Abstract:
The poultry industry in Sri Lanka is highly labor-intensive, requiring a continuous
supply of labor throughout the entire process, from broiler breeding to processing.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the poultry sector in Sri Lanka is labor
turnover. High labor turnover disturbs, operations and adversely affects overall
productivity. Therefore, identification of the driving factors behind labor turnover
within the poultry industry is crucial for making informed human development
decisions. This study attempted to investigate personnel, organizational and external
environmental factors affecting turnover intentions among workers in the poultry
sector. Data were collected from poultry workers within the Dompe Divisional
Secretariat division area in the Gampaha district, through face-to-face interviews
using a pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Binary
Logistic Regression were employed to analyze the data. The socio-economic profile
of the respondents indicated that 52.9% of employees were male; 64.3% were married
and 50% had completed secondary education. Regression results reveal that young
male workers were more intend to leave the poultry sector (p<0.05) but experienced
workers are likely to stay on the job (p<0.05). Existing monetary rewards and other
intensives motivate employees to stay (p<0.05). However, the human resource
management practices including the nature of the work had a negative impact on labor
turnover (p<0.05). Alarmingly better job opportunities elsewhere heightened
employees’ intentions to leave the poultry industry (p<0.05). The study concludes
that labor turnover detriments belong to the internal environment of the industry and
should be solved because opportunities arising from the external environment
threaten the poultry industry to retain their labor.
