An Investigation into the High Turnover of Employees within the Irish Hospitality Sector, Identifying What Methods of Retention Should Be Adopted

This research project seeks to determine the causative factors behind the exceptionally high employee turnover rates in the Irish hospitality industry. For a long time now, the Irish hospitality industry has been characterised by high numbers of employees opting to abandon their jobs. This translates negatively on the various companies in this crucial industry as they constantly have to spend significant amounts of resources on hiring new employees to replace the ones who have left. This is a costly procedure that is consuming potential profits for these companies. This project will identify the main reasons as to why more employees are quitting their job. To do this, the research will focus on getting vital insights from past hotel employees in the Irish hospitality industry. The decision to settle on this target population was based on the need to promote honesty in the responses provided. The research project will also incorporate a comprehensive review of past literature on this topic. This will introduce the perceptions and opinions of other past researchers into the study. Moreover, these past researchers will contribute towards the topic through their literature. The quantitative research method will be utilised in this project to help further comprehend the research question. An ontology approach will also be adopted since human nature plays a major role in influencing the behaviour of employees in the Irish hospitality sector. In the end, three factors were determined to cause the high employee turnover rates in this sector. They include; low levels of employee motivation, inadequate wages and finally, work-life balance. These three factors have to be adequately addressed to boost the employee retention rates in the Irish hospitality industry. The research project has outlined a variety of recommendations that these companies should consider to make this happen, including, regular periodic training, better wages, employee recognition and much more