Causes and prevention of staff turnover within micro retail businesses in South Africa: lessons for the tourism industry

Abstract

This article sought to ascertain the causes and provide guidelines to prevent staff turnover within micro retail businesses in South Africa. Staff turnover is one of the key challenges facing business owners and managers within the micro retail sector, including tourism ventures. Current literature focuses on driving factors of staff turnover for mainly large retail businesses but lacks appropriate guidelines or principles to assist micro businesses. A quantitative research approach was followed. This article solicits the opinion of micro retail business in Cape Town, South Africa by mapping seven general retail driving factors to three theoretical models, i.e. the universal turnover, modal and subpopulation theories, to guide the research. Specific internal and external factors which principally contribute to the high staff turnover were used. The findings suggest that many factors affecting large businesses in the retail sector also apply to the micro retail sector. However, a list of six driving factors pertaining to micro retail business is provided. The paper concludes with good recommendations to assist micro retail businesses in the task of reducing high staff turnover rates. The article contributes to literature on staff turnover with specific special focus on the micro retail sector in the tourism industry.