1) A good friend seeks your advice about starting a new business. What do you think are the three most important things you would want to advise him/her to do or consider before starting this new business and why?

2) You are a manager in a retail business that employees 100 employees. You have recently discovered that there has been a sharp and significant loss of staff due to employee turnover. Not only does your business run the risk of lower quality customer service but your bottom line is threatened by the increased costs of recruiting, hiring, and training new employees. You have taken on the job of analyzing the causes of the turnover and identifying possible solutions.

Factors:

1) There has been recent turnover in the middle management team. A few have taken early retirement and have been replaced by new managers.

2) Better economic conditions have resulted in a surge of new business. You are gaining new customers rapidly and they are buying more merchandise producing a higher need to restock shelves with inventory.

3) This same economic upturn has resulted in a more competitive job market.

Question: What would you do to pinpoint the most important causes of employee turnover and what would you recommend as solutions to upper management?