Speedy Transport

Anna Romo

South Texas College

ORGL 3321 Data-Driven Decision Making

March 5, 2022
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Introduction

Speedy Transport's profit margins have been declining as high turnover rates are rising,

and data decision-makers require more information to appropriately investigate the reasons for

this decline. Thus, more research would be necessary. Employee turnover is the proportion of

employees who leave an organization over time. Speedy Transport requires insight into the high

turnover rate and profit margin decline. Obstacles such as border closures have forced most

transportation businesses to reevaluate whether they will survive or not. This should not be the

case in light of the current need for transportation companies. The following will review and

discuss recommendations to increase employee retention, reduce the turnover rates currently

affecting Speedy Transport, and address the company’s profit margin decline.

Hypothesis

Speedy Transport’s profit margins may decline due to the high turnover rate. Spending

monies on training and not having an established rapport with the consumers may hinder the

potential revenue. In an effort to reduce costs and increase profit margins, Speedy Transport may

have inadvertently not provided adequate training to new hires.

Literature Review

According to the article entitled, Using Predictive Analytics in Employee Retention for

Financial Management by Shilpa Pai Mizar (2018), “…there are significant financial and

intangible costs associated with losing loyal and high-performing employees…" (para 3). All

employees should understand the significance of working together to complete a task. Staff

members must be recognized as critical stakeholders to ensure organizational success.

Regardless of the role, a staff member plays in the daily operation of a company, each person

represents the company and can be identified as an essential stakeholder. A passionate employee
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can have a substantial impact on profitability. Companies with significant profits could impact

everyone’s wages, incentives, and benefits (Mizar, 2018).

Incentives such as giving promotions, pay raises, and even bonuses will help retain

employees by motivating them and making them feel like an asset to Speedy Transport. Speedy

Transport had a decline in profit and a high turnover in employees. This detrimental problem

could cause the company to shut down. Updated policy and procedure regulations that promote

employee retention and maximize profits would be needed to keep the organization moving

forward and not cause Speedy Transport to shut down due to a continued decrease in profits and

poor employee turnover. “…concerns revolve around a higher staff turnover rate, one major

issue has to be addressed; employee dissatisfaction” (Han, 2020).

For example, Speedy Transport could experience negative returns if the organization starts

to cut corners, experiences reduced service quality, and sometimes lays off employees.

According to Neeraj Tandon, a director for workforce analytics and planning, Asia-Pacific, at

Willis Towers Watson in Gurgaon, India, “…financial costs associated with attrition can range

anywhere from 13 – 23% of annual compensation” (Mizar, 2018, para. 4). At Speedy Transport,

one potential reason they had a high employee turnover could be due to inadequate training

resources provided by the Human Resource Division. The Human Resource Division should

revise the training resources and conduct surveying or content knowledge comprehension exams

to correct this.

As stated by Tandon, a “…focused attrition analytics predictive model can help reduce

this risk by 5% to 8% annually” (Mizar, 2018, para. 4). A predictive analytics model could be a

beneficial tool for the company because it provides an educated prediction into potential

problems that can arise, thus giving foresight and time to correct the issue. As a result, its profit

margins directly impact its overall bottom line. Everyone in the organization should be equally
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motivated and determined to increase the organization’s overall productivity. This is critical for

the growth of any industry because employees are the company's most valuable asset, and their

support and hard work are essential to the organization's success. Speedy Transport could have

data decision-makers develop a solution to try and promote more of what the company can haul.

Data decision-makers can strategically target produce farms and offer competitive prices to

transport goods to the east coast with a graph of what's in season. Charts and surveys could focus

employees on working on a common goal.

An example of this would be if the borders in Florida are closed, transporting the product

to the east coast will be delayed, negatively affecting customer satisfaction. Customer

dissatisfaction could hinder the future potential use of Speedy Transport as the consumers' choice

for their transportation needs. “a more in-depth analysis of what’s causing turnover in different

parts of the organization is required,” (Cook, 2021, para.1).

Cook also expresses the findings that “close to 40% of employees leaving their job,

did so within their first year,” which ultimately led to “voluntary turnover costs” exceeding

“$630 billion” in the year 2020 (2021, para.1) Having a high employee turnover at Speedy

Transport can hurt the company because the company would have to waste time and

resources to train new employees. Some suggestions to reduce the rate of employee turnover

could be to set up a team that would handpick employees to increase the productivity of

Speedy Transport. This would include offering proper training for current employees,

having more detailed business plans, and preparing earlier for next season's products.

Methodology

A viable option would be to conduct employee surveying to understand better what is

causing employees to leave the company. For example, in the survey, they could ask, “do you

feel that you received adequate training to fulfill your job here at Speedy Transport?” Another
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question they could survey is, “do you feel comfortable performing your duties/role within the

company?” With this information, they could intervene for employees who feel they did not

receive adequate training rather than lose an employee. A general question about what

employees believe could be done in inactivity could also prove beneficial as this would zone in

on what the employees feel they need further training. Whether it be dissatisfaction with their

role, incentives, or opportunity for growth within the company, having more knowledge of this

could help management identify the problem and develop a solution by collecting data via

surveying current employees.

Data from the previous six months would be needed to fund trends to improve employee

satisfaction. An inquiry to determine the root cause of their high turnover rate should be made,

utilizing significant data collection to gain better insight, identify correlations to high turnovers

such as pay, tenure, performance, and training opportunities, then present these to employees

during the retention phase (Cook, 2021, para 34). Representations of data could be displayed

through graphs, charts, and explanations of local trends.

Ultimately, Speedy Transport’s goal should be to maximize its investment returns. A

company must first be attentive to hiring employees they believe will remain with the company.

This would best be achieved during the hiring process. Inquiring about the prospective

employees’ past experiences and how long they held their previous employer could provide

insight. Other questions would be helpful to would-be questions over marital status and if that is

a factor for the prospective employee as they would be away from home. A clear job description

outlining and assessing their understanding of the potential job is also necessary (Harvey, 1991).

For this reason, employers should avoid hiring employees who do not share the

organization's goals and aspirations. For instance, one of the primary reasons for long-haul truck

drivers' low retention rate is the long hours they work each day and are away from home most of
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the time. In this instance, it is clear that the drivers did not fully agree with the goals/expectations

of the company, or they did not account for the cost of what it would take to meet the company's

expectations before accepting a job offer Speedy/a company. While the problem of working long

hours may be a significant reason a driver may struggle with job satisfaction, Cook (2021) also

suggests a framework that identifies the following data-driven approach: identify the retention

problem, look for the causes of employee turnover, and tackle turnover with a tailored employee

retention program.

To begin solving their problem, it may be preferable for Speedy to look for/increase

advertisement of their company to job seekers who may be single and do not have children. In

addition, increasing benefits and offering more competitive pay rates may help Speedy, or any

other trucking company, better retain their employees. However, as Cook (2021) suggested in

this article, an across-the-board pay raise is not the optimal solution, as this alone is unlikely to

decrease employee turnover. Instead, resignation rates should be further analyzed to see what

types of employees are quitting since it is significant to see if there are trends of long-term

employees resigning or new hires resigning, along with considerations of other multifactorial

instances. Data should back strategic decision-making to produce a better outcome (Cook, 2021).

Lastly, expansion is another avenue that should be explored. If a company remains

stagnant in the population it serves, it cannot expect growth or, at the very least, an increase in

revenue. Therefore, Speedy Transport should explore expanding its distribution. While Speedy

Transport's primary focus is to deliver to the East Coast, it does not have to be New Hampshire.

Expanding to other states such as Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and

Connecticut to their delivery routes would be a significant avenue to explore since distribution to

these states would likely increase revenue. In addition, job creation in management, sales, and

truck drivers would ensue. Promoting from within the company may also be a viable option to
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fill positions with competent and reliable employees. This not only ensures employee satisfaction

but also encourages employee retention (Cook, 2021).

Findings

Additional information would be required to effectively determine appropriate

recommendations for Speedy Transport's high employee turnover and decline in profit margins.

As the authors in the previous literature review depict, identifying issues with employee retention

and high turnover rates could prove key in increasing profit margins. Historical trend analysis

combined with employee surveying would be beneficial in achieving an acceptable solution for

the organization's management by minimizing costs associated with attrition and earning a

higher employee retention rate. Data collected through surveying will identify areas for

improvement to increase profit margins, employee retention, and, ultimately, employee

satisfaction (Cook, 2021).

Conclusion

Insight into employee satisfaction could yield a valuable and essential tool for retaining

employees. This, in turn, could prove profitable for the company in many aspects, such as

establishing rapport with clients, employee retention, and, thus, overall company profitability.

Through employee surveying and data analysis, it will be possible to demonstrate employee

retention strategies that will allow Speedy Transport to increase profits while simultaneously

decreasing employee turnover rates.

Identifying and resolving employee retention issues will reduce the overall turnover rate

and lower the monetary costs associated with this high turnover rate. When it comes to

ensuring continuous productivity, it is possible that inadequate training is provided, which has

an impact that is not immediately apparent but can have long-term consequences. For this

reason, through employee feedback, Speedy Transport could give further training in specific
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areas identified through the feedback. In conjunction with historical trend analysis, the

employee survey is expected to assist us in identifying and quantifying the root cause of the

problem.

References

Cook, I. (2021, October 14) How to reduce employee turnover with workforce analytics. Visier

Inc. https://www.visier.com/blog/technology/reduceemployee-turnover-with-workforce-

analytics/

Han, J. W. (2020, December 8). A review of antecedents of employee turnover in the hospitality

industry on individual, team, and organizational levels. International Hospitality Review,

Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 156-173 https://doi.org/10.1108/IHR-09-2020-0050

Harvey, J. H. (1991). " Attribution Theory: Applications to Achievement, Mental Health, and

Interpersonal Conflict" by S. Graham & VS Folkes (Eds.)(Book Review). The

Psychological Record, 41(4), 592.

Jerath, A. (2021). The role of analytics in predicting employee performance. SHRM. https://www.

shrm. org/shrm-india/pages/the-role-of-analytics-in-predicting-employee-performance.

aspx. Accessed, 24.

Mizar, S. P. (2018, December 1). Using predictive analytics in employee retention. FM Magazine.

https://www.fm-magazine.com/issues/2018/dec/usingpredictive-analytics-in-employee-

retention.html
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