The Impact of Staff Turnover on Performance: A Case of the North West Provincial Department of South Africa

Abstract

There is a general consensus regarding the effects of high staff turnover on the smooth running of various institutions. The purpose of this study is to establish the effect of staff turnover on performance of employees in the North West Provincial Department of South Africa. Questionnaires and document analysis were blended to capture authenticity and exhaustiveness of the data. Participants included the 70 employees in the said department who all filled and returned the questionnaire. Both inferential and descriptive statistics were used to present the results. A chi-square analysis was used as a method for data analysis in this study. Descriptive statistics were also used to describe the profiles of employees. The findings showed that the majority of employees are dissatisfied due many reasons and this causes lots of voluntary resignations among employees. Low productivity in the department is as a result of employee dissatisfaction borne as a result of management’s ignorance. The study recommends that the department should improve on mechanisms of getting feedback from its staff members regarding problems that have been identified as causes of high staff turnover rates. In addition, staff taking over duties performed by those who exited must be given proper orientation and recognition for going an extra mile. It was further recommended to the management of this organisation to give an exceptional attention to controllable factors such as, performance appraisals, salaries, interrelations between staff, orientation of newly appointed employees, etc. A relevant continual training was also recommended to prepare employees for promotions and development.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p117