The relationship between employee turnover and job satisfaction : a case study of the North West Department of Health

Abstract

South Africa experiences a significant shortage of nurses and medical specialists in the health sector. Nurses and medical specialists leave country for more lucrative offers outside South Africa. Currently in South Africa, medical specialists have set up private practices. As a result, private practice becomes an uncanny rival for the public sector (public hospitals and clinics) because of the quality of service they offer to their customers. North West Province faces the same challenge of high employee turnover, especially under the nursing and medical field . Nursing and medical specialists render core business of the health care services and this high turnover bespeaks huge challenges. The shortage has negative impact on the quality and sustainability of health care services. The aim of the study is to assess factors that affect retention of employees and employee job-satisfaction. The primary objective of this study is to determine the relationship between high employee turnover and job satisfaction. Descriptive statistics are used to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables (Welman, Kruger, & Mitchell, 2011 ). The study determined the relationship between job satisfaction and employee turnover using the case study research design. Structured questionnaire in the form of Likert scale was used for data collection.The measuring instrument was adapted from the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and was used to collect data on job satisfaction. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between employee turnover and job satisfaction (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). Furthermore, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was also used to analyze demographic data. The findings of the study were that there is a positive correlation between high employee turnover and job satisfaction.