This paper outlines a quantitative research methodology designed to investigate employee retention and turnover in organizational settings. It justifies the selection of surveys as the primary data-collection instrument, reviews the three core functions of survey research — descriptive, analytic, and evaluative — and explains how a mixed-methods approach can capture both personal and organizational variables that influence why employees stay or leave. The paper also addresses instrument design considerations, including Likert scales and multiple-choice formats, and proposes a sampling strategy using LinkedIn to recruit approximately 1,500 participants. Validity, reliability, anonymity, and practical constraints such as survey length are also discussed.
A quantitative approach is preferred here because it provides the business community with numerical data that can be used to transform organizational practices and increase employee retention. The survey serves as the primary instrument of data collection. As one institutional guide defines it, a survey is "a research method for collecting information from a selected group of people using standardized questionnaires or interviews" (University, 2006, p. 1). While the central component of the survey method is a questionnaire, survey methodology also encompasses the selection of a population sample, the design of reliable and valid instruments that accurately measure target variables, and the application of robust methods of data analysis. Conducting surveys is a critical component of social science research, and ensuring their validity and reliability is essential.
Surveys are not necessarily easy or simple. The most common methods of collecting survey data include in-person questionnaires, telephone interviews, paper questionnaires, and online surveys (Pew Research Center, 2017). As Kelley, Clark, Brown, and Sitzia (2003) point out, there are three main functions of survey research: descriptive, analytic, and evaluative. Descriptive research gathers data to "examine a situation by describing important factors" (Kelley, Clark, Brown & Sitzia, 2003, p. 261).
When conducting a survey on employee retention, for example, a researcher might examine the causes of employee turnover by surveying former employees of the same organization, or explore the perceptions of workplace environment and organizational culture among employees who have remained with the same firm for more than five years. Using a mixed-methods approach, the researcher would be able to describe the most important factors relevant to why some employees leave and why others choose to stay. It would be important to measure both internal and personal variables — such as health status, family situations, or other factors unrelated to the workplace — as well as external and organizational-level variables, such as the quality of the workplace environment, leadership, organizational culture, and job satisfaction.
In addition to describing demographic data, the researcher would also be measuring attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs in a quantitative way via a survey that uses numerical rating systems such as a Likert scale or multiple-choice format (Ponto, 2015). Survey questions would therefore cover a wide range of topics, including how long the respondent remained with their current organization, as well as their perceptions of factors such as workplace comfort and safety, employee supportiveness, experiences of toxicity or abuse, leadership and management quality, pay scale, opportunities for advancement or career mapping, and perceptions of organizational ethics.
Questions should be designed to most accurately target the key variables so that data analysis can compare the dependent variables — such as retention rate — with independent variables, such as the personal or organizational motivators for remaining with a company.
Ideally, a sample will include "individuals who reflect the intended population in terms of all characteristics of the population" (Ponto, 2015, p. 168). In the proposed research, participants would be recruited via LinkedIn, because the platform is a social media portal specifically designed for professional networking and business. Using LinkedIn would make it possible to survey a broad population sample drawn from different organizations. A realistic sample size would be approximately 1,500 participants.
All participants would be assured of anonymity and privacy by being asked to log into a secure online survey where they would not be required to divulge their names or the names of their employer. A unique user access ID would prevent duplicate survey entries. The survey would be designed to take approximately 20 minutes per participant — long enough to address all pertinent questions, but not so long as to reduce the effective sample size through participant attrition.
Kelley, K., Clark, B., Brown, V., & Sitzia, J. (2003). Good practice in the conduct and reporting of survey research. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 15(3), 261–266.
"Outlines LinkedIn-based sampling and privacy protocols"
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