Tackling the hospitality industry’s contentious issue of employee retention: A close look into the influence of staff training

Abstract

Generally, hospitality industry experiences incessant wave of high turnover than all other industries. Due to alarming levels of competition in staff training and growth opportunities in different industries, organizations in hospitality sector face challenges in retaining their employees. Employees quit hospitality organizations in pursuit of world-class training and the opportunity for professional development offered in competing organizations, both within and outside the hospitality industry. However, prior research has largely ignored the role of staff training on employee retention in hospitality organizations. There is growing debate about the relationship between staff training and employee retention. Hence, behooves the researcher to accentuate the impact of staff training on employee retention with specific attention given to five subsidiaries of the leading hospitality organization in Zimbabwe. For this study, the data was collected from a sample size of 120 employees. The sample was selected using systematic sampling technique under the ambit of probability sampling method. The data was analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics. The results unearthed that staff training has a significant impact on employee retention. The study produced compelling evidence that staff training was insufficient and was not coping with constant changes in the surrounding. In addition, strong evidence in this study indicated that coaching and mentoring were the most preferred types of training. Therefore, the top management should increase the amount of investment on staff training to retain employees. The managers should ensure that all the equipment and tools used for staff training are aligned with prevailing technology to wane turnover rates. Considering huge turnover rates in hospitality industry, comprehending the influence of staff training on employee retention is boon to improve the management policies within the organization. By shedding light on the influence of staff training on employee retention, this study lends preeminent credence to previous claims regarding the importance of the staff training at the workplace.

Keywords:

• Employee retention
• employer competition
• hospitality industry
• on-the-job training
• staff training

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to appreciate the anonymous reviewers and editors, for their constructive feedback on this paper.

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest in this paper.

Data availability statement

Data can be made available when requested.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.