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The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of
smoke-free laws on employee turnover and training costs in
one large national restaurant chain. Research regarding
smoking and productivity costs has primarily focused on the
smoking behavior of employees, their health, and labor
market outcomes, rather than business operating costs such
as employee turnover and training costs. The literature on
employee turnover implies that exposure to secondhand smoke
and dissatisfaction with workplace smoking policies may act
as disamenities in the workplace that affect employee
turnover. In a preliminary study, the Principal Investigator
found that nonsmoking servers exposed to secondhand smoke at
work were less satisfied with their policies than those who
worked in smoke-free places.
A time series design with treatment and control groups
will be used. Data from employees in 75 Applebee’s
restaurants (current N = 5,563) available from 1999 through
the first two months of 2006 will be examined. There will be
two treatment groups: one group of employees who worked at
the restaurant both before and after a smoke-free law was
implemented in the community (treatment group I) and another
group of employees who worked in the restaurants located in
smoke-free communities only after they became smoke-free
(treatment group II). Employees in treatment group I will
have experienced the shock of a new policy, both the
anticipation and implementation of the new policy. Employees
in treatment group II will experience working in a
smoke-free environment the entire time. The control group
will include employees who worked at a restaurant in a
community without a smoke-free law.
If a decrease in employee turnover can be shown (which
will ultimately reduce operating costs), the hospitality
industry may be persuaded to support smoke-free laws in
order to capture productivity gains and cost savings due to
reduced training costs. The results of this study will be
disseminated to professional and lay groups and the
hospitality industry. A national media advocacy plan will be
implemented in collaboration with Americans for Nonsmokers
Rights and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The findings
from this study will provide information from the business
cost perspective and will add to the growing body of
knowledge on the economic impact of smoke-free laws.
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