Reducing personnel turnover at NS Retail A qualitative study to reduce personnel turnover in pink-collar jobs at NS Retail by looking at job characteristics that can lead to meaningful work

Abstract

This research has taken place within a large Dutch retail organisation which was facing problems regarding personnel turnover in their shop formulas (pink-collar jobs). The turnover rate exceeded the yearly target with 10%. This research has investigated possible causes for the high personnel turnover within the pink-collar jobs. The organisation stated that most of the employees that work in their offices (white-collar jobs), stay within the organisation for multiple years. Because of this large difference between the two job types, white-collar jobs were taken as a reference group. The aim was to find solutions to reduce personnel turnover within pink-collar jobs by performing a diagnostic research. In order to do this, a meaningful work perspective with the focus on job characteristics was adopted. This represents the following conceptual approach: job characteristics lead to meaningful work, this will subsequently lead to a reduction in personnel turnover. This resulted in the following research question: To what extent does the creation of job characteristics that lead to meaningful work contribute to reducing personnel turnover within pink-collar jobs at a Dutch retail organisation? This research question was investigated by performing a qualitative diagnostic research with a deductive approach where interviews with pink-and white-collar workers were conducted to gather relevant data. This data has been analysed by performing a template analysis.