Turnover rate and promotion favoritism from sales manager at avery dennison RBIS vietnam

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

NGUYEN THI HONG HUONG

TURNOVER RATE AND PROMOTION
FAVORITISM FROM SALES
MANAGER AT AVERY DENNISON
RBIS VIETNAM

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2017


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------

NGUYEN THI HONG HUONG

TURNOVER RATE AND PROMOTION
FAVORITISM FROM SALES
MANAGER AT AVERY DENNISON
RBIS VIETNAM
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN PHONG NGUYEN

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2017

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The sales industry usually faces a huge challenge for businesses to retain staff. Developing new
staff into high performers costs time, effort and money, but companies will take advantage of
the positive impact later on the business. Therefore, they know how the important of retaining
these key employees. A high staff turnover and low retention within a sales department is
acknowledged to be harmful and potentially damaging to the businesses revenue because of the
cost of recruiting replacements, training and the time spent to train new employees. It has been
found that constant recruitment is not only linked to the reduction of sales performance but also
has a bad impact on existing staff members’ morale.
The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the causes of high turnover rate of over-achieved
sales employees at Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam.
Method of analysis is combined between validated data and theory-informed which collected
through in-depth interview and company survey to explore the causes of problem.
The finding of the study revealed that promotion favoritism from sales manager is the key
reason why over-achieved sales employees decided to leave the company. The findings also
proposed some solutions to retain high performance sales employees.
The solutions focus on two main causes of promotion favoritism from sales manager, which are
Unweight and unclear on employees assessment form and personal favoritism from sales
manager. This research also proposed three suitable solutions:
-

Build the performance appraisal and promotion process


-

Make a communication a priority

-

Improve personal favoritism from sales manager.

Total cost to implement above solutions is approximately 150mil VND while benefit from the
solutions is 809.4mil VND. The cost saving is 659.4mil VND.
Because the time is limited and the ideas of interviewees may not represent all sales people,
therefore, the research still exist some limitations. However, the research provides validated
data in combination with theory to propose solutions for Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam to
retain its high performers.


TABLE OF CONTENT
Executive Summary
Acknowledgements
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLE
Chapter I: Background.…………………………………………………… ……………………1
I. Company overview ..……………………………………………………………………...…..1
I.1. Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam Co., Ltd…………………………………...………...…….1
I.2. Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam structure………………………………...………...……….1
II. Background of the symptom ……….……………………………………........…...…...…….2
III. Initial cause effect map……………………………………………………………...………9
IV. Updated cause effect map………………………………………………………………….12
IV. 1. Work-life imbalance………………………………………………………………….....14
IV. 2. Unequal workload allocation……………………………………………………………19
Define the central problem……………………………………………………………..………20
Initial cause effect map………………………………………………………………..……….28
Updated cause effect map……………………………………………………..……………….29
Chapter II: Problems Justification ………………………………………..…...……......……..30

I. Problem definition ………………………………………………………….…...…….…….30
II. Justify problem in term of existence ………………………………………...………......….30
III. Justify problem in term of importance ……………………..………………...……………32
IV. The impact of sales force turnover on Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam………………….32
IV.1. The impact of sales force turnover on HR effectiveness…………………………….…33
IV.2. The impact of sales force turnover on employee performance…………………………39


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my appreciation to Professor Nguyen Phong Nguyen for his time and valuable
guidance. I would never have been able to finish my thesis without help from Professor
Nguyen.
I am grateful for what I learned from all professors and lecturers for their exciting and valuable
lectures as well as precious answers to our questions.
I would like to acknowledge and thank Mrs. Chau, Mrs. Dao and all sales staffs of Avery
Dennison RBIS Vietnam who contributed towards the successful completion of this research.
I would also like to extend my appreciation to most important of my life: my father, my big
family, my little family and close friends for their unconditional support to bring this thesis to
completion.
Lastly, I would like to dedicate my thesis to the memory of my mother who could not see my
thesis to its conclusion. My memories of her inspired me to keep moving forward.


IV.3. The impact of sales force turnover on working attitude of remaining staff…………….42
Chapter III: Causes validation and solutions……………………………………………….......43
I. List of causes………………………………………………………………………………....43
I.1. Unweight and unclear indicators on staff assessment form………………………………..43
I.2. Personal favoritism from manager…………………………………………………………43
II. Solutions…………………………………………………………………………...………..45
II.1. Build the performance appraisal and promotion system……………………………….…45

II.2. Make a communication a priority………………………………………………….…..….45
II.3. Improve personal favoritism from sales manager…………………………….…….…….46
III. Action plan……………………………………………………………………………...….48
IV. Success measurement after taking action…………………………………………...…...…54
IV.1. Cost saving……………………………………………………………………….....……55
IV.2. Keep the customers’ faithfulness………………………………………………...………55
IV.3. Increase the sales avenue………………………………………………..………..……...56
V. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….…..………...57
Chapter IV. Supporting Information………………………………………….………………..58
1. Introduce Avery Dennison Corporation……………………….…………………………….58
2.Secondary data………………………………………………….……………………………59
Interview guide ……………………………….………………………………………………..60
Interview transcripts……………………………………………………………………………62
The Qualitative Research In-depth interview report ………………..…………………………88
References………………………………………………………………………………….…..91


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Sales Employees’ turnover rate…………………………..…………………………….6
Table 2. Sales employees’ turnover rate in Garment, Textile & Footwear Industry…………....6
Table 3. Analysis of tenure of existing employees……………………………………..……….8
Table 4. Tenure of leaving employees…………………………………………………….…….8
Table 5. Reasons for leaving year 2015……………………………………………..…………11
Table 6. Reasons for leaving year 2016……………………………………………..……..…..11
Table 7. Health Problems caused from long working hours………………………..…….……16
Table 8. Average time-to-fill……………………………………………………..……….....…17
Table 9. Percentage of companies complying with the overtime regulations……..…………...21
Table 10. Recruitment cost per new sales employee………………………………..…………34
Table 11. Recruitment report………………………………………………………..…………34
Table 12. Out-of-Job training cost for New Sales Employee……………………..….………..35

Table 13. Training cost by Asia Best Seller………………………………………..……..……35
Table 14. Adapting time for new sales employee…………………………………….…..……36
Table 15. Time allocation for current workload and handover workload…………………..….37
Table 16. Working time allocation in the high season…………………………………...…….37
Table 17. Working time allocation…………………………………………………………..…38
Table 18. Sales Avenues and quantity of customers: Vietnam and Cambodia market……..….40
Table 19. Sales Avenues and quantity of customers: Vietnam market……………………..….40


Table 20. Customers’ complaints report…………………………………………………….…41
Table 21. Action plan…………………………………………………………………………..50
Table 22. Expectation of HR Department and Sales Department……………………………...54
Table 23. Cost benefit of alternative solutions…………………………………………………56
Table 24. In-depth Interview report ……………………………………………………..…….89


LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam structure…………………………………………….2
Figure 2. Voluntary Staff Turnover Rate………………………………………………..………7
Figure 3. Reasons for leaving 2015…………………………………………………………….10
Figure 4. Reasons for leaving 2016…………………………………………………………….10
Figure 5. Salary and benefits in comparison with garment and textile industry……….………12
Figure 6. Hot jobs in 2015: difficult to recruit and retain………………………..…………….17
Figure 7. Avery Dennison workforce age …………………………………………...…..….…22
Figure 8. What work-life balance means to Millennials …………………………......……..…22
Figure 9. Millennials believe in life after work………………………………………..……….23
Figure 10. Initial Cause and Effect tree…………………………………..…………………….28
Figure 11. Updated Cause and Effect tree…………………………………..………………….29
Figure 12. The top 3 sourcing destination over the next 5 years…………..…………………..39

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CHAPTER I: BACKGROUND
I. Company overview
I.1. Avery Dennison Vietnam RBIS Co., Ltd.
The first factory of Avery Dennison Retail Branding and Information Solutions (Avery
Dennison RBIS) Vietnam Co., Ltd was established in Binh Duong in 2003. In July 2015, it
opened a new distribution center located in Binh Tan district, Hochiminh City. On 18th
January, 2016, Avery Dennison RBIS opened its latest manufacturing facility in Long An
province. Since its entry in Vietnam in 2003, Avery Dennison RBIS has invested $40 million
to date, with the new Long An manufacturing facility representing the next milestone of the
company's ongoing investment in the country. Moreover, Avery Dennison has the sales office
in Hanoi, covering Vietnam and Cambodia markets. Total employee in Vietnam is 2,500.
I.2. Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam structure:
In Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam, there are 3 functions: Commercial, Finance and Plant. In
Commercial Functions, there are some departments like: Business Partners Department
includes HR and IT, Sales Departments and Customer Services Department. The Finance
Function includes Finance and Accounting Department. The Plant Function has some
departments such as: The production department, the logistics department and purchasing
department.


2

Figure 1: Avery Dennison RBIS Vietnam structure
(Source: Human Resource Department)
II. Background of the symptom
In the opening ceremony the new facility, Rishi Pardal, vice president/general manager, North
Asia, Avery Dennison RBIS expressed:

“We will continue to invest in new innovations and technologies to increase our capabilities and help our
customers elevate their products and brands. Our aim is to deliver better value for our customers by leveraging
our rich 80 years of expertise, in addition to our expansive, global network. Together, we will grow and support
Vietnam’s ambition to become the world’s manufacturing hub”.

To implement the business plan, Avery Dennison invests not only in new innovations and
technologies but also workforce. Talent development remains a key pillar of success at Avery
Dennison and employees will undergo leadership development and skill enhancement
programs in Vietnam. Although the turnover status of the company has not been public due to


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the security and confidentiality regulations of the company; but in the speech at the Annual
Management Team Meeting 2016, Mrs. Nguyen Cuu Thanh Chau, General Director of Avery
Dennison RBIS Vietnam stated that
“The sales employees’ turnover rate had negative impacted to the company business plan and results. Even the
sales avenue is good, but the company always take care sales employees very carefully to avoid bad effects from
the sales employees’ turnover”

Jason et al.1 stated that employees’ turnover is a much studied phenomenon. Micheal et al.2
indicated that employee turnover is one of the persisting problems in organizations. Sami et al.3
stated that employee turnover is the rotation of workers around the labor market. James4 stated
that turnover is the ratio of the number of organizational members who have left during the
period being considered divided by the average number of people in that organization during
the period. Barry et al.5 stated that turnover is any departure beyond organizational boundaries.
Barry et al.6 stated that turnover is the degree of individual movement across the membership
boundary of a social system. Robert7 stated that “frequently, managers refer to turnover as the entire
process associated with filling a vacancy: each time a position is vacated, either voluntarily or involuntarily, a
new employee must be hired and trained. This replacement cycle is known as turnover.”

There are two types of turnover: Voluntary and Involuntary. US Bureau of Labor Statistics
defined that voluntary turnover refers to termination initiated by an individual employee.
James4 defined that involuntary turnover is movement not initiated by an individual employee.
All companies need to generate revenue to stay in business. Besides, revenue is needed for
further the company goals such as: developing and innovating new products and services. But


4

how can a company generate revenue? The sales department in the company is primarily
responsible for generating sales revenue. Staffs in general and sales staffs in specific are the
most valuable asset in companies. Andrew et al.8 found that: “The sales job is deserving of special
attention for its importance, prevalence, and unique characteristics”.

Because the role of sales force on their business is important, therefore, Avery Dennison
Vietnam needs to retain the sales force because:
Employees in sales jobs work under a high pressure. They work with the buyers to get orders/
contracts to company. If they quit, it will affect directly to the revenue of the companies. The
Peppers & Rogers Group’s research showed that customers rely on their emotional experiences
with salespeople more than any of the traditional factors 9
Customers’ demands are increasing; in today’s economy. Diane et al.10 stated that many
companies tend to upgrade sales force effectiveness with continuously rising performance
targets. Alan et al.11 indicated that in many companies, “acceptable” performance of
salespeople is inadequate for achieving companies’ success in the marketplace.
Mrs. Dao, sales manager of factory sales division, shares that the sales department divides into
two divisions including Factory Sales and Retail Branding Organization. The sales department
has 24 members, in which factory sales accounts for 16 members. Mrs. Dao expressed that all
of the sales employees who quit Avery Dennison are belong to factory sales employees.
Mrs. Dao shares the working process from beginning to produce a label order as below:

5

Sign frame contract

Hubs (Regional Sales Dept.)

Retail fashion Companies
List of processing companies

Get frame contract &
list of processing companies

Give frame contract and list of processing companies
Sign frame contract

RBO Sales

Sales Department (Vietnam)

Fashion companies

List of processing companies+ fashion companies
Get the project + instruct to send orders to CS

Factory sales
Forecast material needed+
Production plan

Planning Dept. Place PO

Processing Companies
Fashion Companies

Give the project
Materials + timing needed

Actual orders +
samples (new)

Buying Dept.
Send orders

Orders

Send design
Customer services Dept.

Production Dept.

Design + print label

Prepress department
Avery Dennison believes that employees’ opinions are important, hence, by the end 0f 2016,
they hire Tiro Company to do the staff survey for internal use. There are 150 businesses both
Vietnamese and foreign companies in garment, textile and footwear industry participating in


6

the survey. The survey helps management team to design the concept to fit to employees’ HR
Development needs and further the fulfillment of company’s goal.
Table 1: Sales Employees’ Turnover Rate
AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
2014

2015

2016

Annualized
2017

Number of sales staff 15

15

15

16

Turnover

9

10

10

11

Turnover rate

60.00% 66.67%

66.67% 68.75%

(Source: Human Resource Department)
In the last four years, the percentage of leavers in sales department of Avery Dennison has been
increasing. This trend gives alarm to management board to take action right now.
Table 2: Sales Employees’ Turnover Rate in Garment, Textile & Footwear Industry

AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
2014

2015

2016

Annualized
2017

Sales department
(= Total leavers in sales dept./ Total sales
employees)

60.00%

66.67%

66.67%

68.75%

Total company
(= Total leavers/ total employees)

23.15%

21.46%

22.98%

25.72%

Sales force voluntary turnover in Garment,
Apparel & Textile Industry

22.19%

23.15%

26.67%

24.20%

(Source: Tiro Company)

7

In the table 2, we can see that the turnover rate of sales force at Avery Dennison is high in
comparison with the turnover rate of the total company. Usually, the turnover rate of workers in
Garment textile is high in comparison with the office workers. But in this case we can see that
the turnover rate of sales force is higher than the workers in the company. And it’s higher than
the turnover rate of sales force in Garment, Textile and Footwear Industry.
As per a survey by TalentNet and Mercer in 2016, the average staff turnover rate of local
companies was higher than MNCs.

Figure 2: Voluntary Turnover Rate
(Source: Talentnet and Mercer Total Remuneration Survey (TRS) 2016)
Moreover, the tenure with Avery Dennison in general is from 7 years and 4 months to 8 years
while the number of years staying with Avery Dennison of sales staff has been decreasing.


8

Table 3: Analysis of tenure of existing employees
AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM

TENURE OF EXISTING STAFF
2014

2015

2016 Annualized 2017

Total Office Staff

8 years

7 years
10 moths

7 years
8 months

7 years
4 months

Sales Staff

6 years
9 months

6 years
5 months

5 years
11 months

5 years
7 months

(Source: Human Resource Department)
Table 4: Tenure of leaving employees
AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
TENURE OF LEAVERS
2014

2015

2016 Annualized 2017

Total Office Staff

6 years

5 years
10 moths

5 years
8 months

5 years
4 months

Sales Staff

4 years

3 years
11 months

3 years
9 months

3 years
6 months

(Source: Human Resource Department)
When looking into the data of leavers, the tenure of leavers with Avery Dennison RBIS
Vietnam was more than 5 years. However, tenure of leaving sales staff has decreasing. The
management board should have the solutions to retain them in the company as well as recruit
the right people.


9

III. Initial cause effect map
According to Price et al.12 with the Causal Model of Turnover, opportunity, promotional
opportunity, distributive justice, pay, general training, routinization, integration, participation,
instrumental communication, professionalism and kinship responsibility are independent
variables in models impacting to job satisfaction and intent to stay or leave. The model shows
that intent to stay has a direct negative impact on turnover, when job satisfaction increases,
intent to stay with the organization will be increased.
In the field of worldwide HRM, there are two major reasons why turnover is a central issue.
First, Barry13 stated that turnover is related to low organizational knowledge, low employee
morale, low customer satisfaction, high selection costs, and high training costs. Arie et al.14
showed that high employee turnover is related to lower organization performance. Second,
Peter et al.15 indicated that the decision to turnover is often the final outcome of an individual’s
experiences in an organization.
Turnover is explained by the difference between Push and Pull factors. ‘Push’ factors cause
individuals to look for another job. ‘Pull’ factors draw employees towards another
organization. In 2006 People in Aid research on the reasons why people stay and perform in an
organization and why staff leaves the organization it was found out that for each individual
there may be a number of inter connected push and pull factors for leaving or staying.
William16 found that turnover has three major sets of causes: Work satisfaction related factors;
Economic opportunity factors and individual factors.

10

Diane17 found a list of 12 causes that lead to voluntary resignation.
As per the internal survey and the survey by Tiro Company, the reasons for high turnover rate
at Sales Department in Avery Dennison are found as below:

AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
SALES DEPT - HR INTERVIEWS
REPORT
YEAR 2015
PERCENTAGE
REASON FOR LEAVE (%)
Better Career
45.54
Opportunity
Leadership
29.32
Work-life balance
13.67
Continuing
5.89
Education
Relocation
3.1
Job disatisfaction
2.48
Benefits
0

Retirement
0
Work environment
0
Health
0

Work-life Balance
Better Career Opportunity
Better Career Opportunity
Leadership
Leadership
Work-life balance
Continuing Education
Continuing Education
Relocation
Relocation
Job Disatisfaction
Job disatisfaction

Figure 3: Reasons for leaving year 2015
Source: Human Resource Department

AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM

SALES DEPT - HR INTERVIEWS REPORT
YEAR 2016
REASON FOR LEAVE
PERCENTAGE (%)
Better Career Opportunity

42.73
Leadership
30.01
Work-life balance
15.28
Continuing Education
6.54
Relocation
2.97
Job disatisfaction
2.47
Benefits
0
Retirement
0
Work environment
0
Health
0

SALES DEPT - HR INTERVIEWS
REPORT YEAR 2016 PERCENTAGE
(%)
Work-life Balance

Figure 4: Reasons for leaving year 2016
(Source: Human Resource Department)

Better Career Opportunity
Better Career Opportunity

Leadership
Better Career Opportunity
Leadership
Continuing
Education
Leadership
Work-life balance
Relocation
Work-life balance
Continuing Education
JobContinuing
Disatisfaction
Education
Relocation
Relocation
Job disatisfaction
Job disatisfaction


11

Table 5: Reason for leaving year 2015

AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
REASONS FOR LEAVING
Year 2015
Reasons for leaving
Work-life balance
Better career opportunity/ offer
Lack of opportunity for advancement

Recognition
Leadership/ management
Respect
Compensation
Stability
Location
Senior Leadership reputation

Avery Dennison
Vietnam Vietnam
Global
36.80%
19.00%
24.50%
10.10%
12.00%
17.10%
0.00%
14.50%
1.00%
7.20%
16.00%
6.30%
8.90%
33.00%
10.01%
10.00%
2.50%
20.00%
17.10%

2.00%
12.00%
1.50%
1.00%
2.01%
0.00%
0%
2.08%
8.40%
0%
5.00%

(Source: Tiro Company)
Table 6: Reasons for leaving Year 2016

AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
REASONS FOR LEAVING
Year 2016
Reasons for leaving
Work-life balance
Better career opportunity/ offer
Lack of opportunity for advancement
Recognition
Leadership/ management
Respect
Compensation
Stability
Location
Senior Leadership reputation

Avery Dennison
Vietnam Vietnam
Global
32.00%
18.00%
27.50%
15.00%
13.50%
11.09%
10.00%
14.00%
3.00%
6.00%
15.50%
12.30%
7.00%
34.00%
15.00%
5.00%
2.00%
12.00%
18.00%
2.00%
11.50%
1.00%
1.00%
2.50%
0.00%
0%
2.09%

6.00%
0%
3.02%

(Source: Tiro Company)


12

According to the tables and figures above, the reason related to salary, compensation and
benefits, the common concern of many companies, is excluded. Mrs. Dao expressed that:
“The company has the award policies for sales employees. If the sales employees reach and reach over the target,
they will earn the incentive. For the sales employees who reach 100% of the target for sales volume, they will
earn 2 month salary besides 13month salary. Besides the above policy, Avery Dennison has another policy to
encourage the salespeople. If the sales staff can reach over the target 5% they will have 10% of 13 month salary.
For over sales target 10%, they will earn 20% of 13 month salary. And if they reach over the target 30% and
more they will earn 40% of 13 month salary.”

AVERY DENNISON RBIS VIETNAM
SALARY AND BENEFITS IN COMPARISION WITH THE SAME
COMPANIES IN GARMENT AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Very low
Low
Medium
High
Very high

Figure 5: Salary and benefits in comparison with garment and textile industry
Source: Tiro Company
IV. Updated cause-effect map:

Based on the results provided by Tiro Company, Management Board and HR Department have
launched some solutions to solve the problem, but the turnover rate of sales people is still high.
Therefore, the real problem may be hidden. To find out the real problem, the in-depth interview


13

with HR manager, sales manager and sales people were conducted to investigate deeper the
reasons why sales people leave the company.
HR manager stands at the company’s overview so her ideas are general and unbiased.
Sales manager takes care of her team and close to her employees. She has deep understanding
on department operation.
The interviews with sales employees who are working and left the company are needed to have
multidimensional perspectives on the problem identification.
Qualitative questions are used to help interviewees express their ideas easily. From the
symptoms, interviewees gave their opinions about the problems that the company is facing.
From the first in-depth interview, a number of factors were found to be the causes of the high
turnover of staff.
Having the reasons from her view and the surveys before the sales employees quitted, Mrs.
Anh stated that there were many reasons for experienced sales people leaving; they are low
engagement, high workload, work-life imbalance, better career development and unequal
workload allocation.
Mrs. Dao stated that the reasons for experienced sales people leaving are: Work-life imbalance,
better career development and unequal workload allocation.
As per Mrs. Nhung’s opinion, the reasons for experienced sales people leaving are: Heavy
workload, better career development, unequal workload allocation and promotion favoritism.


14

Through the interview, Ms. Thanh stated that the reasons for experienced sales people leaving
are: Better career development, work-life imbalance and unequal workload allocation.
From her own view, Mrs. Huong stated that the reasons for experienced sales people leaving
are: Work-life imbalance, better career development and unequal workload allocation.
As per Mrs. Vi’s information, the reasons for experienced sales people leaving are: Work-life
imbalance and leadership style.
After the first in-depth interviews, the second in-depth interviews were conduct to find the key
reasons that lead to the high turnover of staff.
From private discussions with sales experienced sales employees before they quit, Mrs. Anh
stated the key reason for experienced sales people leaving is unequal workload allocation.
As per Mrs. Nhung’s opinion, the key reason for experienced sales people leaving is unequal
workload allocation and promotion favoritism.
Ms. Thanh stated that the key reason for her leaving is promotion favoritism
To Mrs. Huong, the key reason made her leaving is promotion favoritism.
From the chat with sales employees who quit, Mrs. Vi expressed that the key reason for
experienced sales people leaving are: Work-life imbalance and promotion favoritism.
The detail interviews and results are showed in the Qualitative Research In-depth interview
report in table 24 page 89.
IV.1. Work-life imbalance:


15

Jeffrey et al.18 stated that work-life balance is an equal time, satisfaction, and involvement in
each of the work and family spheres irrespective of job demands, family demands, family
structure, financial pressures, and so on. Edy19 stated that work-life balance is the acceptable
levels of conflict between work and non-work demands.
Scott Thompson20 found that:
“Heavy workloads can negatively affect the psychological well-being of employees, their blood pressure and
heart health, the stability of their family relationships, and their safety in the workplace. All of these negative

effects can fluctuate on a daily basis based on the employees' perception of the amount of work they have to do.”

The concept of workload used in the research is the sales target assigned to the sales employees
in a year. This research analyses the workload assigned per year, which is the sales target and
number of customers served by a single sales employee in one year. According to Friedhelm 21
there is a relationship between the performance and the workload of the sales employee;
performance can be affected by the workload being too high or too low. Sustained low
workload would be boredom, loss situation of awareness and reduced alertness as the result.
According to Iris22 an increasing of workload would have resulted working long hours and
expressing dissatisfaction for the employees. “The workload would also be affected by the type of the
jobs, the complexity of the jobs, working hours, and any other related factors.”
“New research from Stanford University showed that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek
exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops off so much after 55 hours that you don’t get anything out of working
more.”

23