How to stitch loyalty: Understanding the factors leading to job hopping in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The clothing and textile manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka is one of the most important and active contributors to the country's economy. Sri Lanka has had the opportunity to move beyond traditional exports with the advent of garment and textile producers who started entering worldwide markets with their novel designs tailored to give sophisticated and creative solutions through fashion BPO services, research, development, and innovations. Sri Lanka's exports to the European Union (EU) enjoy the benefits of the GSP+ program offered by the EU, which covers 28 countries. There are approximately 300-350 garment firms in Sri Lanka. Sources in the apparel industry in the country have been concerned about a trend of job hopping by its employees. The purpose of this study was to find out the factors affecting job hopping in the apparel sector in Sri Lanka. A descriptive study was conducted among the used 80 respondents out of 370 executives working at the ABC Apparel Solutions, Sri Lanka. Primary data were collected through questionnaires, and SPSS was used as an analytical tool to analyze the data. The quantitative research methodology was the one used for the study. Job satisfaction, commitment, workplace stress, and the reputation of the organization were taken as the relevant parameters that affect hopping jobs. Surprisingly, job satisfaction was found to have no impact on job hopping. Commitment had an impact on job-hopping. ABC apparel company executives showed a low impact on workplace stress levels towards their job-hopping. The organization’s image was found to be a major factor that affected job-hopping at ABC Apparel Solutions. Those findings would be useful to human resource managers of the apparel sector to make their retention plans and future strategies. Furthermore, the findings would help entrepreneurs, job hoppers, and researchers to understand the causes of job-hopping in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka.