FINAL RESEARCH ESSAY:

INVESTIGATING HIGH TURNOVER RATES WITHIN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

The hospitality industry is a category of the service industry which offers a product-service mix to guests, including lodging accommodation, food service operations, event planning, visitor attractions, transportation and cruise lines and other operations aimed at hosting or catering to guest needs. While the hospitality industry provides immense benefits to worldwide economy, lifestyle and culture, researchers suggest that the hospitality industry suffers from negative effects associated with turnover rates as this industry is amongst the highest in employee turnover rates. (Lewis, 2012). The high employee turnover in the hospitality industry is believed to be due to the nature of the work, lack of job satisfaction and lack of motivators delivered to employees by employers or organizations (Carver, 2011). While the industry struggles to establish to understand employees and keep them satisfied with their jobs, understanding the industry in necessary in understand the behavior of employees.

The exceptionally high turnover rate in the hospitality industry is approximately 20 times the national average for the Unites States of America in employee turnover. The hospitality industry turnover rate sits over 60 percent while the United States of America has an average 3-percent rate in annual turnover of employers, within all industry, excluding hospitality. (Lewis, 2012). One of the primary challenges that the hospitality industry continues to face is high level of turnover and understanding what can be done to keep employees within the industry. Employee turnover can be categorized as push or pull factors. Pull factors can be related to the flexibility in the hospitality industry which include the attraction or availability for employment elsewhere of interest,