Employee work related perceptions as proactive indicators of turnover

Abstract

Excessive staff turnover is a serious impediment to the delivery of high quality, cost effective health care. This research seeks to identify factors which affect, and possibly predict, turnover behavior. In this research, designed to examine turnover behavior, staff at central Texas dialysis facilities responded to surveys regarding perceived quality of work life, a comparison of their jobs to the jobs of others they knew, and perceptions regarding job opportunities. Following the surveys, turnover behavior was determined and matched to employee responses. Between March 1991 and May 1992, preliminary interviews were held with site managers and head nurses, the staff surveys were administered, and individual turnover behavior tracked at 42 central Texas dialysis units. The study population (N=418) response rate was 68.5%. Primary findings of the study were: 1) employees under age 35 were more likely to change jobs (28.6%) than were employees age 50 and older (3.1%); 2) white non-Hispanic turnover (21.9%) was almost twice that of combined other ethnic and racial groups (11.5%); 3) increased seniority reduced turnover rate, from 33.9% for employees with less than a year of service to zero for employees with more than five years of service; 4) employees who perceived a high quality of work life were less likely to leave than were those who perceived a low quality of work life; 5) perceived chance of promptly finding a better job was not a significant predictor of turnover behavior based on the study's multivariate turnover model. There appeared to be a "turnover culture" which existed at some units. Future research into possible turnover culture characteristics is recommended. Also, future research efforts should differentiate turnover by cause: voluntary or involuntary, avoidable or unavoidable.