American Apparel: Employee Turnover

American Apparel: Employee Turnover

When our interviewees were asked the question: "Have you ever considered quitting? If so, for what reasons?", each one of our interviewees answered yes. They each stated that they were either currently looking for a new job or have already found other jobs that better suite their needs.

Employee turnover takes place when an employee willingly leaves their job and must be replaced. High employee turnover can be damaging to a company due to the fact that hiring and training new employees can be very expensive. There is no precise number that specifies whether turnover is high or low for a company, turnover varies greatly by the type of industry the company is in. Usually when a company calculates their employee turnover for the year, they compare themselves to their competitors and the industry turnover average to rate whether their turnover is high or low. Companies long for low employee turnover, but sometimes they are not offering the correct opportunities and benefits to their employees to achieve that.

After reviewing the surveys, it was definitely clear that American Apparel has difficulty with employee turnover. The reasons that our interviewees gave us for wanting to quit was that they had found or were looking for a job with better pay and more hours and benefits. These are very common causes of employee turnover. The possibility of getting higher pay at another organization is "one of the most obvious contributors to turnover".(Harris, Jim, and Brannick, 1999). However, surprisingly enough pay is not at the root of the cause of turnover. In a study In one done in the United States, more than half of the respondents didn't even list pay in the top three reasons as to why they left their jobs. (Griffeth, Hom, 1992). One of the most important factors of job turnover is job satisfaction, which American Apparel Inc. seems to lack. To achieve job satisfaction, firstly American Apparel should focus on giving their employees career opportunities because opportunity for promotion is a very important contributor to job satisfaction. Most of our interviewees stated that they didn't see much room to grow at American Apparel because their head office only hires people with "a certain personally" or "people who live and breathe American Apparel." Secondly, the managers should offer more adequate compensation because pay and satisfaction are positively related. When the employees were asked if they were satisfied with their current wages, they answered that they were somewhat satisfied but stated that they did not get a raise when they assumed they should have. Lastly, a reoccurring complain from the interviewed American Apparel employees was that they were not given enough hours, and every week they seem to be getting less hours, their schedules are not constant. The interviewees explained that the scheduling is