Employee Turn Over Essays Example

Industry selected: Fast food Industry

Introduction
Fast food industry is one of the major industries which have been growing with time. This industry is something which has found its place in millions of heart throughout the world breaking barriers of geographical and cultural boundaries. People are fan of fast food from South Africa to China and from United States of America to England and South Asian countries like Pakistan and India. Origin of fast food industry goes back in 1930 after Great Depression when price of living suddenly became very much high and most of the members of families had to go out to earn and fulfill their needs which resulted in difficulty in cooking and as well as people had less time to eat together. That’s where fast food restaurants come in. People found it easier to have food while walking to their offices.
People loved the concept of drive thru while travelling and enabling them to enjoy their food at the same time. Food offered by fast food industry ranges from burgers to fries and BBQ, salad, noodles, fish and chips, sandwiches, subs, grilled cheese, steaks, healthy pitas, sausages, Chinese and buffalo wings etc. and it differs from continent to continent and from country to country (Card, Krueger, 2000).

Types of Employees at Fast Food Restaurants

Like every other industry, there are many types of employees and their groups. These types vary from franchise to franchise and to country to country. But here are some basics groups of employees which almost every fast food restaurant has. They are the following;

Cashiers

Every year, each fast food restaurant hires thousands of cashiers due to the fact that they have to receive payments from a large number of customers every other minute. Cashiers must have basic math skills as well as they should be polite and patient because they need to stand on their feet for long number of hours (Kelly, 2014).

Prep and Grill Cooks

Cooks are people who will be found at every other restaurant whether it is fast food or not. Cooks are responsible for cooking food. They need to be proficient in their abilities of cooking to satisfy demands and needs of customers. People nowadays look for taste as well as quality in food which is not easy for customers.

Customer help

Customer help and support staff is available at every fast food restaurant. They should be polite as well as respectable to customers and their needs. This demands them to be more patience and able to satisfy customers and to play their role in retaining customers of the restaurants.

Management

Management is something without which every corporate and non-corporate organization is incomplete. Management may consist of various types of managers. Manager is a person who manages a single department or overall restaurant. Assistant managers are people who assist managers in different type’s tasks managed by the manager (Lam, Zheng, 2000).

Housekeeping Staff

Housekeeping staff is also available at every fast food franchise. They are responsible for cleaning and maintaining the hygienic environment of the restaurant. They should be active and efficient in their work.

Employee turnover at Fast Food restaurants

Employee turnover rate means the rate at which employees are leaving one organization to another. Employee turnover has become a sensitive topic as the hospitality industry of the world has very high employee turnover rate. This has become a serious concern for the management of fast food restaurants (Card, Krueger, 2000).

Reasons of employee turnover rate

There can be many reasons for high employee turnover rate. Employees may find their job unsatisfactory or employers who are mostly small business owners who own one or two small franchises. They may have financial or management problems which can make it difficult to retain employees and their jobs. Some the reasons are following

Young Employees

Most of the employees are very much young and students who are working to meet the expenses of their education or workers are people who do not have proper jobs or waiting to get jobs in corporate offices or other places. Students may leave their jobs after completing their education or when they get internships. People working part time leave jobs when they get jobs offering more salaries in corporate and non-corporate sector (Kelly, 2014).

Financial problems

Owners of franchises who held one or two fast food may have financial problems due to the fact that they have to fulfill the standards of franchiser. For example; at McDonald’s franchises, management expects franchisees to do all the tasks according to the demand of parent company to maintain quality and standard of the restaurant.

Minimum Wage Rate by Restaurants

It has been surveyed that most of the restaurants pay less than minimum wage rate which causes employees to be dissatisfied. They have to work on their feet for long hours. Employees are often unsatisfied from the wage which they get for hectic and heavy duty (Lam, Zheng, 2000).

Economy Boom

This can be another reason for high employee turnover rate because during boom, more organization are being opened are more job opportunities are being generated. Employees have more and better options to work at higher rates.

Methods to reduce turnover rate in fast food industry

Availability of funds for restaurants
Restaurants should have more funds to tackle the financial problems of restaurants. Restaurants should hire financial consultants to help them in making right type of financial structure which would solve more financial problems (Card, Krueger, 2000).

High wage rates for employees

Restaurants should offer high wage rates to employees in order to satisfy and retain them in restaurants. This would cause employees to stay on their jobs for longer period of time as compared to now (Kelly, 2014).

Method to improve job satisfaction

Job satisfaction can be improved by offering higher wage rate as well as more services to employees. Medical and transport facilities should be given to the employees. So, employees may feel comfortable with their jobs while comparing their jobs to other people who have higher level of jobs. There should be training workshops for people of other groups of society in order to make comfortable to employees of fast food restaurants as they do not feel their jobs lower than other jobs available in society.
In short, employee turnover rate has become sensitive issue as more and more employees are leaving their jobs with the passage of time. Management of fast food restaurants should pay special attention to this issue as this can be a major reason for their low profits as they have to pay higher amounts to new employees in order to train and bring them up according to the quality and standards of restaurants. Serious consideration should be given to this issue as it is time of globalization and need of the hour (Card, Krueger, 2000).

References

Card, D., Krueger, A. (2000). Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Reply. The American Economic Review, Vol. 90, No. 5 (Dec., 2000), pp. 1397-1420.
Kelly, G. (2014). Number of employees in the United States fast food restaurant industry from 2004-2018. Retrieved on 14 February 2015 from:
http://www.statista.com/statistics/196630/number-of-employees-in-us-fast-food-restaurants-since-2002/
Lam, T., Zhang, Q. (2000). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the Hong Kong fast food industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 15 Iss: 4, pp.214 – 220.