6-15. What steps do most companies take to reduce voluntary turnover? Are they effective?

6-16. Do you think the voluntary turnover rate in an area should be considered before opening a business operation there? Why?

6-17. If your company is opening up an operation in another country where voluntary turnover is high, how could this problem be reduced? Specifically, rather than hiring local talent, talent could be shifted from the home operation of the business. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

6-18. As a team, identify the steps you could take as managers to reduce the problem of high voluntary turnover you face in an overseas operation. For example, you could use domestic workers for the operation or you could increase the wage rate offered in your foreign operation. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these and other actions you could take?

6-19. As an old saying goes, you can’t manage something if you can’t measure it. In the case of voluntary turnover, you may be able to measure the level of turnover, but you need better measurement than that if you are to effectively manage voluntary turnover. It could be useful, for example, to have a sense of why people are choosing to quit. Is it, for instance, just about getting a higher paying job somewhere else, or are other factors involved?

As a team, what measures regarding voluntary turnover would you suggest? How would you collect the information? How would this information be useful to managing the problem of voluntary turnover?

6-20. Where there is high voluntary turnover, managers often face difficulty in finding replacement workers. If you are a manager in a high–voluntary turnover situation and one of your workers decides to leave, you will likely find yourself on the market, fighting to replace the talent that just left. A high–voluntary turnover problem also usually means difficulty in finding and hiring replacements.

1. a. An alternative to trying to hire scarce talent is to grow your own. That is, an organization may decide to provide training and development opportunities to current workers in order to development needed talent. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?

2. b. Do you think internal development of talent would also have an effect on voluntary turnover? Why? What would be the downside?

3. c. Do you know of or can you locate any companies that focus on internal development? Does it seem to be effective?

   Share your conclusions and findings with the rest of the class.