Employee Retention at JD's Casino
PSY 435
May 13, 2013

Employee Retention at JD's Casino
Employee retention should be a high priority for any company because the lower their turnover rate the higher their profits. One of the most expensive costs in doing business is employee turnover (Employee Retention, 2007). Meaning, the more a company has to pay for training new employees, the less their overall profit will be at the end of the fiscal year. A few things that may interfere with employee retention are occupational stressors, employee’s job satisfaction, and counterproductive employee behavior. Although there may be several items that interfere with employee retention, there are also many work motivation theories that an organization can use to assist in retaining their employees; two examples would be goal-setting theory and reinforcement theory. JD’s Casino has a few job related stressors that could be a cause for concern; however, formulating a plan to reduce those by applying work motivation theories will be useful with employee retention at JD’s Casino.
Occupational Stressors
Occupational stressors are a major concern for health issues and a number of different problems within the workplace, such as substance abuse, physical illness, and family problems. (“Physiology of Job Stress,” 2009). These stressors are often liked to work related problems like absenteeism, low production rates, and more accidents (“Physiology of Job Stress,” 2009). One occupational stressor for the dealers at the casino appears to be the pit boss Joe. In many exit interviews with dealers, they have stated that Joe is “toxic, overbearing, evil, and incompetent.” These words about a supervisor lead me to believe that this supervisor does not respect his employees and more than likely harasses them daily, which are two work related stressors that the dealers do not need. It appears the dealer would rather go elsewhere performing the same work for less pay than have to put up with a supervisor like Joe. To rectify this situation, I would first notify the owner that his step son is the primary cause for the high turnover of his dealers and that his HR manager Mr. Sneed did not want to tell him that. I would recommend that he be considered for a back of the house assignment in which he is not directly supervising employees as he does not know how to treat them with dignity and respect. If he must remain as the pit boss, I would suggest a seminar on management skills and a review in 30, 60 and 90 days to ensure employee satisfaction of Joe’s performance after the seminar.
The occupational stressor in the housekeeping area is that the housekeepers are being overworked because of the shortage in the department. The director Andrew Keehn states it is because “good help is hard to find.” I do not believe this to be the case; I believe that Andrew is not choosing the correct employees during the interview process. To rectify this stressor I would hire new housekeepers, but I would do so properly. I would first witness an interview conducted by Mr. Keehn and provide him with constructive criticism on how it could be conducted better in the future. I would also conduct several interviews and have Mr. Keehn to observe so we can ensure the proper person(s) are selected for the open positions.
Job Satisfaction
The housekeepers are not satisfied with their jobs because they are overworked and having to clean twice as many rooms as the housekeepers at other casino hotels of comparable size. The employees that are being pulled from the accounting and payroll departments to cover housekeeping are not satisfied with their jobs as well because they are having to do more work and work that is not their own. These are both problem areas in retaining employees because they can go elsewhere and receive the same or even better pay for less work. The hiring of enough housekeepers to maintain a full staff would solve shortage issues and increase job satisfaction, not only in the housekeeping area but also in the areas where employees are being pulled to cover the housekeeping tasks.
The overall job satisfaction for the dealers will remain in discord as long as Joe remains the pit boss, as he creates undue stress on the dealers and JD will continue to lose dealers to other casinos. However, once Joe is removed from the floor I believe the overall job satisfaction of the dealers will increase tremendously.
Counterproductive Employee Behavior Pulling of other employees in the accounting and payroll departments is counterproductive behavior. It is counterproductive because these employees had to be quickly trained in the job of a housekeeper and keeps them from focusing on their own work. Also the rooms are probably not as clean as they would be if they were cleaned by a proper housekeeper, thus resulting in unsatisfied guests, which affect the company’s bottom line. These individuals from the accounting and payroll department are more than likely being paid at a rate higher than that of a housekeeper and that is also affecting the company’s bottom line and thus making it counterproductive. Again, this can be rectified with the hiring of a full housekeeping staff. These employees from other areas will be able to return to performing only their job which will increase their productivity and job satisfaction because it will once again be their primary focus. This not only increases the employee’s job satisfaction, but is also more productive for the company as a whole.
Work Motivation Theories Work motivation theories deal with the reasons for which some employees do a job better than another, other than ones capability of doing the job (Spector, 2008). There are several work motivation theories but the two that I would choose for JD’s Casino’s employee retention program would be goal-setting theory and reinforcement theory. According to Spector (2008), goal-setting theory assists in explaining how an individual’s goals can produce a behavior. The reinforcement theory states that rewards and praise affect ones behavior (Spector, 2008). An incentive system is a type of reinforcement that offers some type of reward to an individual for reaching their goal (Spector, 2008). I would use goal-setting theory and reinforcement theory together to combine a system than would help JD casino in retaining its employees. The system would start off by producing departmental goals for each department such as housekeeping, dealers, accounting, payroll, etc. The goals for each department would be posted on the wall of the break room for all departments to see. With each department’s goals being visible it gives the opportunity for those who are meeting and exceeding their goals to be praised by everyone and those departments that need a little encouragement can be up-lifted by the other departments. Within these department goals, there will be goals for each individual employee to obtain, but these will only be visible to their supervisors and managers, who will also be able to give individual praise or words of encouragement. Achieving goals within the department boosts morale within the departments and ultimately with the company and a company with happy employees is a productive one. The incentive program would also be done by department and individual. The departmental goals are individualized per department and each department would have a minimum-performing standard and a high-performing standard of goals. The incentives for each department would be awarded on a quarterly basis. For example, the accounting department meets the high-performing standards each month of the quarter, the department may get to go out on a company paid excursion to an event going on or perhaps a museum visit. If they only meet the minimum standards the reward may be a catered lunch for the department or a combination of minimum and high-performing standards the department may get to go out for a company paid lunch. The rewards for reaching departmental goals for each quarter are just a little extra incentive for employees to try to do their best. The individual incentives are what really make the employees want to do their best because they control the outcome of their own reward. The individual incentives are based on reaching the goals designed for each individual position. The individual employee incentive program would be awarded on a bi-monthly basis and the individual must meet all goals to be awarded the incentive. For example, the position of housekeeper would have goals that include: arriving at work on time and no unexcused absences, completing all assigned rooms before 2:30 p.m. daily, successfully passing a quality control inspection every week and that is just to name a few goals they would have to meet. If at the end of the bi-monthly period the housekeeper has accomplished each goal they would receive a bonus of $150, one paid day off or any other type of small appropriate bonus. I believe that this will help employee recruitment because the employee incentive program may be an advantage over the competing casinos in the area, which might sway an applicant to choose JD’s Casino. It will help in employee retention by allowing the employees to control the outcome of their own incentive. They have been giving the opportunity to earn six more paid days off per year or a bonus of $900 dollars. Yet again, this may be the only place this incentive program is available and if they do not gain the incentive then it was of their own doing.
Conclusion
JD’s Casino has a major problem with the pit boss Joe making the dealers quit and go to work for other casinos and the problems with the housekeeping staff are affecting the company’s bottom-line. The employees are not satisfied with their positions due to these ongoing issues and thus affecting JD’s employee retention. Despite the many problems within JD’s Casino, many solutions were presented he can use to rectify the problems and he can initiate the work motivation theories of goal-setting and reinforcement to ensure his future employee retention.

References
Employee retention. (2007). Trailer / Body Builders, 48(9), 317-317. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/199535856?accountid=35812 The Physiology of Job Stress (2009). Retrieved May 12, 2013, from http://www.cwa-union.org/pages/Occupational_Stress_and_the_Workplace Spector, P. E. (2008). Industrial and organizational psychology (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.