Washington: Bosses, please note! Allowing your employees to have fun at work may encourage them to stick around for longer, a new study suggests.

Within the hospitality industry, manager support for fun is instrumental in reducing employee turnover - the rate at which a company gains and loses employees - particularly for younger employees, researchers said.

However, manager support for fun also reduces employee productivity, which can negatively impact sales performance.

"High employee turnover is consistently quoted as being one of the problems that keeps managers up at night because if you're involved with recruiting and training constantly, then you can't focus on effectively managing your existing staff and providing a high-quality service experience," said Michael J Tews, assistant professor of hospitality management, Penn State.

The team - which included researchers at Penn State, Loyola University of Maryland and Ohio State University - surveyed 195 restaurant servers from a casual-theme restaurant chain in the U.S.

The survey included items related to different aspects of fun at work, including "fun activities" and "manager support for fun." The researchers then compared the survey responses to sales performance and turnover data.