels, unnecessary overtime and low morale. In a healthcare context, staff turnover has been associated with worse patient outcomes.[5]

[edit] Internal vs. external turnover

Like recruitment, turnover can be classified as 'internal' or 'external'.[6] Internal turnover involves employees leaving their current positions and taking new positions within the same organization. Both positive (such as increased morale from the change of task and supervisor) and negative (such as project/relational disruption, or the Peter Principle) effects of internal turnover exist, and therefore, it may be equally important to monitor this form of turnover as it is to monitor its external counterpart. Internal turnover might be moderated and controlled by typical HR mechanisms, such as an internal recruitment policy or formal succession planning.

[edit] Skilled vs. unskilled employees

Unskilled positions often have high turnover, and employees can generally be replaced without the organization or business incurring any loss of performance. The ease of replacing these employees provides little incentive to employers to offer generous employment contracts; conversely, contracts may strongly favour the employer and lead to increased turnover as employees seek, and eventually find, more favorable employment. However, high turnover rates of skilled professionals can pose as a risk to the business or organization, due to the human capital (such as skills, training, and knowledge) lost. Notably, given the natural specialization of skilled professionals, these employees are likely to be reemployed within the same industry by a competitor.[citation needed] Therefore, turnover of these individuals incurs both replacement costs to the organization, as well as resulting in a competitive disadvantage to the business.

[edit] Voluntary vs. involuntary turnover

Practitioners can differentiate between instances of voluntary turnover, initiated at the choice of the employee, and those involuntary instances where the employee has no choice in their termination (such as long term sickness, death, moving overseas, or employer-initiated termination). Typically, the characteristics of employees who engage in involuntary turnover are no different from job stayers.[citation needed] However, voluntary turnover can be predicted (and in turn, controlled) by the construct of turnover intent.

[edit] Causes of high or low turnover

High turnover often means that employees are unhappy with the work or compensation, but it can also indicate unsafe or unhealthy conditions, or that too few employees give unsatisfactory performance (due to unrealistic expectations, inappropriate processes or tools, or poor candidate screening). The lack of career opportunities and challenges, dissatisfaction with the job-scope or conflict with the management have been cited as predictors of high turnover.[7] Low turnover indicates that none of the above is true: employees are satisfied, healthy and safe, and their performance is satisfactory to the employer. However, the predictors of low turnover may sometimes differ than those of high turnover. Aside from the fore-mentioned career opportunities, salary, corporate culture, management's recognition, and a comfortable workplace seem to impact employees' decision to stay with their employer.[7] Many psychological and management theories exist regarding the types of job content which is intrinsically satisfying to employees and which, in turn, should minimise external voluntary turnover. Examples include Hertzberg's Two factor theory, McClelland's Theory of Needs, and Hackman & Oldham's Job Characteristics Model [8] Thomas suggests that there tends to be a higher level of stress with people who work with or interact with a narcissist, which in turn increases absenteeism and staff turnover.[9]

[edit] Investments
Alternatively, low turnover may indicate the presence of employee 'investments' (also known 'side bets') [10] in their position: certain benefits may be enjoyed while the employee remains employed with the organization, which would be lost upon resignation (e.g. health insurance, discounted home loans, redundancy packages, etc.). Such employees would be expected to demonstrate lower intent to leave than if such 'side bets' were not present.

[edit] How to prevent turnover

Employees are important in any running of a business; without them the business would be unsuccessful. However, more and more employers today are finding that employees remain for approximately 23 to 24 months, according to the 2006 Bureau of Labor Statistics[citation needed]. The Employment Policy Foundation states it costs a company an average of $15,000 per employee, including separation costs, paperwork, unemployment; vacancy costs, including overtime or temporary employees and replacement costs including advertisement, interview time, relocation, training and decreased productivity when colleagues depart. Providing a stimulating workplace environment, which fosters happy, motivated and empowered individuals, lowers employee turnover and absentee rates.[11] Promoting a work environment that fosters personal and professional growth promotes harmony and encouragement on all levels, so the effects are felt company wide.[11]

Continual training and reinforcement develops a work force that is competent, consistent, competitive, effective and efficient.[11] Beginning on the first day of work, providing the individual with the necessary skills to perform their job is important.[12] Before the first day, it is important the interview and hiring process expose new hires to an explanation of the company, so individuals know whether the job is their best choice.[13] Networking and strategizing within the company provides ongoing performance management and helps build relationships among co-workers.[13] It is also important to motivate employees to focus on customer success, profitable growth and the company well-being .[13] Employers can keep their employees informed and involved by including them in future plans, new purchases, policy changes, as well as introducing new employees to the employees who have gone above and beyond in meetings.[13] Early engagement and engagement along the way, shows employees they are valuable through information or recognition rewards, making them feel included.[13] When companies hire the best people, new talent hired and veterans are enabled to reach company goals, maximizing the investment of each employee.[13] Taking the time to listen to employees and making them feel involved will create loyalty, in turn reducing turnover allowing for growth.[14]

[edit] Calculation
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. (Consider using more specific cleanup instructions.) Please help improve this section if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2010) Labour turnover is equal to the number of employees leaving, divided by the average total number of employees, multiplied by 100 (in order to give a percentage value). The number of employees leaving and the total number of employees are measured over one calendar year. For example, in a business with an average of 300 employees over the year, 21 of whom leave, labour turnover is 7%. This is derived from (21/300)*100.

[edit] Models of turnover

Over the years there have been thousands of research articles exploring the various aspects of turnover, and in due course several models of employee turnover have been promulgated. The first model and by far the one attaining most attention from researcher, was put forward in 1958 by March & Simon. After this model there have been several efforts to extend the concept. Since 1958 the following models of employee turnover have been published.

March and Simon (1958) Process Model of Turnover Porter & Steers (1973) Met Expectations Model Price (1977) Causal Model of Turnover Mobley (1977) Intermediate Linkages Model Hom and Griffeth (1991) Alternative Linkages Model of Turnover Whitmore (1979) Inverse Gaussian Model for Labour Turnover

Steers and Mowday (1981) Turnover Model Sheridan & Abelson (1983) Cusp Catastrophe Model of Employee Turnover Jackofsky (1984) Integrated Process Model Lee et al. (1991) Unfolding Model of Voluntary Employee Turnover Aquino et al. (1997) Referent Cognitions Model Mitchell & Lee (2001) Job Embeddedness Model

[edit] References
1. ^ "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey". Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2008. http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=JTS0 0000000TSR. Retrieved 2009-01-21. 2. ^ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, total non-farming separations (not seasonally adjusted), Series ID JTU00000000TSR, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?jt "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey " 3. ^ U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, total separations Leisure and Hospitality (not seasonally adjusted), Series ID JTU70000000TSR, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?jt "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey " 4. ^ Schlesinger, Leonard A.; James L. Heskett (1991-04-15). "Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services". MIT Sloan Management Review 33 (3): 1728. http://sloanreview.mit.edu/themagazine/articles/1991/spring/3232/breaking-the-cycle-of-failure-in-services/. Retrieved 200901-21. 5. ^ Williams ACdeC, Potts HWW (2010). Group membership and staff turnover affect outcomes in group CBT for persistent pain. Pain, 148(3), 481-6 6. ^ Ruby, Allen M. (January 2002). "Internal Teacher Turnover in Urban Middle School Reform". Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk 7 (4): 379406. doi:10.1207/S15327671ESPR0704_2. 7. ^ a b Dijkstra, Eelco (December 2008). "What Drives Logistics Professionals?". http://europhia.com/docs/europhia-research-what-drives-logistics-professionals.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-21. 8. ^ Hackman, J. Richard; Greg R. Oldham (August 1976). "Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory". Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 16 (2): 250279. doi:10.1016/0030-5073(76)90016-7. 9. ^ Thomas D Narcissism: Behind the Mask (2010) 10. ^ Tett, Robert P; John P. Meyer (1993). "Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, Turnover Intention, and Turnover: Path Analyses Based on Meta-Analytic Findings". Personnel Psychology 46 (2): 259293. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1993.tb00874.x. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119295540/abstract. Retrieved 2009-01-21. 11. ^ a b c Employee Pride Goes Wide. (2005, February 2). Graphic Arts Monthly, Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. 12. ^ Costello, D. (2006, December). Leveraging the Employee Life Cycle. CRM Magazine, 10(12), 48-48. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. 13. ^ a b c d e f Testa, B. (2008, September 22). Early Engagement, Long Relationship?. Workforce Management, 87(15), 27-31. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. 14. ^ Skabelund, J. (2008, May). I just work here. American Fitness, 26(3), 42-42. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Historical interest

Colvin, Fred H. (1919). Labor turnover, loyalty and output: a consideration of the trend of the times as shown by the results of war activities in the machine shops and elsewhere. New York City: McGraw-Hill. OCLC 512539. LCCN 19-006158. http://books.google.com/?id=sZo2AAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage. [hide]

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Employee Turnover
Retention Home Employee Turnover

There are four types of employee turnovers: Functional turnover: A turnover in which poor performers leave is called as functional turnover. Dysfunctional turnover: A turnover in which good performers leave is called as dysfunctional turnover Avoidable turnover: A turnover that happens in avoidable circumstances is called as avoidable turnover. Unavoidable turnover: A turnover that happens in unavoidable circumstances is called as unavoidable turnover. For eg. Employees death or spouses relocation.

Mostly it is said that employee turn over is not good for the organizations. But employers should remember that turnover is not that bad either. What is required is an optimum mix of turnover, not too high-not too low. An optimum mix of employee turnover can help in many ways. A little rate of employee turnover may result into: 1. 2. 3. 4. Bringing in new ideas and skills from new hires. Better employee-job matches. More staffing flexibility. Facilitate change and innovation.

High rate of turnover may lead to decrease in: 1. 2. 3. Causes Productivity Service delivery Spread of organizational knowledge of employee turnover

In order to know the cause of excessive employee turnover, the causes of dysfunctional and avoidable turnover should be known. Few reasons for dysfunctional turnover may be:

Compensation package differences Job and employee skill mismatch: the job may be less or more satisfying and challenging according o the employee. Inferior facilities, tools, etc Less recognition

Less or no appreciation for work done Less growth opportunities Poor training Poor supervision Less work and life balance practices

EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

Photo by: AKS

Employee turnover occurs when employees voluntarily leave their jobs and must be replaced. Turnover is expressed as an annual percentage of the total workforce. For example, 25 percent employee turnover would mean that one-quarter of a company's workforce at the beginning of the year has left by the end of the year. Turnover should

not to be confused with layoffs, which involve the termination of employees at the employer's discretion in response to business conditions such as reduced sales or a merger with another company. The severity of turnover varies widely by type of business and the economic health of the region where companies are located. Innovative high-tech companies and the most successful manufacturers frequently experience low turnover rates while fast-food restaurant managers expect turnover to be as high as 50 to 75 percent. As another example, coal mining companies in sparsely populated regions experience lower rates of turnover because there are few other job opportunities.

CAUSES OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

The prospect of getting higher pay elsewhere is one of the most obvious contributors to turnover. This practice can be regularly observed at all levels of the economic ladder, from executives and generously paid professionals in high-stress positions to entry-level workers in relatively undemanding jobs. However, there is considerable evidence that money is often not the root cause of turnover, even when it is a factor in an employee's decision to quit. Rather, some experts believe that high turnover persists in certain jobs and companies because they have an atmosphere in which employees look for reasons to leave, and money is a convenient and sometimes compelling justification. In one survey, for example, more than half of the respondents didn't even list pay in the top three reasons they believed people quit their jobs. Indeed, there is a whole school of thought that claims pay is not a direct determinant of job satisfaction. Most environmental contributors to turnover can be directly traced to management practices. Turnover tends to be higher in environments where employees feel they are taken advantage of, where they feel undervalued or ignored, and where they feel helpless or unimportant. Clearly, if managers are impersonal, arbitrary, and demanding, there is greater risk of alienation and turnover. Management policies can also affect the environment in basic ways such as whether employee benefits and incentives appear generous or stingy, or whether the company is responsive to employees' needs and

wants. Management's handling of major corporate events such as mergers or layoffs is also an important influence on the work environment afterwards. Some turnover is demographically specific, particularly for women who are balancing significant work and family duties at the same time. Such women (or men) may choose to leave a company instead of sacrificing their other interests and responsibilities in order to make the job work out. Some women elect to quit their jobs at childbirth, rather than simply taking a maternity leave. Women's perceptions of their career paths might also be tinted by their awareness of the glass ceiling, which may lower their level of commitment to any particular firm, since they believe they're not in contention for toplevel jobs. These factors translate into higher turnover rates for women in many companies. Retirement of experienced employees can cause high rates of turnover and extreme loss in productivity, particularly in industries where there is little competition. For example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has expressed concern about its future launch capability as thousands of 1970s-era "'space race" engineers simply age out of the workforce. Work stress experienced at particular types of jobs can also create turnover. Childcare workers watching over constantly crying children, waiters dealing with demanding dinnertime customers, police officers in high-crime areas, and truck drivers facing long hours and heavy traffic are all in job categories experiencing high levels of turnover. Even seasonal changes such as the beginning of a school year can cause high turnover when part-time, school-age employees return to their classrooms. In this case, however, turnover is less likely to be unexpected by management. For instance, summer touristarea restaurants likely staff up with college-age waiters knowing that they will leave by August.

EFFECTS OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

High turnover can be a serious obstacle to productivity, quality, and profitability at firms of all sizes. For the smallest of companies, a high turnover rate can mean that simply having enough staff to fulfill daily functions is a challenge, even beyond the issue of how well the work is done when staff is available. Turnover is no less a problem for major companies, which often spend millions of dollars a year on turnover-related costs. For service-oriented professions, such as management consulting or account management, high employee turnover can also lead to customer dissatisfaction and turnover, as clients feel little attachment to a revolving contact. Customers are also likely to experience dips in the quality of service each time their representative changes. The cost of turnover varies with the difficulty of the job to be performed. For example, in a food-processing company, showing someone how to put jars of jam into a cardboard box may take five minutes, so the cost of training someone to handle this job would not be high. If, however, the tyrannical manager of the food processing line at the company kept driving away food cookers and quality-control workers, the cost of constantly training employees in this critical area could be high. In general, reducing employee turnover saves money. Money saved from not having to find and train replacement workers can be used elsewhere, including the bottom line of the company's profit statement. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that it costs about 33 percent of a new recruit's salary to replace a lost employee. In other words, it could cost $11,000 in direct training expenses and lost productivity to replace an experienced employee making $33,000. Private industry estimates for highly skilled jobs peg turnover losses at a much higher level, up to 150 percent of the position's annual salary. Some research studies have found that turnover from transient workers has lasting effects on loyal employees who stay with a company. One study tested productivity among workers who were exposed to a management-planted person who quit in the middle of a task, citing dissatisfaction with the job and the company. A second group of employees worked with another planted person who had to leave the task because of

illness. The group exposed to the employee who quit had lower productivity levels than the group exposed to the ill employee. The employees apparently took the complainer's statements to heart while the ill employee had nothing bad to say about the company. High turnover can sometimes be useful, though. Employers who are poor interviewers may not discover that new employees are actually poor employees until after the workers have been on the payroll for several weeks. Rather than go to the trouble and documentation of firing these underperforming workers, some companies rely on turnover to weed out the bad employees. When the learning curve is small and the consequences of always having inexperienced workers are minimal, high turnover may not be seen as a significant problem. SEE ALSO : Employee Motivation ; Labor-Management Relations [ Clint Johnson ]

FURTHER READING:
Caplan, Gayle, and Mary Teese. Survivors: How to Keep Your Best People on Board after Downsizing. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1997. Cole, Joanne. "E&Y Creates Office of Retention and Turnover Rates Drop." HR Focus, April 1999. Griffeth, Peter Hom, and Rodger Griffeth. Employee Turnover. Cincinnati: SouthWestern Publishing, 1992. Harris, Jim, and Joan Brannick. Finding & Keeping Great Employees. New York: AMACOM, 1999. Middlebrook, John F. "Avoiding Brain Drain: How to Lock in Talent." HR Focus, March 1999.

Read more: Employee Turnover - duties, benefits, expenses http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Eco-Ent/EmployeeTurnover.html#ixzz1n6e5SerC

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Employee Turnover
Gregorio Billikopf "I employ one person at a time and Ive had as many as eleven persons in one year ... maybe Im not paying them enough." San Joaqun Valley Dairy Farmer Employee turnover can hurt the overall productivity of a farm and is often a symptom of other difficulties. One dairy manager put it this way: "Every time a milker leaves, I lose about one cow." Turnover in livestock operations upsets routines, makes animals uncomfortable, and affects the health and safety of the herd. Other costs of turnover are associated with the processes of selecting, orienting, and training new workers. While an employee is being replaced, a substitute (sometimes you, the farmer or manager) has to be found to do the work. Many farm employers feel it takes about two years to train a year-round employee. Some employment separations come quickly and as a surprise to both the worker and employer (e.g., the employee may be offered a job at another farm). Other separations are known long in advance to the worker, farmer, or both. Many employees experience reluctance, ambivalence, and stress about leaving a job in pursuit of another. Some workers would rather retain a disliked job than venture into the unknown. Often employees leave mentally even though they show up to work regularly. Knowing the reasons why workers leave can give farmers an edge in improving working relationships. One way of classifying turnover is by the degree of control the farm employer has over the separation. As a farmer you may have little influence over the workers family problems, moderate influence over scheduling, and relatively high control of the relationship between management and workers. Turnover is not always bad. Sometimes positions are no longer essential. Those who leave are not replaced. Many farmers are uncomfortable either disciplining or terminating poor performers and are relieved when these leave on their own accord. Some employers make a

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workers life difficult so she will leave on her own. In the language of the courts this may be regarded as constructive discharge and be treated in a similar fashion as a regular firing. Next, we look at a dairy turnover study. Although the data and reasons for turnover may vary with time, region, and type of agricultural commodity, this information may provide some useful insights into turnover. Dairy Turnover Study In a 1983 study1 I interviewed dairy workers in an effort to (1) determine whether single or multiple reasons are involved in turnover; (2) establish what these reasons are; and (3) estimate turnover rates. More than one hundred dairy employees were involved, including milkers, outside men, and herdsmen. Workers had little trouble recalling the reasons for their departure from previous positions. Most cited a single reason rather than a combination of motives. When there were multiple causes for leaving, one was predominant. Why do workers leave dairies?2 Table 15-1 gives the principal and secondary reasons for workers leaving dairies. It shows the results of a 1953 and a 1983 study. Both studies found compensation was a leading cause of turnover. It accounted for 35 percent of turnovers in 1983. The 1953 study differentiated between "left to get higher pay (21%)," and "too much work required (14%)." Another similarity is the frequency of turnover due to relations with other employees.

Source: Fuller & Viles 3 for 1953 data & Billikopf 4 for 1983 data.

The major differences in findings of the 1953 and 1983 studies are: (1) personal problems involved 7 percent of workers in 1953 and 19 percent in 1983; (2) economic problems of dairies, not mentioned at all in the earlier study, accounted for 11 percent of responses in 1983; (3) relations between workers and management accounted for 17 percent of the turnover in 1953 and 8 percent in 1983; and (4) employer-initiated terminations were the cause of 24 percent of the turnover in the earlier study compared to 7 percent in the 1983 study. Examples of responses in each category1983 responses Compensation and benefits. Some workers left because (1) of a poor match between pay and work expected; or (2) the farmer did not come through with pre-employment promises. Others left their jobs because they did not receive health insurance. Personal and family problems. Several workers took vacations to revisit the country of their birth, especially to get married. Some workers left their jobs because of marital problems, including divorce. Other workers moved (1) to be closer to their families; (2) because a family member needed a change in climate for health reasons; and (3) so a family member could get a job at another dairy. Less common were departures for reasons of pregnancy and to join a family business. Economic problems of dairy. Economic problems included (1) the dairyman selling out, (2) change of ownership, and (3) change in location of dairy. Relations with other workers. Several employees did not get along with co-workers. They felt co-workers were lazy, got drunk during off hours, or gave conflicting orders. Some workers got along so well with a coworker that when the dairyman fired their friend (or relative), they also left. One worker quit because he got lonely working by himself in the milk parlor. Another worker left because there were others in the parlor and he liked working alone. Relations with management. Turnover associated with workermanagement relations included: (1) not getting along with the herd manager or farmer; (2) feeling supervisors did not know how to give orders; (3) having to do work of a personal nature for a herd manager, in addition to assigned milker duties; (4) dairy farmer who was never satisfied with the amount of work (the harder a milker worked, the more that was expected of him); (5) language difference presenting too large a communication barrier; (6) experiencing sexual harassment; and (7) receiving orders from too many bosses, including the dairymans wife

and children. Fired. A couple of workers had no idea why they were fired. Those who did know the farmers reason mentioned: (1) not getting along with the herd manager or dairy farmer; (2) worker insisting on receiving promised benefits; (3) losing eligibility to work in a school dairy after graduation; (4) increased dairy automation; and (5) excessive absenteeism. Housing and transportation. Few workers quit because of the quality of housing. One worker who got married, however, did report leaving to find more adequate space. Most of the comments centered on the distance between housing and the dairy or the nearest town. This problem was mentioned mainly by workers who did not have a car. Working schedules and time off. Reasons associated with schedules and time off included intolerance for night shift, split shift, and little time off. Job duties. One worker wanted outside work rather than milking. Another wanted milking rather than outside work. A herdsman disagreed about the management of the dairy. One milker was asked to do some tasks by hand when he felt there was a faster method. One worker was offered a job with more desirable duties. A worker got tired of the dairy business.5 Dairy design. No one mentioned dairy design as a principal cause for leaving their job. Two mentioned it as a secondary reason.

The average turnover frequency for workers was once per year in the 1953 study. In contrast, the 1983 study found average stays at previous jobs was two and a half years. The average length of employment in the present job, however, was more than four years. The average length of employment seems to have greatly increased during this thirty year period. There were major differences among individual worker statistics. Two employees who had worked in dairies for the same amount of time (fourteen years each) contrasted widely: one had worked for two dairies for seven years each, while the other had average lengths of employment of about two years each. In another comparison, two workers holding four jobs each, lasted an average of half a year per dairy compared to the other who lasted an average of four and a half

years per dairy. Reducing Unwanted Turnover Throughout this book we have discussed how farmers can hire better qualified employees, train them, and pay and treat them as professionals. A few additional thoughts that have surfaced in this part of the chapter are the importance of placing employees in jobs they like, not offering pay, benefits, or responsibilities one does not intend to provide, and giving employees an opportunity for time off. Several dairy farmers, for instance, could share one or more relief milkers. A farmer could also hire a relief milker to take over on a longer term basis while milkers take their vacations end-to-end. A useful tool for understanding and managing turnover is the exit interview. You can check the reasons why workers leave the farm, and ask for suggestions on how to improve the way you do business. If properly conducted, you can get some candid answers that can help prevent problems in the future. Another tool farmers can use, before it is too late to change the employees mind, is a periodic worker satisfaction survey. It would be better not to conduct the survey at all, however, if its only purpose is to measure satisfaction. It is essential to implement changes in areas the survey shows needed improvement. A well constructed survey should yield plenty of worker suggestions for management change. Reducing discontent helps to prevent a multitude of problems besides turnover, including slow-downs and sabotage. While satisfaction with work does not necessarily increase productivity, dissatisfaction will probably decrease it. A grievance procedure allows employees to express their dissatisfaction with management action. The very existence of a binding arbitration agreement may increase resolution of differences at a lower level of a grievance procedure (Chapter 9). A final note. Depending on the reason for leaving, there may be a danger in re-hiring employees. This is especially true if they left because of dissatisfaction or poor personal relationships with co-workers or others. It is easy for workers to forget the reasons why they leftuntil they come back. Leaving the second time is just easier, regardless of the reason they left the first time. Some who leave, of course, may come back to perform very productively.

Summary Turnover can be a symptom of other problems, especially dissatisfaction with work or working conditions. Measures taken to prevent turnover are bound to improve other operating results as well. Turnover is costly in terms of time and effort required to recruit, select, and train new personnel. Farmers have many tools at their disposal to combat unwanted turnover. Holding exit interviews with workers who leave the farm can help determine if there are specific problem areas to watch and improve. So does conducting worker satisfaction surveys. Chapter 15 References 1. Billikopf, Gregory Encina. "Why Workers Leave Dairies." California Agriculture, September 1984, pp. 26-28. 2. Including data from Fuller, V., and Viles, G. Labor-Management Relationships and Personnel Practices in Market Milk Dairies, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics No. 140. University of California, Berkeley, 1953, p. 42. 3. Fuller, V., and Viles, G. Labor-Management Relationships and Personnel Practices In Market Milk Dairies, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics No. 140. University of California, Berkeley. 1953, p. 42. 4. Billikopf, Gregory Encina. "Why Workers Leave Dairies." California Agriculture, September 1984, pp. 26-28. 5. This worker eventually returned to a dairy job, but obviously there could be others who left dairy jobs and we would not know because of the design of this study.

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Labor Management in Ag Table of Contents 11 August 2006