Factors leading to employee resignation within a professional service organisation

Abstract

Organisations across the world are finding it difficult to cope with the loss of talent, more especially within professional services organisations. Given the high stature of individuals employed in professional services organisations, employee resignations (or employee turnover) as of recent has become a more burning issue, making it extremely difficult to predict and even harder to circumvent. The impact of employee resignations is a costly exercise to any organisation, as the loss of intellectual knowledge as well as the financial costs are extremely high. This research study therefore set out to firstly analyse the literature to gain a thorough understanding of the various factors that contribute to an employee's decision to resign, or intention to resign from an organisation. Various literature and hypothesis needed to adequately analyse to formulate a tailored quantitative research questionnaire which could be utilized to obtain critical data regarding factors leading to employee resignations within the evaluated professional services organisation. The formulated quantitative research questionnaire resulted in eight significant constructs that were developed regarding factors that influence an employee's intention to resign from a professional services organisation. An empirical study was thereafter conducted to explain the research methodology as well as to statistically analyse the data obtained from respondents within the professional services organisation and the results highlighted the key construct's influencing the perception for employee resignations. Further analysis was thereafter computed to determine the significant correlations and effect sizes experienced within the various demographic population regarding the identified constructs. Conclusions based on these statistical results are then discussed and possible recommendations mentioned by the author in the final chapter of this research study.