Employee Turnover: Causes, Impacts & Solutions - Essay Sample

Introduction

Employee turnover is an issue bedevilling many firms. It is an example of a silent industrial conflict that has seen staff depart from unfulfilling work situations (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2014). Understanding the causes of employee turnover has, therefore, attracted much attention. The assumption has been that employee turnover results from staff, markets, and the firms' specific characteristics. Their impact can reduce through the development of policies that address such features (Fugate & Kincki, 2017).

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Employee turnover is today a common occurrence in most industries, with employee loyalty diminishing. Mergers and acquisitions have left employees detached from the firms they work for, and uncertain about their job security. Employees are, therefore aligning themselves to jobs that meet their security needs, hence the growing rates of employee turnover (Fugate & Kincki, 2017). This study is seeking to employ the 3-stop problem-solving approach in analyzing the link between employee work attitude and employee turnover at Yahoo! Inc.

Problem Definition

Since taking over at Yahoo! in 2012, Marissa Mayer has presided over various setbacks, including high employee turnover, a drop in market share and revenue, and a general reduction in employee motivation and morale. There is also the problem of declining profits (Fugate & Kincki, 2017).

Causes of the Problem

The problem at Yahoo! Inc. can be well understood using the organizational behaviour approach (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2014). Firstly, there was a demand for new leadership as the people desired a change at the helm. Given the drop in revenue, which could have been a situational factor, the management resorted to layoffs to cut costs (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2014). The move led some employees into seeking alternative jobs, or just quit their jobs. About 33% of the workforce left in 2015, triggering the approval of hefty pay to persuade them to stay (Fugate & Kincki, 2017). However, the initiative caused resentment among loyal staff.

The handling of the matter by the CEO escalated the problem. She, for example, would tell the staff that the layoffs had ceased, only to order for more cuts. Statements like 'there will be no more layoffs this week,' and directives such as not telecommuting did erode employee morale and attitude, hastening their departure. Negative debate and criticism in the media hindered the company from recruiting qualified personnel. There also arose cases of dissent among the management, especially when supervisors were required to report inaccurately concerning employees missing work, just to weed some out. Most employees saw this as being unfair (Fugate & Kincki, 2017).

Recommendations

The situation at Yahoo! may be dealt with by proposing solutions. First, decision making should involve employees, given that they are stakeholders. Layoffs should not be directly linked to reduced profits, as the latter may be due to a situation in the economy, and not employee numbers. The case, therefore, requires an objective assessment (McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2014).

The firm should consider an attractive pay package to help in retaining the best brains. Communication is also a glaring problem worth addressing. The company should adopt a professional way of communicating such messages about layoffs and policy changes to the juniors. The CEO's bluntness with her communication did not help either (Fugate & Kincki, 2017). Lastly, the managers should observe integrity at all costs. No pressure should be applied to them to give false reports about their juniors.

References

Fugate, K., & Kincki, A. (2017). Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-Solving Approach. McGraw-Hill.

McGraw-Hill Higher Education. (2014, September 5). Organizational Behavior, 3- stop Problem Solving [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=231&v=MmRhEpLzHPk&feature=emb_title