Seasonal Employees

Abstract

High year-to-year retention of seasonal employees can be a source of competitive advantage for tourism organizations. Past studies of seasonal employee retention have examined the issue from the perspective of job satisfaction. However, many tourism jobs have similar responsibilities from organization to organization suggesting another construct might also affect employee retention. The purpose of this study was to examine retention through the lens of employee sense of community (SOC) toward the tourism organization. Significant differences were found in SOC levels between those who returned to work at resorts and those who did not. Moreover, a logistic regression model showed SOC to be a good predictor of retention. Like in previous studies, factors that impact retention appear to be different for first year employees than experienced ones. However, the results suggest that somewhat different approaches for improving retention should be taken than the recommendations from past studies of seasonal employee retention.

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Journal of Travel Research
2015, Vol. 54(2) 193 –205
© The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0047287513513169
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Research Article
Introduction
Tourism is a very seasonal industry with demand peaking at
different times of year. This seasonality causes major opera-
tional and policy challenges for the hospitality and tourism
industries (Baum 1999). One of the main challenges involves
staffing. As organizations adapt their labor force to varia-
tions in visitation volume, it is often necessary to release
many employees at the end of a season with the hopes of
attracting back the best ones when they are needed again,
often nearly a year later. It is this interruption in employment
that adds a unique challenge to managing human resources in
organizations that rely on seasonal employees. In a year-
round position, employees who are very unhappy with their
jobs are likely to actively seek another opportunity. However,
if employees are only marginally dissatisfied with their jobs,
they may take a more passive approach and only explore
other jobs if an opportunity presents itself. For seasonal
employees who are marginally dissatisfied, this passive
approach is less likely since employees are dismissed at the
end of the season, forcing them to look for other opportuni-
ties. Further, because many seasonal employees are migra-
tory, the employment situation must be desirable enough to
entice employees to relocate back each year.
Because a tourist’s experience is so closely linked with
employee performance (Lundberg, Gudmundson, and
Andersson 2009), the effective management of human
resources is critical to top line profitability (Owen and Teare
1996). Leaders of tourism organizations have long known
that the difference between success and failure depends on
customer satisfaction, provided by a quality workforce (Ford
and Heaton 2001), and it follows that an organization that is
better able to attract and retain a high-quality workforce will
have an advantage over its competitors. This link between
human resources (HR) management and profitability is rein-
forced by Kotler, Bowen, and Makens (2003), who bring a
marketing perspective to HR management when they write
that “good internal programs create employee satisfaction,
which in turn creates customer satisfaction” (Kotler, Bowen,
and Makens 2003, p. 353). Despite the recognized relation-
ship between high-quality employees and the success of
tourism organizations, turnover in the industry has remained
consistently high (Hoque 2000; Jerris 1999; Sims 2007;
Wood 1992; Woods 1997), a problem that is in part caused
by, and in part exacerbated by, the fact that so many tourism
organizations rely on seasonal employees.
There are many ways in which turnover can negatively
impact an organization. Financially, turnover increases direct
costs related to recruiting and training new employees each
year. Hinkin and Tracey (2000) identified categories of costs
associated with turnover that include recruitment costs
513169JTRXXX10.1177/0047287513513169Journal of Travel ResearchMcCole
research-article2013
1Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Corresponding Author:
Dan McCole, Michigan State University, 480 Wilson Rd. Rm. 131, East
Lansing, MI 48864, USA.
Email: mccoleda@msu.edu
Seasonal Employees: The Link between
Sense of Community and Retention
Dan McCole1
Abstract
High year-to-year retention of seasonal employees can be a source of competitive advantage for tourism organizations. Past
studies of seasonal employee retention have examined the issue from the perspective of job satisfaction. However, many
tourism jobs have similar responsibilities from organization to organization suggesting another construct might also affect
employee retention. The purpose of this study was to examine retention through the lens of employee sense of community
(SOC) toward the tourism organization. Significant differences were found in SOC levels between those who returned
to work at resorts and those who did not. Moreover, a logistic regression model showed SOC to be a good predictor
of retention. Like in previous studies, factors that impact retention appear to be different for first year employees than
experienced ones. However, the results suggest that somewhat different approaches for improving retention should be taken
than the recommendations from past studies of seasonal employee retention.
Keywords
seasonal employees, employee retention, sense of community, job satisfaction, human resources, ski resort