Promotion and Education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Promotion and Education - Assignment Examplehe mathematical products cheaper rates in similarity to roaming devices as well as the fact that the device can be used for personal use, unlike most sources of wifi internet connections. Promotion will be done through use of a specifically designed promotional program. Marketing communication will be done prior to the entry of the product and after the product enters the market to ensure that customers are continuously reminded slightly it. The means of communication will be advertisements carried out on two social media and print media.Considering Inter-Fi will be a new product and in order to ensure there is fast spread of information about its presence in the market, a customer referral incentive program will be used to promote the product. Under the promotional program, current customers will sack discounts, free products as well as cash rewards depending on the number of new customers they refer to Vodafone retail stores for purc hase of the product (Kumar 2008, p.234). Customers wishing to use the product will choose between buying the lash-up at Vodafone retail stores and renting it from the same stores. Customers will also be able to purchase the gadget on hire purchase terms with an initial deposit of $100

Henry Kissinger supported a anti-Soviet, Sino-American Alliance Research Paper

Henry Kissinger supported a anti-Soviet, Sino-American Alliance - Research Paper physical exerciseAmerica was at war with the Vietnamese. His initial advisor as well as Gerald Fords Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger purported to redesign the international carcass architecture with view of cementing the role of America as the swivel of the originationwide power balance by initiating a Triangular Diplomacy. Scholars Richard Thornton, Lei Tong, and Chun waste argue that Kissinger did seek a tacit Sino-American Alliance because they all agree that, when Nixon opened for China with the intention of employing her as counterweight to the Soviet Union with a context of exiting Vietnam, Mao Zedong shifted to the American sphere ideally as part of anti-soviet coalitioni. However, when Nixon faltered, Henry Kissinger twisted the American stratagem away from containment towards searching for a detente with Moscow. This downturn bred unstable relations between the U.S. and China. On one s ide, Mao shifted the Chinese strategy due to the American strategy turn by faltering just now Deng replaced him. As Kissinger continued pursuing detente with Moscow, Xiaoping Deng started playing Washington off Moscow on the other side. From 1974 to the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, Deng resolved whenever possible to be at the center stage between the United States and the Soviet Unionii. The robust reason showing Kissingers tacit search for a Sino-American alliance is bargain between Ronald Reagan and Deng Xiaoping. Reagan thought by settling the Taiwan issues with Deng would ease the tension between the U.S. and China however, even though it held his administration through, it failed. As a result, the Secretary of State George Schultz resolved back to Kissingers detente strategy with Moscow depicting that Kissinger did seek a Sino-American Alliance. According to political analysts, detente is a word referring to decrement of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union that took place in three decades ago and lasted for roughly ten years. During this decade, in that location was an opportunity to hold talks, which resulted to agreements that tested to frontier the race of nuclear arms and established meaningful links such as the Iron Curtain. Henry Kissinger supported an anti-soviet Sino-American Alliance because, the United Sates comprehend the monolithic Sino-Soviet bloc between the Soviet Union and China as a threat since the latter were great communist allies during the 1950s. In the 1960s, there was a Cuban Missile Crisis that led to detente between the United States and the Soviet Unioniii. Apparently, it caused China sleepless nights as she worried about a possible Soviet-American rapprochement. On the other end, the Soviet leaders became apprehensive of Sino-American Alliance strength since the Americans and the Chinese had good relationship in the 1970s. According to Chun Yen, a number of options for superpowers such as the United States, China, and the Soviet Union existed in seeking safety measures in global affairs. For instance, they could increase military power beyond that of their adversaries, declare nuclear neutrality, and formula military alliances with other nations. The Peoples Republic of China and the United States resolved to option three since they knew nations will seek military alliance and as a result, the world will achieve balance of power. Nevertheless, Kissinger supported an anti-Soviet Sino-American bloc because he knew if President Nixon declared the U.S-China tensions bygones it would put more

How Capitalism Works in Different Scenarios Coursework

How Capitalism Works in Different Scenarios - Coursework ExampleAccording to Hagopian capitalism is a social organization which is currently experienced in every country. In this type of organization, means that are used for production are owned by a minority group in society (capitalistic word form). The rest of the population has to sell their labor in exchange for salary/wage (working class). Unlike the communistic form of organization where a society has no classes, in capitalism class division plays a major role. Capitalism is best explained by Karl Marx who says a capitalistic society has two main classes those who have (own the means of production) and those who have not. There may be the existence of other classes in society nevertheless the two are conceived as the major ones. According to Marx those who have are fond of exploiting those who do not have hence conflict will everlastingly exist between the two classes. This is what forms a capitalistic society and that is how it operates.Capitalism is the mode of production that is employed in our contemporary societies. In many societies today you will find the existence of the two main classes. Exploitation comes about when the capitalistic class uses the working class to their benefit. This is because as much as the working class is the one working on the ground the overall profits realized go to the capitalistic class. Costs paid by capitalists in the production treat such as salaries are way too low as compared to the profits realized. These profits are then invested in order to generate to a greater extent profits, leading to further wealth accumulation. When the working class gets tired they will result in a revolution and finally, the society will go into a state of communism. At this stage, no one owns anything and Marx asserts that the process will repeat itself.Blaut (127) explains the history of capitalism by first letting the people know the transitional debate history. Capitalism origi ns can be best explained through the commercialization model. ration to show how capitalism works is in factory scenarios, where a curing of people are involved in the production process but the profits are reaped by one person.

Consumer Incentives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Consumer Incentives - Essay ExampleThe economic challenges of running a nursing foot include risk and uncertainties, complexities related to insurance, the pressure to reduce costs, rapid and confusing course of technical and institutional changes, and perils caused by information asymmetries. All citizens demand healthcare services therefore, the government intervenes by supporting healthcare facilities (Lee, 2009). The government may give economic incentives to healthcare providers through tax-free imports of medical facilities, tax holidays, and financial support with the aim of improving the quality of healthcare. The nursing home can signal the quality of its services to customers by hiring adequate number of nurses, ensuring nurses are educationally and clinically prepared, availing sufficient resources for service provision and informing the public almost the quality of services through the media. Socio-cultural factors play a role in fictile the perceptions of people and their responses to health problems (Lee, 2009). Additionally, socio-cultural factors such as religious beliefs, cultural diversities, peoples customs, and risk-taking attitudes are critical in understanding societal and population processes such as the status of morbidity, survival, and mortality. Hiring adequate number of nurses is the best method of communicating the quality of service to the potential customers. When customers observe nurses working without strain, they develop confidence and expectations about getting personalized attention in the facility.

The Primal Teen Essay Example for Free

The native Teen EssayThe purpose of Barbara Strauchs h grey-headed back, The Primal Teen What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids, is to describe the new scientific findings regarding the teen brain in redact to help bewildered p atomic number 18nts, teachers and other members of society to understand the wild behavior of teenagers. The book fulfills its purpose by relating this experience of bewilderment to scientific discoveries that reveal that teenagers be truly not at fault rather, it is the teen brain that is going through changes that were not understood in the past. As a matter of fact, the scientific discoveries discussed in the book happen to be its main strength. This is because readers cannot refute the scientific discoveries, heretofore as parents who shake misunderstood their teenage kids and believed them to be difficult may change their opinions about their kids after reading the book. Moreover, the book describes various exp eriences of parents that the readers, who are parents, may easily relate to.By discussing the scientific discoveries in relation to the parents experiences, the book allows parents of teenage kids to easily change their misconceptions about their kids. If The Primal Teen had described scientific findings about the teen brain without relating them to real experiences of parents, perhaps most parents without a scientific background would have shunned the contents of the book altogether. But, The Primal Teen does not just help the parents of teenagers thus. In point of fact, it helps all readers to understand the topics much fully by relating scientific findings to real life experiences. All adults are cognizant of the typical relationships between parents and teenagers. Still, the book reminds them of these relationships, for example, by relating the experience of a bugger off whose thirteen year old son refused to obey the rule at the school dance.The boy seemed to refuse to unders tand the consequences of his behavior. But, Strauch explains that the boy was truly not at fault, given that the prefrontal cortex of the teen brain is under development. It is the prefrontal cortex that allows individuals to know the consequences of their actions and helps them to plan ahead. This is the reason why the parents of the thirteen year old should have understood that their kid simply could not help doing what he did. I would definitely recommend the book to parents of teenagers who mistakenly believe that their teenage kids are complete adults even though they are not. Even adults who have experienced disturbing teenage years should be asked to read the book. I am surely better off by having read the book. It helps me to understand my own teenage experiences. I have made plenty of irrational decisions during teenage years. Furthermore, I have experienced conflicts in my relationships because of my own irrational behavior during teenage years.The Primal Teen helps me to forgive myself. What is more, it helps me to forgive the friends I had in my teenage years for their irrational behavior. I remember taking their behavior very seriously at the time. The Primal Teen is very helpful because it allows the reader to understand that teenagers are kids even if their bodies are those of adults.

The Story of Daniel Pearl Essay Example for Free

The Story of Daniel Pearl EssayThe Story of Daniel Pearl as a journalist in Dubai was very tragic. Daniel Pearl was very brave of facing those battalion for a interview seeking and asking discipline into unknown territory that leads him to a very tragic death. In the movie narrated by Mariane his wife, it has been said that his body was cut into seven pcs. though that the video of Daniel Pearl being killed by the people who kidnapped him was not shown in the movie I can imagine how hard his experience being tortured and killed of the reason of probing information to a individual who is on his own territory, the Muslims knows that he is plowshare of the CIA or some spy of USA, besides of being a Jew I suppose thats one of the unlucky fragmentize of his short journey in Dubai. With my own opinion, I think that Daniel Pearl should not pursue that interview, because in the first place he knows that the person he wanted to interview was a dangerous person and doesnt want a pers on equal him or a journalist like him that leads him to be kidnapped by supporters of Omar Sheikh, though I know that Daniel Pearl only wants to seek information nearly Omar Sheikh only if he should think first near his safety of performing that interview.I believe that a journalist should not put his/her self or life into danger when he/she already knows that it is not safe to interview a specific group or person because it may lead to a misunderstanding and may cause a worry between the journalist and the interviewee. For me it is important to a journalist to make sure that the interviewee is harmful and knows what a journalist are capable of and especially their task that they vertical want to know and to write information to a specific matter, excessively for me a journalist should seek first or observe some of the information about the person or group he/she needs to communicate with regarding the issues about the interviewee.The goal of a journalist is to tell the truth and nothing still the truth but in the situation of Daniel Pearl he told that he is a Jew that is not pleasant to the Muslims thats why he got kidnapped and murdered by them, but on the other side of being a journalist they should always state information that are real and complete but also they need to remember that they have to keep secret the sources of confidential information not only for the safety of the source but also their safety. In suppose for a journalist to be a reliable source of information a journalist should do his/her best to obtain information from all manageable sources, to make sure it is complete, truthful and unbiased just like what Daniel Pearl did, he interviewed different people to gather information about the certain person before he undergo an interview to forefend future conflicts. I think Daniel Pearl should introduce himself in a different way that is abstract to the interviewee and also he should approach the interviewee well in that way I thin k the murdering of him will be prevented.It doesnt matter that he was a Jew. The race that he was born doesnt dictate who you are, its the content of your character and who you are inside. He was a journalist because he wanted to put an end to this kind of foolishness, cleansing someone based on race can never be justified, Muslims should not be so cruel to the people that if they dont like that person they will already kill the person. Its not because he was a Jew that many place some of the blame for his death on him. Its because he was a prominent Jew in the territory of the enemy look for glory at the knowing risk of his own life. He should have been thinking of his wife and child, it is tacit that he will be killed like that because of his being prominent that he is a Jew. Daniel was working for CIA and eventhough the athourities have warn him several times, he ignored.He was looking for glory. I think he is responsible for his death because he did not think of his safety of going there and not thinking of what might go past if the Muslims will kill him and thats the most unfortunate thing that happened to him because he become careless about his identity he is very vogue about it, just like what Mariane told in the movie he doesnt hide that he is Jew though he doesnt also speak about it, but if someone ask him he will not hesitate to tell the truth about identity or religion. This movie does tell us something. Its telling us about the dangers that a jounalists face in their line of duties. Not alot of people realize how dangerous it really is sometimes to go inform some news stories.The Pakistanis didnt kill Daniel Pearl for fun, they did it to pay Americans back for the suffering of their people, but did the Pakistanis take off the suffering of their people by killing lots of people whos trying to end their conflicts and issues? for me the answer is NO their just making it more complicated and worsen the problem, the Muslims should auction block th is horrifying killing of people just for their own beliefs, and to avoid this kind of situation a journalist should always know what is their limitations of probing information to avoid incidence like what happened to Daniel Pearl and to the other journalist they should always think first about their safety. Also a journalist should not take part in activities or organizations which could limit the independence of his/her thinking and endanger his/her professional integrity.

High Staff Turnover in Hotel Industry

postgraduate Staff Turnover in Hotel IndustryHotels, catering and leisure persistence in the UK corpse the welkin with the luxuriouslyest level of provide overthrow, with entirely leavers in this family unit hitting 41%, according to a survey carried out by the CIPD ( two hundred8).M whatsoever governing bodys be badly shineed by gritty levels of ply disturbance and the survey objurgate that 74% of judicatures in the UK, reported a negative regard on their business murder. This report to a fault identified four chief(prenominal) reasons that cause hollow derangement. They ar, change of c beer (55%), promotions outside of the ac ships company (45%), level of conciliate (41%) and insufficiency of c atomic number 18r articulatement (33%).Employee dissatis evention caused by low-down relationships with supervisors and line moldrs, unenviable make foring conditions and want of course tuition and upbringing opportunities be as well seen as major fac tors that cause racy faculty employee disturbance ( Griffeth, Hom and Gaertner 2000). As mentioned in an obligate published by the Adecco Institute (2008) skills shortage in the gambols market is seen as a major pitying resources challenge for the future and this is particularly confessedly of the cordial reception and leisure manufacturing in the UK, as it has suffered from constant recruitment trickyies over the retiring(a) so galore(postnominal) years. Age plus carried out a survey in the year 2005 and according to the results of the survey nearly 40% of all va th chthonian mugcies in the cordial reception industry were herculean to fill and much of the effortfuly has been caused by poor retention st regularisegies implemented by disposals. A nonher factor identified by the survey with regard to why so many vacancies were hard to fill is the overlook of undeniable skills and abilities by potential applicants who apply for business enterprises in the hotel an d cordial reception industry. A similar percentage of employers who participated in the survey stated that applicants lack excellent communication skills involve, and this is particularly true of receptionists, managers and administrators and this has created immense pressure on HR executives and managers to attract, manage and retain pick up talent within their system of rules which is an infixed factor in creating sustainable competitive advantage. The results and info unearthed from these surveys make it crystal clear that juicy levels of provide swage is a major hassle to all organic laws and the HR department of an giving medication has a appoint responsibility of closely monitor labour turnover levels and figures and make right steps in baseball club to bring cater turnover to a manageable level and face the future with resistance. luxuriously levels of mental faculty turnover in an organisation whitethorn agree the eccentric and high school up standards of customer skinny, and may impact on the organisation loosing loyal customers, receipts and long term sustainability (Tracy and Hinkin, 2008). Once the healthful established ply leave a company it may non only ontogeny the act uponload of the wait stave members of the company, merely would be difficult for the organisation to profits the same highest levels of service from the untriedly hired stave as they would still be in a period of learning their job, and former(a) key tasks and responsibilities associated with the job. furtherto a greater extent when employees leave on a regular basis it creates extra hold uploads for the re master(prenominal)ing staff and as a result they could become depressed with work and not be able to deliver their best performance on the job. This may further exacerbate the problem and may similarly result in staff getting absent from work regularly and their good health deteriorate.The article of Tracy and Hinkin (2008) in addition stat es fiscal implications for organisations as a result of high levels of staff turnover. The apostrophize associated with replacing staff can be sorted into hard cost, well-off costs, and opportunity costs. straining costs are costs such(prenominal) as gold spent on new-sprung(prenominal)spaper advertisements, adverts on recruitment agencies etc, and they throw off a direct impact on the organisation. Other elements such as the time it excises to interrogate new recruits, and time spent on exit interviews will not be shown in company account statements as they are regarded as soft costs. Opportunity costs such as missed customers and market shares, usually go absolute but can still be substantial and may as well as lower company profitability and competitor advantage of the organisation ( Simons and Hinkin 2001 cited Tracy.J and Hinkin.T, 2008).The following tailfin are identified as major costs categories that tot towards the total costs of replacing an employee. They are pre-departure, recruitment, selection, orientation course and training, and lost productivity (Hinkin and Tracy 2007, 2006, cited Tracy.J and Hinkin.T,2008). The already high staff turnover rates in the hotel industry alike reflects high turnover of newly selected staff who leave the company within their first 30 days because the job did not suit them (Woods,1997141). Does this mean thinkable caters with the prevailing recruitment and selection methods adopted by the hospitality vault of heaven organisations?According to the article by Tracy.J and Hinkin.T, only a few turnover studies have been so out-of-the-way(prenominal) carried out in the hotel and hospitality sector, despite reporting high levels of turnover every year. accordingly my literature review aims to conduct a much broader view of this issue by critically examining the current procedures and practices carried out by the in high spirits beech Hotel UK and some(prenominal) of the other local anaesthetic selected competitor hotels, which may be associated with employee turnover. By doing so this study aims to understand the root causes of high levels of employee turnover of gritty Beech Hotel and propose solutions and recommendations to overcome those issues. This inquiry benefits towering Beech Hotel in terms of minimising the unnecessary costs that may occur due to advertising, interviewing, training of new staff as well as improving the general standard of the hotel. postgraduate Beech Hotel is a three start hotel located in sightly Hastings area and is approach with stiff competition with many three to four star hotels operating in the area such as, The White escape from Hotel, Travelodge Hastings, The Hotel Undum and the Chatsworth Hotel.The High Beech Hotel is on that pointfore fighting to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage and grow its market share. The opinions of the General Manager, Operations Manager and the HR manager prove that jobs in the industry are difficult in the area and finding the right talent for the right job and the retention of portion staff are major HR challenges currently faced by the hotel.The general manager of the hotel is new to her post and has already expressed fixs about the high staff turnover. Turnover is high among front line staff, waiters and porters and the prudence has had few discussions to find the reasons why staff left, and find out ways to resolve the problem. I having worked at the hotel as an HR executive (placement student) managed to gain a good reasonableness of the high turnover and the feasible effects the turnover levels have had on the existing staff.Literature review hollow turnover is the rate at which staff leaves an organisation and are replaced by new employees. Too high a labour turnover rate may mean that there is something unsatisfactory about operative for the organisation and that action therefore would need to be taken (Adams et al, 1993)Denver and McMahon (1992143) d efined labour turnover as the ordure of pile into and out of employment within an organisation and can some(prenominal) be military volunteer and involuntary. Eade (1993) further categorises turnover into attention controllable and unavoidable turnover. lying-in turnover index is used to measure staff turnover and according to Armstrong (2001) labour turnover rates provide a valuable means to benchmarking the enduringness of HR policies and practices in organisations.The hotel industry is naturally comprised of both a production and a service aspect and the creation and rendering of services from the hotel to the customer are mainly handd through employees. therefore the industry is essentially represented by people (Lewis 1989 Thompson and Abbott, 1990 Schneider , 1993) and is considered as one of the most labour intensive industries. Turnover in the hotel industry in the UK has been shown to be unacceptably high (Kennedy and Berger, 1994), averaging as much as 200% to 30 0% per year. Statistically this means that the entire work intensity level of the industry turns over two to three times per year. The main factors identified, that could impact on turnover are, orientation and good tenderisation procedures (Kennedy and Berger 1994, Woods, 1992), ad-hoc recruitment and selection (Benn and Farbringer, 1992, Woods and Macaulay, 1989 Wagner, 1991 Wheelhouse, 1989), variety at the workplace (Antolik,1993), lack of training and development opportunities (Hogan, 1992 rowden,1995), organisation culture (Woods and Macaulay, 1998) shortage of skills in the labour market (Debrah, 1994 Woods, 1992), high levels of work related nervous strain ( Vallen,1993Woods, 1992 Ham and Griffeth, 1995), seasonal nature of the industry ( Boella, 1998) and job dissatisfaction ( Bonn and Frbringer, 1992).All of these factors have leadd towards high levels of staff turnover in the hotel industry and it is clear that the success of the industry depends upon taking necessary steps to reduce the supra mentioned issues, and problems, and the calibre of employees, and how well they are managed (Nankervis and Debroh, 1995 Berger and Ghel, 1995). Deery and Iverson, (1996) commented that high degree of staff turnover levels consist of recruitment and substitute costs, and regular and loyal customers switching to other competitor hotels as they expect to see their preferent staff members.It is clear labour costs play a major part in the industry and high staff turnover is seen as a prime issue hampering the smooth execution of hotel and organisations within the hospitality industry (Obrien and McDonnell 2003). Deery and Iverson (1996) examined the employee turnover phenomenal and order that high turnover resulted in organisations loosing revenue and profits. They also argued that high turnover, especially when virtuoso(prenominal) staff leave, contributes to lowering the employee team spirit and the overall ability of teams within the organisations to g et bore work done. hence the retention of skillful and well trained staff in any hospitality organisation is important to save unnecessary tangible and intangible costs as well as retaining regular and loyal customers and to provide them with a quality service. It is clear from the arguments put frontwards by the above mentioned authors and scholars but Despite an array of academic evidence and research on labour turnover the interrogative to be asked is do focal point of hospitality sector organisations understand the gravity of the issue of staff turnover, and its negative effects on the performance of the organisation and how far they are willing to go to retain the valuable staff. At a time of difficult economic times it is imperative and organisation takes measures to outperform its competitors and any hospitality sector organisation that understands the time value of human capital and adopt good HRM policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will inevitably outperform the competition (Cho et al., 2006, Hinkin and Tracy, 2000).Staff departure on a regular basis involves heavy nerve costs and a loss of productivity through the faulting up of teams who are used to work together (Denvir and McMohan, 1992144). consequently the critical vastness of employees staying with an organisation is plain (Brayfield and Crockett, 1995 Cho et al, 2006). It is clear that satisfied and highly motivated employees stay with the organisation which in turn helps the company to reduce unnecessary recruitment and selection costs which could amount to a substantial amount of money, but also produce high quality work which helps the organisation to achieve competitive advantage and increase its profits (Cho et al., 2006 Hinkin and Tracey, 2000).Exit interviews are a great method of collecting information as to why employees leave an organisation. Employees leave for various reasons ranging from lack of employee oriented organisational measure s such as succession planning, pay , non-financial rewards, work bread and butter balance and undesirable working conditions as well as more personal reasons such as inability to liveliness later onward their electric razorren, other child welfare issues and transport problems. This can also vary depending on how long they have worked for the company and it is a normal factor as pellucid from the High Beech Hotel, and that staff leaves because they soon found out that the job did not suit them. around other staff members leave after serving the organisation after serving a considerable amount of time and their issues could very well be different to people leaving early. According to the CIPD (2007) costs an organisation approximately 3500 pounds every time an employee leaves and as stated earlier these costs include both tangible costs and intangible costs such as time spent on interviewing new recruits and these often go unreported in company accounts.Denver and McMahon (19 92146) also found out that private hotel organisations escort different levels of turnover, which helps to confirm that staff turnover is partly within the control of the hotel management. This also contradicts with the common acceptance that staff turnover is high and uniform passim the industry and uncontrollable.Therefore it is evident that high levels of staff turnover is harmful to the smooth functioning of any organisation, may it be in the hospitality sector or some other sector and hinders the efficient operation of the business resulting in the hotel stepwise losing its market share. Therefore it is important that the hospitality sector organisations develop effective and vibrant HRM policies that enable them to success unspoiledy recruit, select and retain skilled and efficient employees, who would contribute towards the achievement of the unified objectives of the business.Factors influence on high Labour Turnover.The hotel industry in the UK is constantly troubled w ith high staff turnover resulting in increase personnel costs arise from recruitment and selection of new staff, training them (Ham and Griffeth, 1995). There is a strong negative relationship between turnover and organisational allegiance which indicates that staff with low levels of commitment and loyalty are more likely to withdraw from the organisation than more committed staff (Johnston et, 1993). He also identified a positive relationship between organisational commitment and career progression opportunities given to employees through midland promotions and succession planning. These employees who are given opportunities to progress up the ladder, exhibit higher levels of organisational commitment, and loyalty and results in skilled staff retention and a gradual decline of low performing employees. This makes it much easier for HR managers to successfully identify low performing employees and eliminate them from the work force which is important and a good for the success of the company as this turnover is considered healthy.Another key factor which may influence staff turnover is the sexuality difference and certain problems it creates within the organisation. Female workers have different responsibilities to their male counterparts and may value work life balance more as a result. The pressures of work and life, has resulted in more womanly workers leaving their jobs than male workers (Doherty and Manfredi, 200662). In most hotels it can be seen female workers working in the bottom of the organisation hierarchy and the pay gap between males and female workers has been a much talked about issue in the UK. Iverson (2000) conducted a study in the USA involving hotel establishments and found that female managers earn much less than the male managers doing the same job which is commonly seen in the UK and this has resulted in, female workers being reluctant to return to work after their maternity leave. On top of this, most organisations have failed to assist their female workers to arrange necessary child care arrangements which have aggravated the number of female workers leaving their job. As per above authors the reluctance of female workers to return to work may also be caused by factors such as stress, work dissatisfaction, lack of commitment and low promotion opportunities coupled with a poor organisation culture that does not provide a platform to encourage female workers to instill up the career ladder. Therefore the problems and issues female workers face in the workplace is clear and applicable in hospitality sector organisations, and it is very important the HR department address these issues and understand why many female workers leave their jobs early. Organisation culture, median(a) age of the total labour force of the organisation, gender and racial composition and male-female pay gaps are among the reasons why employees leave (Bennett et al, 1993).Prospective employees when joining an organisation look into a nu mber of factors such as career development opportunities, total reward policy and work life balance. Lack of incentives is therefore a main reason why many employees leave their jobs after some time. Incentives include both financial and nonfinancial and employees may simply sine qua non praise for their good work and lack of recognition could seriously hamper employee retention. Ritz Carlton hotel in London, has managed to reduce employee turnover to a significant level by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and development opportunities and by forming a positive psychological contract with the employees, and also by creating long term incentive and reward systems ( Barky, 1996). Therefore it is fair to assume that to a large extent organisation HRM practices, policies and procedures determine staff turnover.Organisation policies and lack of employee oriented practices and procedures may not only be the sole reason why many organisations particularly in the hospitality industry experience high level of staff turnover.Another factor that assumes turnover is the ability of staff to carry out their tasks and responsibilities up to the required standard and the job performance of employees largely affects staff turnover and this is also confirmed by a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (1990). They found that employees having very high levels of on-the-job performance are highly unlikely to leave their job in production line with employees with low levels of performance. High performing employees are confident in their job and have better work related knowledge and skills. Low pay, lack of training and career development opportunities, lack of regular and realistic performance appraisals and undesired work environments are among the key reasons that cause low performance which in-turn result in high staff turnover. Therefore it is clear HR professionals in hotel establishments must pay very close attention to developing employee orient ed HRM policies and practices that help staff achieve their full potential. To name a few these HR policies and practices are training and development opportunities open management communication systems, employee welfare such as child care, flexible working, transport assistant to employees and a encompassing induction programme that helps new recruits to adopt well to their new roles.When analysing the hospitality and hotel industry in particular it has been found that most organisations have a poor reputation for providing good staff training and development opportunities (Maxwell et al, 2004). High staff turnover in most hospitality sector industries may have also led managers to be reluctant to providing staff with opportunities to further develop their careers fearing they may leave after that ( Davies et al, 2001, Jameson, 2000 Lowey et al, 2002). High staff turnover also causes managers to be occupy with recruitment and selection activity as well as grievance issues, and th is may also be a reason for them not to have able time to focus on staff development and talent management. Training and development and staff retention has a close match as gravely trained staff are less satisfied with work and may leave quicker and more than fully trained and highly satisfied staff. Therefore training and development instanter affects job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Lam and Zhang, 2003, Taylor et al, 2001, Lowry et al, 2002).Working hours is another key factor that causes employees to leave and most hospitality sector organisations, because of high staff turnover may require remaining staff to work extra hours on a regular basis. Long working hours without breaks are once morest the working time regulations as well as current health and sentry duty rules and Female workers are largely affected by this practice because of their family commitments and a research conducted by Erdogan (199626) revealed long working hours are among the main reasons for many female workers to quit their jobs. There has also been an increase of single parent families and long hours and antisocial working hours have forced females to leave their jobs. This not only creates staff to leave but unfriendly working hours coupled with a poor corporate and work culture and a hostile working environment of the organisation , may affect the job satisfaction of female workers and even if they remain with the job their work could be highly unproductive and suffer from work related stress. Despite the fact that many researchers and academics stressing the importance of a good organisation work environment that provides employees oriented HR measures to achieve these goals and objectives many organisations still suffer from high levels of staff turnover and female staff turnover as evident from research findings. All of the above stated factors and elements contribute to employee dissatisfaction and it is a result of various interior and external factors th at were mentioned above.Labour turnover of High Beech HotelHigh Beech Hotel had a newly appointed general manager and she has been investigating the reasons for the high staff turnover levels of the hotel over the past three years and has had several(prenominal) discussions with the operations manager and the HR manager of the company. Unfortunately no proper investigation has not been done so far to find out the possible causes of staff turnover but the management in consultation with the company HR records and turnover figures has assumed the reasons as job dissatisfaction, long and unfriendly working hours, pay issues, lack of training and development opportunities for staff, issues with working condition and other personal issues of staff such as work life balance.Importance of HR practices and concepts in relation to staff retention and turnoverHRM plays a vital part in creating a sustainable competitive advantage for any organisation, and forward looking organisations adopt g ood HR policies and practices to ensure the smooth functioning of the organisation (Edvinsson and Malone, 1997 Stewart, 1997 Verma and Dewe, 2008). question studies have confirmed that well defined organisational goals and corporate objectives directly influence employee retention and productivity. Kim et al, (2005) in their study on corporate orientation found that organisational mode and support had a significant impact on employee job satisfaction and overall commitment.ORGANISATIONAL INITIATIVESThe organisational HR initiatives as mentioned above, illustrate how internal factors and forces contribute towards employee retention. The model does not mention about external forces such as local and national competition in the labour market, economic situation, globalisation and international competition which affects attracting skilled employees to various jobs. It can be seen that this model covers the internal factors and reasons that affect staff retention or turnover and it is critically important for an organisation and HR professionals to pay close attention to the factors mentioned under the model to critically quantify where they stand as an organisation and take steps to implement those HR practices and policies to retain quick staff ( Horwitz et al, 2003 Steel et al, 2002). These internal HR policies and practices are bundled under the term retention management and it is defined as the ability to hold onto those employees an organisation would want to keep, for longer than the competitors (Johnson,2000 cited De Vos and Meganck,2007). The external factors should not be neglected at the same time because there may be times employees may leave an organisation due to their influences.The impact of financial and non-financial rewards cannot be undermined and play a critical role in motivating skilled and value employees and retaining them within the organisation. Financial rewards such as a good basal pay feature with performance related pay and non -financial rewards such as training and development opportunities, initiatives to achieve work life balance for staff and other employee retention initiatives such as a pensions scheme and internal promotions motivate staff and force them to think again before quitting their jobs (Horwitz et al,2003De Vos and Meganck, 2007).When analysing the theories and ides put forward by the above mentioned academics and scholars it is evident they focused on retaining highly skilled employees and researched to find out the possible reasons why valued employees leave organisations. This is being described as retention management and the word retention embraces with other HR practices such as recruitment and selection, development of employees to achieve their full potential and succession management (Lewis and Heckmanp 2006140).HR Practices and the importance of Human PsychologyHRM involves all management ratiocination and practices that directly affects other people, or human resources, who wo rk for the organisation. The question that arises is that despite the fact that many organisations including the hospitality and hotel industry, implement all accepted HR practices and procedures, why employees still leave and the staff turnover rates are extremely high. A good understanding of the implications of human psychology would help HR managers to find the root causes to this problem.Psychologist Abraham Maslow introduced his concept of hierarchy of involve in 1943 which suggests that people are motivated to fulfil their basic human call for before moving on to other unavoidably. The hierarchy of inescapably is displayed as a pyramid and the lowest level of the pyramid are made up of the most basic take, while the more complex needs are at the top. The needs located at the bottom are the most basic human needs and as people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Therefore when it comes to employees staying or leaving a particular o rganisation which stage the employee is in could play a vital role in his or her finale making motion. At the affectionateness this hypothesis of Maslow suggests that when an individual satisfies one set of needs they always try to move into the other level.This makes it critically important for HR professionals in the hospitality organisations how this theory of Maslow affects individual employees and how it influences an individuals decision about him staying or leaving the organisation. When an individual joins an organisation the first concern is to organise his life in-terms of food shelter and other essential psychological needs through wages and salary. The near concern would be job pledge and personal health and safety in the job. Once those needs are satisfied the employee would move in to the other set of needs which are social needs such as friendly colleagues and staff as well as a desirable working environment. After this comes the next stage which is pleasing th e esteem needs which is comprised of individual being recognised for his work and valued by the management of the organisation as well as taking full advantage of any courses and exams they could take to get promoted. Once this set of needs are fully satisfied the employee reaches the stage of self actualisation.Therefore to satisfy the individual employee needs the HR executives working in hospitality sector organisations must understand the needs of employees and aim to provide tailor made HR solutions in line with the corporate strategy of the company. In order to fulfill this, the HR managers must have accurate methods and procedures to understand which stage the employee is in his hierarchy of needs because if this is not done or if the right methods and procedures are not in place there will inevitably be a contradiction. For an example the HR managers may direct their full efforts into satisfying the esteem needs of employees through individual recognition and internal promo tions at work when the employees are seeking safety needs. This would result in a waste of company resources and employees considering leaving the organisation.Individuals decision making processAn individuals decision making process is comprised of a number of internal and external variables as shown below and the final decision makes by an individual employee is made up of a collection of those internal and external variables. This model is highly useful in understanding an employees decision making in an organisation (Kotler, 2000, p98).As seen the model is comprised of five main stages which an individual may go through before coming into a decision. They are,* Problem recognition* cultivation search* Evaluation of alternatives* Decision to leave or stay* Post- purchase evaluationTherefore the first stage is problem recognition and that is recognising there is a problem or issue to be answered by the employee. The problem arose can be triggered by internal influences, external influences or both.Once the main problem or problems are recognised by the employee he then moves into the next stage which is information search. For an example if the initial problem recognised by the employee is interested with training and development opportunities offered by the organisation then through information search he would try to gather as much information as possible through various external and internal sources about what actions and steps he could take in order to gain the desired level of training.The next stage once sufficient information is gathered is the evaluation of alternatives. As per with training and development, the employee in this stage will go through various possible courses to be taken and evaluate the appropriateness of those courses to his job and what help he could get from the organisation in order to take the course.The next stage of the process is the final decision of the employee to stay with the organisation or to leave. This is called the purchase decision and according to Kotler (2000, p 99) two factors can intervene between the purchase tendency and purchase decision. The first factor is the attitudes of other people, which is what the others around think of the individuals decision. Influence of other people can become complex and varied when there are more than one persons involved. The second factor Kotler (2000,p 99) mentions is the unanticipated or unexpected situations and as per the above example of training and development, factors such as the recession and cost cutting measures by the organisation could hamper the employees aspiration of embarking on the course.The final stage of the decision making process is the post purchase evaluation which involves the employee evaluating the positives and negatives of the decision taken, and the possible consequences of it.This concept has a high degree of importance to HR even though it is widely used in marketing and regarded more as a marketing related concepHigh Staff Turnover in Hotel IndustryHigh Staff Turnover in Hotel IndustryHotels, catering and leisure industry in the UK remains the sector with the highest level of staff turnover, with all leavers in this category hitting 41%, according to a survey carried out by the CIPD (2008).Many organisations are badly affected by high levels of staff turnover and the survey identified that 74% of organisations in the UK, reported a negative impact on their business performance. This report also identified four main reasons that cause labour turnover. They are, change of career (55%), promotions outside of the company (45%), level of pay (41%) and lack of career development (33%).Employee dissatisfaction caused by poor relationships with supervisors and line managers, undesirable working conditions and lack of career development and training opportunities are also seen as major factors that cause high staff turnover ( Griffeth, Hom and Gaertner 2000). As mentioned in an article published by the Adecco Institute (2008) skills shortage in the jobs market is seen as a major human resources challenge for the future and this is particularly true of the hospitality and leisure industry in the UK, as it has suffered from constant recruitment difficulties over the past so many years. Age positive carried out a survey in the year 2005 and according to the results of the survey nearly 40% of all vacancies in the hospitality industry were hard to fill and much of the problem has been caused by poor retention strategies implemented by organisations. Another factor identified by the survey with regard to why so many vacancies were hard to fill is the lack of necessary skills and abilities by potential applicants who apply for jobs in the hotel and hospitality industry. A similar percentage of employers who participated in the survey stated that applicants lack excellent communication skills required, and this is particularly true of receptionists, managers and administrators and this h as created immense pressure on HR executives and managers to attract, manage and retain key talent within their organisation which is an essential factor in creating sustainable competitive advantage. The results and information unearthed from these surveys make it crystal clear that high levels of staff turnover is a major problem to all organisations and the HR department of an organisation has a key responsibility of closely monitor labour turnover levels and figures and make right steps in order to bring staff turnover to a manageable level and face the future with resistance.High levels of staff turnover in an organisation may compromise the quality and high standards of customer service, and may impact on the organisation loosing loyal customers, revenue and long term sustainability (Tracy and Hinkin, 2008). Once the well established staff leave a company it may not only increase the workload of the remaining staff members of the company, but would be difficult for the organis ation to gain the same highest levels of service from the newly hired staff as they would still be in a period of learning their job, and other key tasks and responsibilities associated with the job. Furthermore when employees leave on a regular basis it creates extra workloads for the remaining staff and as a result they could become depressed with work and not be able to deliver their best performance on the job. This may further exacerbate the problem and may also result in staff getting absent from work regularly and their good health deteriorate.The article of Tracy and Hinkin (2008) also states financial implications for organisations as a result of high levels of staff turnover. The costs associated with replacing staff can be sorted into hard costs, soft costs, and opportunity costs. Hard costs are costs such as money spent on newspaper advertisements, adverts on recruitment agencies etc, and they have a direct impact on the organisation. Other elements such as the time it t akes to interview new recruits, and time spent on exit interviews will not be shown in company account statements as they are regarded as soft costs. Opportunity costs such as missed customers and market shares, usually go unmeasured but can still be substantial and may also lower company profitability and competitor advantage of the organisation ( Simons and Hinkin 2001 cited Tracy.J and Hinkin.T, 2008).The following five are identified as major costs categories that contribute towards the total costs of replacing an employee. They are pre-departure, recruitment, selection, orientation and training, and lost productivity (Hinkin and Tracy 2007, 2006, cited Tracy.J and Hinkin.T,2008). The already high staff turnover rates in the hotel industry also reflects high turnover of newly selected staff who leave the company within their first 30 days because the job did not suit them (Woods,1997141). Does this mean possible issues with the prevailing recruitment and selection methods adopte d by the hospitality sector organisations?According to the article by Tracy.J and Hinkin.T, only a few turnover studies have been so far carried out in the hotel and hospitality sector, despite reporting high levels of turnover every year. Therefore my literature review aims to conduct a much broader view of this issue by critically examining the current procedures and practices carried out by the High Beech Hotel UK and some of the other local selected competitor hotels, which may be associated with employee turnover. By doing so this study aims to understand the root causes of high levels of employee turnover of High Beech Hotel and propose solutions and recommendations to overcome those issues. This research benefits High Beech Hotel in terms of minimising the unnecessary costs that may occur due to advertising, interviewing, training of new staff as well as improving the overall standard of the hotel.High Beech Hotel is a three start hotel located in beautiful Hastings area and is faced with stiff competition with many three to four star hotels operating in the area such as, The White Rock Hotel, Travelodge Hastings, The Hotel Undum and the Chatsworth Hotel.The High Beech Hotel is therefore fighting to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage and grow its market share. The opinions of the General Manager, Operations Manager and the HR manager prove that jobs in the industry are difficult in the area and finding the right talent for the right job and the retention of quality staff are major HR challenges currently faced by the hotel.The general manager of the hotel is new to her post and has already expressed concerns about the high staff turnover. Turnover is high among front line staff, waiters and porters and the management has had few discussions to find the reasons why staff left, and find out ways to resolve the problem. I having worked at the hotel as an HR executive (placement student) managed to gain a good understanding of the high turnover an d the possible effects the turnover levels have had on the existing staff.Literature reviewLabour turnover is the rate at which staff leaves an organisation and are replaced by new employees. Too high a labour turnover rate may mean that there is something unsatisfactory about working for the organisation and that action therefore would need to be taken (Adams et al, 1993)Denver and McMahon (1992143) defined labour turnover as the movement of people into and out of employment within an organisation and can both be voluntary and involuntary. Eade (1993) further categorises turnover into management controllable and unavoidable turnover.Labour turnover index is used to measure staff turnover and according to Armstrong (2001) labour turnover rates provide a valuable means to benchmarking the effectiveness of HR policies and practices in organisations.The hotel industry is essentially comprised of both a production and a service aspect and the creation and rendering of services from the hotel to the customer are mainly achieved through employees. Therefore the industry is essentially represented by people (Lewis 1989 Thompson and Abbott, 1990 Schneider , 1993) and is considered as one of the most labour intensive industries. Turnover in the hotel industry in the UK has been shown to be unacceptably high (Kennedy and Berger, 1994), averaging as much as 200% to 300% per year. Statistically this means that the entire workforce of the industry turns over two to three times per year. The main factors identified, that could impact on turnover are, orientation and good socialisation procedures (Kennedy and Berger 1994, Woods, 1992), ad-hoc recruitment and selection (Benn and Farbringer, 1992, Woods and Macaulay, 1989 Wagner, 1991 Wheelhouse, 1989), discrimination at the workplace (Antolik,1993), lack of training and development opportunities (Hogan, 1992 rowden,1995), organisation culture (Woods and Macaulay, 1998) shortage of skills in the labour market (Debrah, 1994 Woo ds, 1992), high levels of work related stress ( Vallen,1993Woods, 1992 Ham and Griffeth, 1995), seasonal nature of the industry ( Boella, 1998) and job dissatisfaction ( Bonn and Frbringer, 1992).All of these factors have contributed towards high levels of staff turnover in the hotel industry and it is clear that the success of the industry depends upon taking necessary steps to reduce the above mentioned issues, and problems, and the calibre of employees, and how well they are managed (Nankervis and Debroh, 1995 Berger and Ghel, 1995). Deery and Iverson, (1996) commented that high degree of staff turnover levels consist of recruitment and replacement costs, and regular and loyal customers switching to other competitor hotels as they expect to see their favourite staff members.It is clear labour costs play a major part in the industry and high staff turnover is seen as a prime issue hampering the smooth functioning of hotel and organisations within the hospitality industry (Obrien a nd McDonnell 2003). Deery and Iverson (1996) examined the employee turnover phenomenal and found that high turnover resulted in organisations loosing revenue and profits. They also argued that high turnover, especially when skilled staff leave, contributes to lowering the employee morale and the overall ability of teams within the organisations to get quality work done.Therefore the retention of skilled and well trained staff in any hospitality organisation is important to save unnecessary tangible and intangible costs as well as retaining regular and loyal customers and to provide them with a quality service. It is clear from the arguments put forward by the above mentioned authors and scholars but Despite an array of academic evidence and research on labour turnover the question to be asked is do management of hospitality sector organisations understand the gravity of the issue of staff turnover, and its negative effects on the performance of the organisation and how far they are willing to go to retain the valuable staff. At a time of difficult economic times it is imperative and organisation takes measures to outperform its competitors and any hospitality sector organisation that understands the value of human capital and adopt good HRM policies and management practices in pursuit of employee retention will inevitably outperform the competition (Cho et al., 2006, Hinkin and Tracy, 2000).Staff leaving on a regular basis involves heavy administration costs and a loss of productivity through the breaking up of teams who are used to working together (Denvir and McMohan, 1992144). Therefore the critical importance of employees staying with an organisation is evident (Brayfield and Crockett, 1995 Cho et al, 2006). It is clear that satisfied and highly motivated employees stay with the organisation which in turn helps the company to reduce unnecessary recruitment and selection costs which could amount to a substantial amount of money, but also produce high qualit y work which helps the organisation to achieve competitive advantage and increase its profits (Cho et al., 2006 Hinkin and Tracey, 2000).Exit interviews are a great method of collecting information as to why employees leave an organisation. Employees leave for various reasons ranging from lack of employee oriented organisational measures such as succession planning, pay , non-financial rewards, work life balance and undesirable working conditions as well as more personal reasons such as inability to look after their children, other child welfare issues and transport problems. This can also vary depending on how long they have worked for the company and it is a common factor as evident from the High Beech Hotel, and that staff leaves because they soon found out that the job did not suit them. Some other staff members leave after serving the organisation after serving a considerable amount of time and their issues could very well be different to people leaving early. According to the CIPD (2007) costs an organisation approximately 3500 pounds every time an employee leaves and as stated earlier these costs include both tangible costs and intangible costs such as time spent on interviewing new recruits and these often go unreported in company accounts.Denver and McMahon (1992146) also found out that individual hotel organisations experience different levels of turnover, which helps to confirm that staff turnover is partly within the control of the hotel management. This also contradicts with the common acceptance that staff turnover is high and uniform throughout the industry and uncontrollable.Therefore it is evident that high levels of staff turnover is harmful to the smooth functioning of any organisation, may it be in the hospitality sector or some other sector and hinders the efficient operation of the business resulting in the hotel gradually losing its market share. Therefore it is important that the hospitality sector organisations develop effective and vi brant HRM policies that enable them to successfully recruit, select and retain skilled and efficient employees, who would contribute towards the achievement of the corporate objectives of the business.Factors influence on high Labour Turnover.The hotel industry in the UK is constantly troubled with high staff turnover resulting in increased personnel costs arise from recruitment and selection of new staff, training them (Ham and Griffeth, 1995). There is a strong negative relationship between turnover and organisational commitment which indicates that staff with low levels of commitment and loyalty are more likely to withdraw from the organisation than more committed staff (Johnston et, 1993). He also identified a positive relationship between organisational commitment and career progression opportunities given to employees through internal promotions and succession planning. These employees who are given opportunities to progress up the ladder, exhibit higher levels of organisation al commitment, and loyalty and results in skilled staff retention and a gradual decline of low performing employees. This makes it much easier for HR managers to successfully identify low performing employees and eliminate them from the work force which is important and a good for the success of the company as this turnover is considered healthy.Another key factor which may influence staff turnover is the gender difference and certain problems it creates within the organisation. Female workers have different responsibilities to their male counterparts and may value work life balance more as a result. The pressures of work and life, has resulted in more female workers leaving their jobs than male workers (Doherty and Manfredi, 200662). In most hotels it can be seen female workers working in the bottom of the organisation hierarchy and the pay gap between males and female workers has been a much talked about issue in the UK. Iverson (2000) conducted a study in the USA involving hotel establishments and found that female managers earn much less than the male managers doing the same job which is commonly seen in the UK and this has resulted in, female workers being reluctant to return to work after their maternity leave. On top of this, most organisations have failed to assist their female workers to arrange necessary child care arrangements which have aggravated the number of female workers leaving their job. As per above authors the reluctance of female workers to return to work may also be caused by factors such as stress, work dissatisfaction, lack of commitment and low promotion opportunities coupled with a poor organisation culture that does not provide a platform to encourage female workers to move up the career ladder. Therefore the problems and issues female workers face in the workplace is clear and applicable in hospitality sector organisations, and it is very important the HR department address these issues and understand why many female workers leave their jobs early. Organisation culture, average age of the total labour force of the organisation, gender and racial composition and male-female pay gaps are among the reasons why employees leave (Bennett et al, 1993).Prospective employees when joining an organisation look into a number of factors such as career development opportunities, total reward policy and work life balance. Lack of incentives is therefore a main reason why many employees leave their jobs after some time. Incentives include both financial and nonfinancial and employees may simply want praise for their good work and lack of recognition could seriously hamper employee retention. Ritz Carlton hotel in London, has managed to reduce employee turnover to a significant level by focusing on quality recruitment, providing better training and development opportunities and by forming a positive psychological contract with the employees, and also by creating long term incentive and reward systems ( Barky, 1996). Therefore it is fair to assume that to a large extent organisation HRM practices, policies and procedures determine staff turnover.Organisation policies and lack of employee oriented practices and procedures may not only be the sole reason why many organisations particularly in the hospitality industry experience high level of staff turnover.Another factor that affects turnover is the ability of staff to carry out their tasks and responsibilities up to the required standard and the job performance of employees largely affects staff turnover and this is also confirmed by a study conducted by Jewell and Siegal (1990). They found that employees having very high levels of on-the-job performance are highly unlikely to leave their job in contrast with employees with low levels of performance. High performing employees are confident in their job and have better work related knowledge and skills. Low pay, lack of training and career development opportunities, lack of regular and realistic performanc e appraisals and undesired work environments are among the key reasons that cause low performance which in-turn result in high staff turnover. Therefore it is clear HR professionals in hotel establishments must pay very close attention to developing employee oriented HRM policies and practices that help staff achieve their full potential. To name a few these HR policies and practices are training and development opportunities open management communication systems, employee welfare such as child care, flexible working, transport assistant to employees and a comprehensive induction programme that helps new recruits to adopt well to their new roles.When analysing the hospitality and hotel industry in particular it has been found that most organisations have a poor reputation for providing good staff training and development opportunities (Maxwell et al, 2004). High staff turnover in most hospitality sector industries may have also led managers to be reluctant to providing staff with op portunities to further develop their careers fearing they may leave after that ( Davies et al, 2001, Jameson, 2000 Lowey et al, 2002). High staff turnover also causes managers to be occupied with recruitment and selection activity as well as grievance issues, and this may also be a reason for them not to have sufficient time to focus on staff development and talent management. Training and development and staff retention has a close match as poorly trained staff are less satisfied with work and may leave quicker and more than fully trained and highly satisfied staff. Therefore training and development directly affects job satisfaction and organisational commitment (Lam and Zhang, 2003, Taylor et al, 2001, Lowry et al, 2002).Working hours is another key factor that causes employees to leave and most hospitality sector organisations, because of high staff turnover may require remaining staff to work extra hours on a regular basis. Long working hours without breaks are against the work ing time regulations as well as current health and safety rules and Female workers are largely affected by this practice because of their family commitments and a research conducted by Erdogan (199626) revealed long working hours are among the main reasons for many female workers to quit their jobs. There has also been an increase of single parent families and long hours and unsocial working hours have forced females to leave their jobs. This not only creates staff to leave but unfriendly working hours coupled with a poor corporate and work culture and a hostile working environment of the organisation , may affect the job satisfaction of female workers and even if they remain with the job their work could be highly unproductive and suffer from work related stress. Despite the fact that many researchers and academics stressing the importance of a good organisation work environment that provides employees oriented HR measures to achieve these goals and objectives many organisations st ill suffer from high levels of staff turnover and female staff turnover as evident from research findings. All of the above stated factors and elements contribute to employee dissatisfaction and it is a result of various internal and external factors that were mentioned above.Labour turnover of High Beech HotelHigh Beech Hotel had a newly appointed general manager and she has been investigating the reasons for the high staff turnover levels of the hotel over the past three years and has had several discussions with the operations manager and the HR manager of the company. Unfortunately no proper investigation has not been done so far to find out the possible causes of staff turnover but the management in consultation with the company HR records and turnover figures has assumed the reasons as job dissatisfaction, long and unfriendly working hours, pay issues, lack of training and development opportunities for staff, issues with working condition and other personal issues of staff suc h as work life balance.Importance of HR practices and concepts in relation to staff retention and turnoverHRM plays a vital part in creating a sustainable competitive advantage for any organisation, and forward looking organisations adopt good HR policies and practices to ensure the smooth functioning of the organisation (Edvinsson and Malone, 1997 Stewart, 1997 Verma and Dewe, 2008). Research studies have confirmed that well defined organisational goals and corporate objectives directly influence employee retention and productivity. Kim et al, (2005) in their study on corporate orientation found that organisational direction and support had a significant impact on employee job satisfaction and overall commitment.ORGANISATIONAL INITIATIVESThe organisational HR initiatives as mentioned above, illustrate how internal factors and forces contribute towards employee retention. The model does not mention about external forces such as local and national competition in the labour market, ec onomic situation, globalisation and international competition which affects attracting skilled employees to various jobs. It can be seen that this model covers the internal factors and reasons that affect staff retention or turnover and it is critically important for an organisation and HR professionals to pay close attention to the factors mentioned under the model to critically assess where they stand as an organisation and take steps to implement those HR practices and policies to retain talented staff ( Horwitz et al, 2003 Steel et al, 2002). These internal HR policies and practices are bundled under the term retention management and it is defined as the ability to hold onto those employees an organisation would want to keep, for longer than the competitors (Johnson,2000 cited De Vos and Meganck,2007). The external factors should not be neglected at the same time because there may be times employees may leave an organisation due to their influences.The impact of financial and no n-financial rewards cannot be undermined and play a critical role in motivating skilled and valued employees and retaining them within the organisation. Financial rewards such as a good basic pay combined with performance related pay and non-financial rewards such as training and development opportunities, initiatives to achieve work life balance for staff and other employee retention initiatives such as a pensions scheme and internal promotions motivate staff and force them to think again before quitting their jobs (Horwitz et al,2003De Vos and Meganck, 2007).When analysing the theories and ides put forward by the above mentioned academics and scholars it is evident they focused on retaining highly skilled employees and researched to find out the possible reasons why valued employees leave organisations. This is being described as retention management and the word retention embraces with other HR practices such as recruitment and selection, development of employees to achieve their full potential and succession management (Lewis and Heckmanp 2006140).HR Practices and the importance of Human PsychologyHRM involves all management decision and practices that directly affects other people, or human resources, who work for the organisation. The question that arises is that despite the fact that many organisations including the hospitality and hotel industry, implement all accepted HR practices and procedures, why employees still leave and the staff turnover rates are extremely high. A good understanding of the implications of human psychology would help HR managers to find the root causes to this problem.Psychologist Abraham Maslow introduced his concept of hierarchy of needs in 1943 which suggests that people are motivated to fulfil their basic human needs before moving on to other needs. The hierarchy of needs is displayed as a pyramid and the lowest level of the pyramid are made up of the most basic needs, while the more complex needs are at the top. The needs located at the bottom are the most basic human needs and as people progress up the pyramid, needs become increasingly psychological and social. Therefore when it comes to employees staying or leaving a particular organisation which stage the employee is in could play a vital role in his or her decision making process. At the core this theory of Maslow suggests that when an individual satisfies one set of needs they always try to move into the other level.This makes it critically important for HR professionals in the hospitality organisations how this theory of Maslow affects individual employees and how it influences an individuals decision about him staying or leaving the organisation. When an individual joins an organisation the first concern is to organise his life in-terms of food shelter and other essential psychological needs through wages and salary. The next concern would be job security and personal health and safety in the job. Once those needs are satisfied the employee w ould move in to the other set of needs which are social needs such as friendly colleagues and staff as well as a desirable working environment. After this comes the next stage which is satisfying the esteem needs which is comprised of individual being recognised for his work and valued by the management of the organisation as well as taking full advantage of any courses and exams they could take to get promoted. Once this set of needs are fully satisfied the employee reaches the stage of self actualisation.Therefore to satisfy the individual employee needs the HR executives working in hospitality sector organisations must understand the needs of employees and aim to provide tailor made HR solutions in line with the corporate strategy of the company. In order to accomplish this, the HR managers must have accurate methods and procedures to understand which stage the employee is in his hierarchy of needs because if this is not done or if the right methods and procedures are not in plac e there will inevitably be a contradiction. For an example the HR managers may direct their full efforts into satisfying the esteem needs of employees through individual recognition and internal promotions at work when the employees are seeking safety needs. This would result in a waste of company resources and employees considering leaving the organisation.Individuals decision making processAn individuals decision making process is comprised of a number of internal and external variables as shown below and the final decision makes by an individual employee is made up of a collection of those internal and external variables. This model is highly useful in understanding an employees decision making in an organisation (Kotler, 2000, p98).As seen the model is comprised of five main stages which an individual may go through before coming into a decision. They are,* Problem recognition* Information search* Evaluation of alternatives* Decision to leave or stay* Post- purchase evaluationTh erefore the first stage is problem recognition and that is recognising there is a problem or issue to be answered by the employee. The problem arose can be triggered by internal influences, external influences or both.Once the main problem or problems are recognised by the employee he then moves into the next stage which is information search. For an example if the initial problem recognised by the employee is concerned with training and development opportunities offered by the organisation then through information search he would try to gather as much information as possible through various external and internal sources about what actions and steps he could take in order to gain the desired level of training.The next stage once sufficient information is gathered is the evaluation of alternatives. As per with training and development, the employee in this stage will go through various possible courses to be taken and evaluate the appropriateness of those courses to his job and what help he could get from the organisation in order to take the course.The next stage of the process is the final decision of the employee to stay with the organisation or to leave. This is called the purchase decision and according to Kotler (2000, p 99) two factors can intervene between the purchase intention and purchase decision. The first factor is the attitudes of other people, which is what the others around think of the individuals decision. Influence of other people can become complex and varied when there are more than one persons involved. The second factor Kotler (2000,p 99) mentions is the unanticipated or unexpected situations and as per the above example of training and development, factors such as the recession and cost cutting measures by the organisation could hamper the employees aspiration of embarking on the course.The final stage of the decision making process is the post purchase evaluation which involves the employee evaluating the positives and negatives of the decision taken, and the possible consequences of it.This concept has a high degree of importance to HR even though it is widely used in marketing and regarded more as a marketing related concep