An Analysis of Labor Turnover in a Georgia Paper Company

This study dealt with labor turnover in a paper producing industry in Georgia/ Labor turnover is a problem in many industrial plants because of the cost incurred for training competent workers and disruptions in schedules which are caused by inadequate labor supplies. Disruptions in production schedules appear when a manager finds that he is short-handed because of labor turnovers. Disruptions in scheduling, cost industry money and this unnecessary cost can be obliterated by carefully planning for the turnovers or by preventing the turnovers before they happen. Preventing or reducing the turnovers would be the best solution. The researcher decided to apply his efforts and abilities to the study of turnovers in an attempt to find ways of reducing turnovers for this study. A high turnover is not desirable and a reduction is necessary if better utilization of human resources and production time is to be attained. To reduce turnovers, a correlation must be found between the workers who terminate their services and the reasons for termination. The overall reason stated by Herzburg for labor turnovers is worker dissatisfaction (1), but the reasons for dissatisfaction are not specifically known. It is not probable that every job will give the worker satisfaction, however, other compensation (pay, job freedom, status, worker relationships) can improve the worker\u27s satisfaction. Greater worker satisfaction should be attained and labor turnovers should decrease by comparing the individual\u27s needs, abilities, and personality to the job. This would serve a twofold purpose; it would benefit industry by decreasing their cost and would help the workers to find jobs more suitable to their skills and perhaps more gratifying to their needs