Expected Outcome of Human Resource Practices on Labour Turnover in Restaurants in Kenya

Labour turnover (LTO) disrupts organizations both indirectly and directly through increased costs of recruitment, training and social systems. This paper provides an understanding of the effects of human resource practices on labour turnover and how it can be managed in restaurants. The study was based on the equity theory and descriptive research design was used. The study covered a total of 80 restaurants operating in five major towns in Kenya namely: Mombasa, Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret with 284 respondents comprising employees randomly selected. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Frequency tables were used to present descriptive data while regression analysis and ANOVA were used to analyse the data. ANOVA results pointed to the fact that HRM practices were basically the same in all the towns studied. It was also established that socio-demographic characteristics and existence of gross informal human resource management practices in the restaurants have contributed to labour turnover. Thus, the study recommended that the Ministry of Labour enact, enforce and monitor standard management procedures that could reduce labour turnover. In addition, ways in which Human Resource Management practices could be used to manage labour turnover in the hospitality industry were given.


INTRODUCTION
According to Goldsmith, Nickson, Sloan and Wood (1997), labour turnover is the total movement of employees in and out of an organization.The researchers posit that hospitality industry has a reputation for high rates of labour turnover relative to other industries.Consequently, the industry players have believed that they have no control over the labour turnover yet they are not putting in human resource strategies that might help retain staff such as increasing wages/salaries and training their employees.Instead, the employers are responding pragmatically to their perceptions despite the significant growth that has been experience in the industry which provide options and avenues through which staff turnover thrives.The hospitality sector grew by 13.3% in 200513.3% in (ROK, 2006)).This growth implies that the industry requires more human resources to facilitate its further growth and sustenance.The future of human resource management in the hospitality industry therefore rests in the provision of sustainable policies for its commercial development which many operators ignore at their own peril (Goldsmith et al., 1997).
An analysis of the traditional and sustainable human resource (HR) policies as espoused by Goldsmith et al., (1997) brings forth some of the salient features of the old HR practice and the new sustainable HR paradigm for example, recruitment is undertaken without reference to the local community/labour market in the old HR practice while in the new sustainable HR paradigm, reference is done.In the old HR practice, unplanned recruitment to meet immediate needs sometimes based on poaching and high staff turnover is seen inevitable/desirable and no measures are taken to reduce staff turnover.In any case, there is no interest in why staff leaves, unlike in the new HR paradigm.
Any business needs labour to function.The axiom is equally applicable to all firms whether in reference to economic model with labour as one of the factors of production or the Marxist account which emphasizes labour power or even when referring to complex models which place emphasis on knowledge based management.Pigors and Myers (1985) define labour as any form of effort applied in a piece of work so as to produce output.Though organizations may have vital employees, they may have to manage them as a resource.This is because their exit from the organisation may cause negative impacts on not only the organization's performance, but also the individual employee.This is seen more practical if the organisation is concerned about its competitive advantage and with the welfare of its employees and hence their total quality of life.Mobley (1982) suggests that a greater understanding of the process of the exit of an employee from an organization can impact either positively or negatively on the total workspace.Griffeth and Hom (1995, p. 13) add that a greater understanding of the process of labour turnover can increase the degree of which organization and employees can help to curb or reduce it.Such understanding through research is based on the fact that the management of human resources is of priority concern.This is because HR forms the company's or organization's production capacity and competitive advantage which in turn leads to greater productivity.Terborg and Lee (1984) assert that there is no acceptable way of measuring and assessing the probability of an individual deciding to leave an organization in future, therefore there is need for research in this area.Much concern has been on the amount of resources invested on employee training and development only for them to leave as direct costs are relatively easy to measure while indirect costs are not so clear cut (Karsan, 2007), and are difficult to quantify (Davidson et al., 2006).There is need to consider employees as assets on which the future of the organization effectiveness and efficiency depends on.The effects of labour turnover range from decline in productivity, compromise of the quality of products, loss of man hours caused by absenteeism and additional implications pertaining to cost due to recruiting, training and advertising to source new employees.As a result, there is need to investigate the causes of staff turnover and suggest measures to help curb it.

Statement of the Problem
The high mobility of workers in the hospitality industry in Kenya is an issue of much concern to the operators of the industry.The mobility of workers result in an increase in the cost of hiring new staff, training costs, accident rates arising from inability to use equipment and poor working environment, under-utilization of equipment and new staff among others.Hotel size may be a factor, as larger hotels are more likely to adopt systematic HRM strategies and practices reducing turnover rates, especially at the luxury hotel level (Knox & Walsh, 2005).Although the turnover rate of managerial employees is expected to be lower than that of operational staff, the cost of replacement is much higher.It may also impact upon line employee turnover due to managerial inconsistencies (Stalcup & Pearson, 2001).There has been little effort to identify the causes of high mobility of workers and the effects of the human resource management (HRM) practices on labour turnover in the hospitality Industry in Kenya.If labour mobility in the restaurant sector in Kenya is not addressed, opportunities for profitable investments in this industry might be compromised, hence the need for this study.This study therefore sought to determine the causes of high LTO in the hospitality industry, to establish how HRM practices have been adopted by hospitality establishments in the five towns and to suggest ways through which they can be utilized in an attempt to keep LTO at minimal.

Objectives of the study
The general objective of this study was to examine the factors that contributes to high labour turnover and how it can be managed in restaurants in Kenya.The specific objectives of the study were:-1.To find out the effects of Human Resource Management practices of restaurants on labour turnover in Kenya 2. To establish whether socio-demographic characteristics of employees in restaurants affect labour turnover in Kenya 3. To establish the difference in the adoption of human Resource Management practices in restaurants across five Kenyan towns

Study hypotheses
Three hypotheses were tested: H 01 HRM practices of restaurants affect LTO in the hospitality sector in Kenya H 02 HR practices in restaurants differ significantly across the sampled towns H 03 Socio-demographic characteristics of employees in restaurants affect LTO in Kenya

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The study was based on the equity theory put forth by Adams (1963).The theory states that when people perceive unequal situation, they experience equity tension which they attempt to reduce by appropriate behaviour.Some of the dimensions the behaviour take include improved performance, seek for improved rewards, work slowly, steal from the employer or leave the work environment for another perceived better one.Robbins (1993) alludes that the decision by employees to leave a job constitutes an inequitable situation.It should be noted that people are not only interested in rewards but in comparative nature of the rewards.As illustrated in figure 1, it was conceptualized that socio-demographic characteristics of employees and human resource management practices lead to labour turnover.

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
Source: Authors own compilation LITERATURE REVIEW Mobley (1982) defined turnover as the termination of employment in an organization by an employee who received monetary return from the organization.Studies done regarding labour turnover in the service industry across the world indicate that, the hospitality sector leads with many employees' changing jobs from time to time.Subsequently, some causes of labour turnover are believed to be industry-specific.Both the internal and external causes of labour turnover affect the growth, profitability and customer satisfaction whenever it occurs in the workplace.Employers see the process of staff leaving and being replaced as a natural and inevitable feature of the industry (Kuria, Ondingi & Wanderi, 2012).Hemdi and Nasardin (2006) point out that the turnover rates in the hotel industry stands at between 60-300% annually which is detrimental to organizations.Therefore, it is clear that both direct and indirect costs accrue as a result from turnover.Furthermore, it impinges on moral, efficiency, reputation and continued existence of organizations.Therefore, when turnover is high, employees do not appreciate the work compensation, feel unsafe or perceive it as unhealthy conditions and few employees perform satisfactorily due to unrealistic expectations.Contrary to this, when turnover is low, it indicates that employees are satisfied, safe and sound, and their performance is satisfactory to the employer.Walker (2001) points out that despite the fact that high rate of staff turnover may be prevalent in the hospitality industry, it is manageable.According to Walker, more people leave an organization the first few days and weeks into their employment than at any other time.This may be as a result of poor recruitment or a poor induction programme, with insufficient care and time spent on enabling the new recruit to build strong relationships with his supervisor and co-workers.The new worker may have been left to swim or sink without sufficient support.In this industry, opportunities both at home and internationally are huge.Motivated employees always look to improve their careers and want to increase their experience and responsibility in order to earn more money.However, where pay levels are lower than the competition, employees uncontrollably tend to leave in order to earn more (Walker, 2001).Several costs arise from labour turnover.High rates of labour turnover can lead to costs that include: replacement costs; transition costs; indirect costs; lost production costs; loss of know-how and customer goodwill; potential loss of sales; and damage to morale and productivity.Alternatively, in order to develop employee confidence in an organization and consequently reduce turnover, hotels need to develop programs that enhance employee skills, perform just and prescribed employee evaluation and provide sufficient and understandable career paths to employees (Hemdi, 2006).In other words, HRM practices send powerful signals to employees about the extent to which the organization trusts them and if organizations fail to deliver on contractual or other promises, employees' sense of indebtedness or mutual obligations will be reduced.However, labour turnover has benefits that include: bringing new ideas, skills and enthusiasm to the labour force; and helping reduce workforce without having to resort to redundancies.Computation of labour turnover is the number of leavers in a period (usually a year) as a percentage of the number employed during the same period.This is known as the separation rate or crude wastage rate and is calculated as follows: Labour Turnover = Number of leavers/Average no employed x 100 According to Decenzo and Steppen (1994), Human Resource Management is concerned with the people dimension management.Given that organizations are made of people, attention should be particular to the process of acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to higher levels of performance and ensuring that they maintain their commitment to the organization as essential for achieving organizational goals.According to Flippo (1976), Human Resource Management is planning, organizing, directing and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organizational and social objectives are accomplished.
Human Resource planning by the entrepreneur is necessary to optimize the utilization of this important resource.It involves making sure that the organization has the right number of people of the right profile at the right time.According to ILO (2002), many organizations only realize the importance of Human Resource planning in the event of a major shortage of competent people.Human Resource planning activities include job evaluation whose main objective is to set wages on agreed basis, done mainly through quantitative and qualitative methods.According to Gupta (2001), lack of job evaluation could result in dissatisfaction as a result of the irregularities in the wages and salary payments.
Training programmes attempt to bring out positive change in the knowledge, skill and attitude of workers.There are different types of training including induction/orientation, refresher, and apprentice internship training.
In theory, workers should feel free to bring to the attention of management any grievance which may have, without fear of reprisal.However, many restaurants and catering organizations lack this progressive HRM approach and staff may therefore avoid raising grievances.This makes it difficult for the management to identify and monitor such grievances and hence hard to rectify any recurring problems.
The restaurants and catering industry is heavily dependent on young workers.Figures supplied by Lucas (1995, p. 54) suggest that 42% of all industry employers are aged less than 30 years, with 40% of these aged nineteen or less.A further 20.2% of employees are in the 30-39 age categories.Only around 37% of industry workers are aged 40 or more.According to CBS (1999) on the educational level of the entrepreneurs, 10.6% had no education, 54.4% had Primary Education, 33.1% Secondary Education and 1.8% had gotten higher level education.This trend could be equally related to that of the employees in the hospitality sector.There is, however, inadequate literature on the role of marital status on labour turnover in the restaurants industry.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study was undertaken in restaurants located in five major towns in Kenya, namely: Nairobi (20), Mombasa (17), Kisumu (14), Nakuru (15) and Eldoret ( 14).The study was based on a descriptive and explanatory research design.The sample size comprised of 284 employees that were selected from 80 restaurants in the selected towns using simple random sampling.Data was collected using questionnaires.Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data.Multiple regression and ANOVA were used to analyse data.T-test was used to test the hypothesis while ANOVA was used to establish the variance between the adoption of HRM practices in restaurants across the five Kenyan towns.

FINDINGS Human Resource Management practices
Recruitment practices showed that 88% of employees applied formally for their job but were not interviewed, 91.2% produced certificates while 82% were not given letters of appointment.This results to uncommitted and unsuitable staff as employers do not ascertain the suitability of employees before employment.Promotions and career development showed that 59.5% of employees had no opportunities offered for upward mobility, 70% of those promoted indicated that they were not trained before promotion while 57% of the employees indicated that their employers felt career mobility was disruptive.These aspects discourage staff which eventually results in LTO.
Training aspects showed that 68% of employers did not plan for training and that 72% of the management of restaurants were not committed to training hence no opportunities were open to employees.The study also found that 91% employers do not assist paying fees for employees when they enrol for training.In addition, 85% of the employees were not granted study leave by their employers.This aspect affects work attitudes of employees that lead to turnover.Rewards and benefits of employees indicated that 51% of employers offered minimum rewards in terms of wages, 70% of the employees felt that their pay was poor compared to other sectors.However, 81% of employees had a sense of belonging to their organisation.Poor rewards and benefits de-motivated staff which led to high staff LTO.
Management culture was too found to impact on LTO as 69% of the management in restaurants were found to be rigid in decision making and did not involve their employees.
The hypothesis that HR management affected that LTO was partly proven.I say partly because Management culture, which is another HRM practice, was not found to affect the LTO.Details of HRM practices are shown in the table 1.

Socio-demographic characteristics
From the findings, 82% employees were below 30 years which implied that majority of the employees are young and have not settled in their careers.On gender, 61% were male while only 39% were female which could imply that men contribute to high LTO since they are easily mobile and can move from one town to another in search for jobs as they are not tied down with home chores.The marital status of the employees revealed that 66% were not married hence have very few or no dependants and therefore can easily be uncommitted to their jobs.62% of the employees had basic education (form four).This implied that many of them are susceptible to changing their careers if opportunities arose.36% had tertiary education.The hypothesis that socio-economic factors affected LTO in restaurants in Kenya was found to be true.

Multiple Regression Model
The model adopted for this study was given as; Where Y = Labour Turn Over ( Number of leavers in year x 100%) Number of employed in a year The model contains a number of dummy variables denoted as D is ; 1.e D 1 -D 8 .According to Koutsoyiannis (1993), a dummy variable is one which is constructed to describe the development or variation of the variable under consideration.It is assigned to its arbitrary units in such a way as to approximate as best as possible the variations in the factor which we want to express quantitatively.They are constructed by econometricians to be mainly used as proxies for other variables which cannot be measured in any particular case for various reasons.A dummy variable takes a value zero for one classification and so on.Therefore the dummy variables in this study were adapted in light of this background.In this study, the dependent variable was labour turnover denoted as Y.The dependent variable was derived from the ratio of employees leaving a restaurants establishment to those employees joining the same restaurants establishment over a period of one year.Each of the independent variables (D 4, D 5, D 6, D 7, D 8 ) were characterized by a set of sub independent variables which were determined on a scale of zero and one to mean 'no' and 'yes' respectively.The responses to these sub-variables were averaged and rounded off to the nearest zero or one to get the general opinion of the major independent variables.A regression of Y (Labour Turnover) against the independent variables was done and the results summarized in table 2 and 3.The regression equation Y = 0.121 + 0.211X 1 + 0.043D 1 + 0.101D 2 + 0.194D 3 -0.415D 4 -0.360D 5 -0.327D 6 -0.299D 7 -0.186D 8 + μ.
From the model, it can be noted that there exists a negative relationship between Labour Turn Over (Y) and recruitment procedures (D 4 ), promotions and career development (D 5 ), Training and Development (D 6 ), rewards and benefits (D 7 ) and management culture (D 8 ) based on the negative coefficients that relates the dependant variable to each of the mentioned independent variable.Also, there exists a positive relationship between labour turnover (Y) and Age (X 1 ), gender (D 1 ), Educational level (D 2 ) and Marital status (D 3 ) on the basis of the positive coefficients that relate to these variables.
The coefficient β ^1= 0.211 shows that when age of employees changes by one unit percentage, labour turnover changes by 21.1%.A unit % increase in age would thus bring about a 21.1% increase in labour turnover and vice versa.The implication here is that employees tend to change jobs or leave jobs altogether as they progress in age.This is true with regards to restaurants industry where indeed most employees are young men and women.The regression coefficient that related labour turnover to gender of employees is β ^2 = 0.043.This figure is indicative of the fact that 1% change in gender elicits a 4.3% change in labour turnover.Since gender as a variable was a dummy and male was assigned a value of one and the coefficient has turned out to be positive, then it implies that male workers are more likely to change jobs as compared to their female counterparts.More specifically, that a one percentage increase in male workers in the sampled hospitality establishment across Kenya would produce a 4.3% increase in labour turnover.
The same argument can be extended to the parameter estimate linking labour turnover and marital status of employees in the restaurants industry.The estimate β ^3= 0.101 informs us that a change in marital status by a unit percentage brings about a 10.1% change in labour turnover.Because marital status was a dummy variable and zero assigned to 'married' and one assigned to 'otherwise' or simply not married and the coefficient of interest turned to be positive, then the implication here is that unmarried people are more likely to change jobs as compared to their married counterparts.In fact, if the sample restaurants would hire an extra one percent of unmarried employees, labour turnover would actually go up by 10.1 %.Their ease to change jobs could be attributable to the fact that they have no immediate commitment to a spouse or family that would suffer the consequence of a job loss during the time they are temporarily out of employment; although this needs a further quest to ascertain whether it is true.
The regression coefficient that links education level of restaurants employees to labour turnover is β ^4= 0.194.This figure shows that when level of education goes up by a unit percentage, labour turnover goes up by 19.4% and vice versa.The deduction made is that as you go up the education ladder in stages, labour turnover increases.The explanation offered for this could be that more educated people have appropriate skills and are always seeking to better their current job situation even if it means changing jobs.The less educated on the other hand have limited opportunities for mobility as they could be lacking in the techniques dictated by alternative employers.
The regression coefficient β ^5= -0.415 shows that when recruitment procedures change by one percent, labour turnover changes by 41.5% but in the opposite direction.Thus a one percent improvement in the recruitment procedures will reduce labour turnover by 41.5 % and vice versa.Human resource managers wishing to manage labour turnover in the sampled hospitality establishment should improve on such aspects of recruitment as: potential employees should apply for the jobs formally, interviewed, produce certificates, have letters from former employees incase of any, and should be given letters of appointment.In ensuring this, the problem of high labour turnover in the restaurants industry would be reduced by 41.5% in the sampled hospitality establishment and in Kenya as a whole.Noteworthy is the fact that a recruitment procedure is a dummy which assumes the value of 1 for "yes" or good recruitment practice.Since the parameter of interest β ^5= -0.415 is a negative, then it means that good recruitment practices which was assigned value one relates negatively with labour turnover.If recruitment procedure is improved, labour turnover would actually go down and this would be to the benefit of restaurants' owners, managers and even the employees themselves.
The slope estimate that relates labour turnover to promotions and career development is β ^6= -0.360.This figure shows that when promotions and career development in the sampled restaurants changes by one unit percentage, labour turnover changes by 36.0%but in the opposite direction; increasing and decreasing by 36.0%as promotions and career development declines and increases respectively by a unit percentage.An improvement of promotions and career development would be characterized by an improvement of all subvariables that characterizes it including availability of opportunities for promotion, existence of a clear promotional criterion, training of employees prior to promotions and commitment of employers to seasonal staff.The dummy variable representing promotions and career development (D 5 ) assumed a value one for 'yes' (good promotional and career development procedures) and zero for 'no' (poor promotional and career development techniques).The link coefficient was negative showing that labour turnover increases as promotional and career development declines or worsens and it decreases as promotional and career development procedures improves.
The dependant variable, labour turnover (Y), relates to training of employees by the estimate β ^7= -0.327.Labour turnover would decrease by 32.7% if training of employees improved by just one percent and vice versa.More clearly, an improvement in such aspects of training as planning of training, existence of training programmes, relevance of training to employees work, assistance by employers to fund training and allowing employees leave to study would bring down labour turnover by up to 32.7% in the sampled restaurants across the country.
Since training was a dummy variable and that the value one was assigned to 'yes' or simply existence of training and the coefficient turned out to be negative, then it means that indeed training reduces labour turnover and that the lack of it increases labour turnover.Labour turnover relates to rewards and benefits by the parameter estimates β ^8 = -0.299.The coefficient is negatively signed to indicate that labour turnover and rewards and benefits tend to move in opposite directions.Labour turnover would decrease by 29.9% if the perception of restaurants employees on their rewards and benefits improved by one unit percentage.The reverse is also true.Because rewards and benefits is made up of several sub-variables, then a change in this variable will encompass all variables that constitute it namely: opinion on whether restaurants' employers offer minimum rewards and benefits, how restaurants' employees compare their pay against that of other sectors, how restaurants' employees compare their benefits with that of other sectors and whether employees have a sense of belonging to the restaurants they work for.The variables rewards and benefits was a dummy variable and assumed a value of 1 for 'yes" or good reward and benefits systems and zero otherwise and the coefficient of interest turned out negative.This means that rewards and benefits is negatively related to labour turnover in the sampled restaurants in Kenya.It is then deduced that an improvement in pay of restaurants' workers and managers is important to manage labour turnover at low levels in the sampled towns and Kenya as a whole.
Finally, the coefficients β ^9= -0.186 shows that a unit percentage change in Management culture elicits an 18.6% change in labour turnover in the sampled restaurants but in the opposite direction.Labour turnover would thus go down by 18.6% if management culture improved by just 1%.The reverse also holds.An improvement can be in such aspects as consideration of employees as important resources, democratic management, and authority to vest in management and other employees, and management flexibility in decision making.It is, however, worth to note that management culture was a categorical variable that was assigned a value of one for 'Yes' or good management culture and a value of zero for otherwise.The slope estimate turned to be negative indicative of the fact that good management culture pull in different directions with labour turnover.This explanation is in tandem with the deductions made above about the relationship of the two mentioned variables.

H O1 : Human Resource Management Practices and Labour Turnover
The regression coefficient that linked labour turnover (Y) to Recruitment Procedures (D 4 ) was β ^5 = -0.415.The estimate β ^5 was found to be statistically significant at 1% level of significant with 274 degree of freedom with t 5 = 8.481 which was greater than the tabulated value of t (0.01) (274) = 2.326.Thus, recruitment procedure is a significant variable in the determination of labour turnover in Kenya's hospitality industry.The postulation that recruitment procedures affects labour turnover in Kenya's hospitality industry is thus accepted in light of the this result.
β ^6 was the coefficient that related labour turnover (Y) to promotions and career development (D 5 ) and it was pegged at β ^6 = -0.360.The regression coefficient β ^6 was found to be statistically significant at 1% with 274 degrees of freedom with t 6 = 6.597.The value of t exceeded the tabulated value of t (0.01) (274) = 2.326.The implication here is that promotions and career development is an important variable in the explanation of labour turnover in Kenya's hospitality industry.The hypothesis is accepted that promotions and career development affects labour turn over in the restaurants industry in Kenya.
Training as a Human Resource Management Practice related with labour turnover by the coefficient β ^7 = -0.327.The estimate β ^7 was found to be statistically significant at 5% level of significance with 274 degrees of freedom with a t value of t 7 = 5.121 which was in excess of the critical value of t (0.05) (274) = 2.326.The inference thus made was that training is a significant variable in the study of labour turn over in Kenya's hospitality industry.As a result, the hypothesis is accepted that training and development of employees affects labour turnover in the hospitality industry in Kenya.
Rewards and benefits (D 7 ) was another HRM practice and it related with labour turnover (Y) by the estimate β ^8 = -0.299.The estimate β ^8 was found to be statistically significant at 1% of significance with 274 degrees of freedom with a t value of t 8 = 6.183.The calculated value of t exceeded the critical value of t (0.01) (274) = 2.326.The inference thus made was that rewards and benefits significantly affected labour turnover in sampled restaurants.As a result, the postulation that rewards and benefits affects labour turnover in Kenya's restaurants industry is accepted.
Lastly, the last HRM practice of interest was management culture (D 8 ) of restaurants in Kenya.It related to labour turnover (Y) by the coefficient β ^9= -0.186.The estimate β ^9 was found to be insignificant 1% and 5% levels of significance with a t value of t 9 =1.546.This figure was less than critical values of t at both 1% and 5% levels.It follows then that management culture is not a significant variable in the explanation of labour turnover in Kenya's hospitality industry.With this result, the hypothesis that management culture affects labour turnover in the restaurants industry in Kenya was rejected.
In general, with the exception of management culture, all other HR practices were found to significantly affect labour turnover in Kenya's restaurants.These HR practices included recruitment procedures, promotions and career development, training and rewards and benefits.

H O2 : Differences in Human Resource Management Practices in sampled towns
One way analysis of variance which compares groups on one variable at different levels was used to test if there was any significant difference in Human Resource Management Practices in the sampled towns.The results of the ANOVA are summarized in table 4. In table 4, all the calculated F statistics were found to be statistically significant at 1% level of significance with four degrees of freedom in the numerator and 279 degrees of freedom in the denominator.The tabulated F value was 3.32.The hypothesis that there were differences in HRM practices in the sampled towns was thus nullified.The alternative that HRM practices in the sampled towns is the same is thus accepted.To elaborate, recruitment procedures, promotions and career development, training and development rewards and benefits, and management culture are basically the same in each particular restaurant and across all the sampled towns in Kenya namely Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru and Eldoret.

H O3 : Socio-demographic factors and Labour Turnover
The sample estimates of the population parameter β 1 stood at β ^1= 0.211.The sample estimate β ^1= 0.211 was found to be statistically significant at 1% level with 274 degree of freedom with t 1 = 3.946.This figure was in excess of the critical value of t (0.01) (274) = 2.326 and thus the conclusion of significance of the estimate.It follows that age is an important variable in the determination of labour turnover in Kenyan restaurants.With this result, we accept the hypothesis that age of employees affect labour turnover in restaurants in Kenya is accepted.
The coefficient that linked labour turnover (Y) to the gender or sex of employee (D 1 ) stood at β ^2= 0.043.The estimate β ^2 was found to be statistically significant at 1% level of significance with 274 degrees of freedom with a t value of t 2 = 3.138.This figure was greater than the critical value of t 0.01 (274) = 2.326.The deduction thus made is that gender is an important variable in the explanation of labour turnover in the restaurants industry in Kenya.This result led to the acceptance of the hypothesis that gender of restaurants employees affects labour turnover in restaurants establishment in Kenya.β ^3 was the coefficient that related labour turnover (Y) to marital status (D 2 ) of restaurants employees and it stood at β ^3 = 0.101.The sample coefficient β ^3 was found to be statistically significant at 5% level of significance with 274 degrees of freedom with a t value of t 3 = 3.101.This figure was well in excess of the critical value of t (0.65) (274) = 1.645.The inference made was that marital status significantly affected labour turnover in sampled restaurants.Lastly, the regression coefficient that linked education to labour turnover was β ^4 = 0.194.The estimate was found to be statistically significant at 5% level of significance with a t value of t 4 = 3.744.This t value was well in excess of the critical value of t (0.05) (274) = 1.645.Clearly, educational status of restaurants employees was a significant variable in the study of labour turnover in Kenya's hospitality industry.The hypothesis that education level of employees affected labour turnover in restaurants in Kenya was thus accepted.In general, since all socio-economic variables have been found to significantly affect LTO, then the broader hypothesis that socioeconomic factors affected LTO in restaurants in Kenya was also accepted.

IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY TO RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Having established that HRM practices and socio-demographic factors affect LTO, there is broader knowledge through which stakeholders in the hospitality industry and the policy makers can base in streamlining HRM practices.Also, future researchers can use the findings from this research as a basis to uncover more on the factors affecting staff turnover in the industry and coming up with new innovative ways through which it can be combated.

CONCLUSION
From the research, there exist gross informal HRM practices which contribute to high LTO.There are no promotional opportunities and career development programs in the hospitality industry.There is lack of standard employee selection procedures and most employees have not undergone any formal training in catering.In addition, there are no training opportunities yet management are not committed to providing these training opportunities.The pay, rewards and benefits of employees are also poor.Furthermore, the management culture does not consider employees as a major resource hence employees are not motivated enough to appreciate their jobs hence easily leave their jobs.
Having noted all the HRM practices that affect LTO, it is important to also note that excessive employee turnover is wasteful in terms of finances, human values and friction within and between work teams.These, however may be outweighed by improvement in employee morale, organizational flexibility, team work and productivity resulting in a net gain, losses and other gains to other organizations and to the surrounding community.With regards to the HRM practices adopted by the hospitality establishments in question, it is concluded that there is no significant difference.All the restaurants practised HRM practices that are same and thus the hypothesis was nullified.Also, socio-demographic characteristics of employees were found to contribute to LTO as most employees are employed at a young age, majority are not married and most of them have basic education only.
Many causes of turnover are difficult to identify.But through analysis of underlying causes that can be perceived, excessive turnover can be managed.Naturally the means to this end are variable but the tested methods include equitable wage and effective procedures at all stages in the employment processes at all organizational levels.One such program may help employees who were once first level supervisors to develop into first level managers.In computing the gains and losses, analyzing causes and devising ways to reduce excessive employee turnover, managers need to take a systematic view.This entails seeing all elements and activities within the organization and factors in the surrounding environment as interactive parts of the integrated whole.Implicit in all the means adopted by personnelminded managers to regulate employee turnover is the end: to attract, develop, and retain employees who are "turned on plus'' individuals.This goal might be difficult to attain though because of human nature for all employees in any organization.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the findings of this study the researcher recommends firstly, that the Ministry of labour should enact, enforce and monitor standard management procedures that could reduce LTO.
Secondly, supervisors should be accountable for employee turnover by rewarding those with a good record of retaining employees; protecting their establishment against penetration by headhunters and others seeking to poach staff by training employees to spot agents and avoid giving them useful information; and be offering re-training opportunities on retention of employees.They should also be trained on effective supervision to reduce tension between management and employees.
In addition, management of the restaurants should make jobs interesting and challenging through job enlargement, enrichment and job rotation; put in place HR development programmes to enhance career development; motivate employees through praise, recognition, rewards and benefits, pay, promotion, work-breaks and fairness; and have clear recruitment procedures to ensure right persons are placed in the right job.There should be specified qualifications for vacant positions such that, upon qualifying an appointment letter should be written to make the employees feel that they actually qualified for a competitive position they now hold hence make them have a sense of belonging and pride in their job.They also need to provide as much job security as possible through contracts or permanent jobs.Employees who are made to feel that their jobs are precarious may put a great deal of effort in to impress, but they are also likely to be looking out for more secure employment at the same time.Security and stability are greatly valued by most employees.
Lastly, employees should have a 'voice' through consultative bodies, regular appraisals, attitude surveys and grievance systems as an avenue for sorting out problems.This helps to ensure that dissatisfied employees have every opportunity to sort out problems before resigning.Where there is no opportunity to voice dissatisfaction, resigning is the only option.