Qual i tative Research The Absence of Retention Essays - Employment

Qual i tative Research: The Absence of Retention March 21 , 2017 Jackie Jackson S ome employees believe there are fewer employment opportuniti es because the economy is down and their chances of finding new or b etter employment is bleak. Therefore, they tend to stay at their present job until the economy picks up. To the hiring management team i n the organization , this type of thinking can be viewed as an opportunity to retain employees, but what employers don't understand is as soon as the economy picks back up (in some cases even when it doesn't) , employees will leave if they are not satisfied with their current position therefore, costing the company money . Why do o ne - third of new employees quit their job within six months ? Knowing the answer to that, i t is very critical t o organizations because only then , will they understand the importance of employee retention . The purpose of this study will be to explore why new hires between the ages of 18-30 are dissatisfied with their employment, thus leaving their current positions within six months of being hired. In order to gather data and conduct research , 15 face-to-face surveys were conducted at the Unemployment Office and 5 online surveys were sent out . The individuals for this study ranged from 18-30 years of age. The data lead to the following three themes : leadership failure , low wages, and lack of training . These themes will be used to understand the need to retain employees. I work at J C Penny, which employs about 120 personnel. Within the last three months, about 25 employees have left, which gives J C Penny a retention rate of 75%, which means 25% of employees leaves every quarter which cost the company money. The process of hiring new employees consist of: advertising, time cost of reviewing resumes, time cost to interviewing , drug screens, background checks, and in some cases, pre-employment assessment test. Not every new hire will demand the entire process, but even at $8/hour, employees can end up costing a company around $3,500 in turnover costs, both direct and indirect ( Mueller, A., 2011). For this study case I will be using the Qualitative Research method because it allowed me to interact with people . Qualitative research is the application of observational techniques or the analysis of documents as the primary means of learning about persons or groups and their characteristics.This type of research design is often called fieldwork, referring to the immersion of researchers into the lives and worlds of those studied.It involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do and say (M.U.S.E . , 2013). The Qualitative data for this study will be collected through interviews and personal observations. The survey instrument utilized was the Survey Monkey. I chose the survey research method because it was easy to administer and it was cost effective. The participants ranged from age 18-30, male and female, degree and non-degree, that was utilizing the unemployment office. Each was presented with an individual survey to answer seven questions, which they thought applied to them in the past job s . The unemployment office was selected for this survey because it was where personnel went to look for a job. The ethical considerations I had to ensure was to keep the survey anonymous and generic so the participants could not be identified. Because the sample population were different ages, I only asked if their age fell within a certain range. The results were downloaded unto a spreadsheet for analysis. What is it that new hires see as the main contributing factor for leaving their job after being employed for six months or less? With random personnel selected over a two day period at the unemployment office and after sending the survey online, they were asked the following questions (see attached). The results are as follows: Age 18-22 Age 23-26 Age 27-30 Lack of leadership 1 2 17 Lack of training 1 2 16 Low wages 14 3 2 No communication 0 3 15 Job Recognition 3 2 12 This Qualitative Research explored the components that go into developing