Abstract The present study is to investigate the various factors that are affecting high attrition rate in
hotel industry. The type of research employed for the present study was descriptive and survey
method approach. The data were collected on both primary and secondary sources from
J.W.Marriott,Bengaluru. A study conducted by an industry chamber located in New Delhi reveals that
the attrition rate in the hospitality industry in India is set to double to nearly 50 per cent by 2010, up
from the earlier 25 per cent growing at an alarming rate of 10 per cent per annum. Country inn & Suites
hotel and resorts are currently facing attrition at an alarming rate of 7.1 % where 5% is considered to be
average and 2-3 % is considered good. The Primary data comprises of questionnaire and exit interview
method undertaken to collect the data from the employees and the secondary data was picked up from
the company records of attrition. The result showed that the lack in salary, stress in
job, compensation, better opportunities and stake issues were the major reasons behind the problem of
attrition in the company.
Keywords : Attrition, work place, comfortable atmosphere, stress, hospitality industry .
INTRODUCTION
Employee attrition is a situation faced by an organization or employer when new employees
joined leaves the organization to join other organization when he gets offers. Normally
company faces higher attrition rate when there are more employment opportunities in the
market by employers. At one point of time software industry has faced high attrition rate by
employers due to large openings globally in the software industry due to the demand for
software products by all industries.
Attrition is one of the critical problems which are faced by an HR manager during these days.
In an ideal situation an employee consider multiple comfort level while working in a office
for e.g. employer's goodwill in the market, remuneration, future growth, working condition,
co-workers, current role's scope in the market & most important future stability with the
organization. In a survey, approximate 70% of the working population in India is not happy
The hospitality space in our country is deprived of trained manpower. This sector is facing
severe challenges from other industries. This industry is deficient of some prime motivational
aspects like attractive salary compensation, maintaining a good work life balance, better
opportunities to grow. This study aims at showcasing the facts related to the issue of
escalating attrition rate in JW Marriott Bengaluru. This paper aims to accentuate on the
various factors due to which a lot of hotel employees switch industries in due course of time.
A graphical representation showcasing departmental attrition analysis will also be
highlighted.
Hotels in Bangalore have been transforming ever since globalization came into place and
businesses started expanding. A few years back the city of Bangalore hardly had any five star
hotels or budget hotels. But if we look at the market scenario today, the market is highly
infested with hotels across various market segments. With time, the clientele base has also
started to become more diverse. With time the city of Bangalore developed into a business
hub and is also popularly known as the Garden City of India. The competition in the market
is extremely competitive and everyone is trying to put in their best in order to stay ahead of
competition and capture the highest market space. Contrasting several industries where
tangible goods are produced; it is not possible to streamline the quality of Service because
of the presence of the human element in the hospitality industry.
The hotel industry aims at streamlining their policies of Human Resources and overcoming
the major issues faced by the industry today, one of which is the increasing employee
attrition rate. The Human Resources department in the hotels has started to address this issue
seriously and have started to design various policies and procedures to curb the increasing
attrition rate.
Objectives
1. To study the reasons that result in increasing employee turnover by doing a
department attrition analysis in JW Marriott Bangalore.
Literature Review
Panwar (2012) explained why associates of organisations arent able to keep up with the
changing industrial environment. This was done through a survey of various employees at
hotels and it was found that majority of the employees wanted to switch to other hospitality
related industries like retail, ecommerce, aviation or tourism related sectors. Remuneration
and long shift timings are the two major areas of discontent for the employees of the hotel.
The project would also highlight on pointers for the hospitality industry to retain its
associates.
Laghane (2012) did a study on managing retention in the hospitality industry in India.
According to this study, it is possible to streamline the though process of employees of
human resources in order to focus on aspects of recruitments and Training & Development.
This study also showcases that it is important to streamline the above mentioned pointers as
these are important aspects in making a business successful. Sugandha (2010) also
highlighted important aspects of attrition rate in the hotel industry. Her study primarily
focused on various tools and techniques used to better the retention of employees in the hotel
industry.
Several theories of human resources management also focused on organisational behaviour
and development in hotels. Lee (2010) tried understanding work related characteristics that
had an influence on the satisfaction of employees and retention of employees. According to
his study, it was found that different work related characteristics played multiple roles to
measure retention of employees. His study also inferred that work place environment related
issues like accomplishment at work place had to be dealt with independently irrespective of
how the characteristics of the employee are.
A qualitative study was also done by Kandasamy (2009) with the intention of identifying
work life balance parameters in conjunction to the hospitality industry. Cho (2009) conducted
Framework
After the components of the issue are recognized and after the academic skeleton of the
project is in place, the successive move is to build up a framework in a manner through
which the obtained and collected data could be analyses before drawing the conclusion.
Based on the conclusion, further recommendations can be provided.
Research Methodology
The hotel company selected for evaluation of attrition rate in this project was JW Marriott
Bangalore.
This paper analysed the Exit Interview forms of all the employees who left between
September 2014 to April 2015. The collected information was then tabulated on an excel
sheet and graphically represented for analysis. For consistent liberation of information related
to attrition rate in hotels, an exploratory search was carried out on the online library of the
University of Huddersfield.
The data collected through the exit interviews was then incorporated with the help of
Secondary sources of information.
In this project the sample and population size remain the same as the analysis was done
on the basis of the exit interview forms(i.e.; the forms of the associates were analyzed
after they left the organization). Total count of the population and sample size of this
study is 153.
Drawing inferences from the exit interviews; the following prime factors have been
established:
3. Nature of Work
Due to the proactive nature of the industry; all its employees are expected to be proactive.
The characteristic traits of all the associates working in a hotel require them to be constantly
attentive and employees are at a move all the time. At time the employees of the hotel are
asked to do break shift whose timings are not well defined. During peak operations, there are
times when employees dont even get their weekly offs.
4. Work-Life Balance
Imbalance in social life is one of the biggest factors that affect the attrition rate of employees
at the hotel industry. Due to the long working hours in the hotel industry; most of the
employees prefer to rest after their long shift so that they could be fresh for their next days
assignment. Due to the round the clock nature of the industry; employees have to even work
6. Competition
Over the last few years, Bangalore has witnessed a noticeable growth in the hotel market
segment. There has been growth in the hotel market segments across all categorizations. Due
to this there has been vicious competition in the market because of which employees tend to
shift from one organization to another which is commonly termed as poaching. Employees
leave their organizations and join their competition hotels due to various factors which
include but are not limited to better salaries and work-life balance.
1. Customer Satisfaction
The nature of the hotel industry is such that personalized service is provided to all guests.
Due to high attrition rate in hotels; there is a direct impact on the overall customer
satisfaction because the employees who join newly have lesser bonding and connection with
the repeat guests. Also, the newer employees would lack the confidence and ability to satisfy
the repeat customers.
4. Loss of Reputation
Whenever an associate leaves his or her hotel; he or she tends to spread negative word of
mouth about the hotel because of the bad experiences he or she may have had. This has
serious implications on the status and branding of the hotel. It is also observed that people
dont easily get convinced to join hotel companies that have a high attrition rate.
Below is a tabulated synopsis of the measures that are taken by the hotel to curb the attrition
rate and its impact on the hotel.
The nature of the hospitality industry is such that it requires and involves a large amount of
manpower. Hospitality industry in India faces a major crunch of skilled manpower. Many
hotels dont even try to fill in all vacancies during off seasons in order to manage the labour
costs. Employees of the hotel leave because of various reasons like mentioned in the previous
section; in situations like this, a lot of additional work responsibilities are given to the
existing employees for the smooth functioning of the hotel operations.
Below is a tabulated synopsis of the measures that are taken by the hotel to curb the attrition
rate and its impact on the hotel.
Another interesting fact was that the Absconding cases summed up to a total of 33.5% of the
total attrition rate. Out of the total absconding cases; 63% of the total cases were of
employees who joined the organization between 0-3 months. This means that new employees
who join the organization face challenges in settling down and find it hard to do their day to
day activities. It is because of these factors that the employees get frustrated and tend to leave
the organization for better prospects. The largest number of absconding cases (a total of 57%)
belonged to the Food and Beverage department showcasing lack of manpower handling
within the department which was leading to excessive work pressure on some employees.
The increasing attrition rate at JW Marriott Bangalore is a major concern for the hotel. In
order to embark upon this condition, JW Marriott Bangalore also created a process for
measuring the attrition rate of the hotel. Despite the several policies laid down by the hotel in
order to curb the attrition rate; it is observed that the effectiveness of the same is still not very
lucrative. It is very surprising to see that most of the attrition rate in the hotel is because of
absconding cases and virtually the employee turnover of the hotel is 100% at an average time
frame of 3 years. The reputation of the hotel and the customer satisfaction index are major
parameters that are impacted because of increasing employee turnover. The major factors that
impact the attrition rate in the hotel have been discussed in depth. It is extremely crucial for
hotels to develop and mechanize a process of keeping attrition rate under control so that
changes and modifications in the processes if required can be done immediately and thus this
would help in keeping the attrition rate under control. It is very important for departments to
work in conjunction with the human resources department and act proactively in order to
curb the attrition at the hotel.
Employers should analyze and try and understand the root cause of why employees are
leaving the organization. This can be done through a planned exit interview method. The
same method has been used in order to draw the results and discussions. By conducting and
executing a proper exit interview; the employer leaves and impression on its departing
employees that the company still cares for them.
Attrition Rate analysis is an ongoing process and several tools can be further used or
developed to analyze the depth of the impact and factors that influence the increasing attrition
rate in hotels.
Bibliography
Brymer, R. A. (1991). Managerial Job Stress in the hotel industry. International
Journal of Hospitality Management , 10 (1), 47-58.
Deery, M. (2008). Talent Management, Work Life Balance and Retention Strategies.
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Panwar, S. (2012). High Staff Turn Over In Hotel Industry, Due to Low
Remunerations and Extended Working Hours! International Journal of Business
Management , II (3), 81-89.