Employee turnover causes ripple effect, leads to more departures, UBC research finds
VANCOUVER –
Employers vastly underestimate the influence of employees leaving a corporation on workers left behind with a unique office dynamic, resulting in much more turnover, a brand new report says.
University of British Columbia’s Sauder faculty of business affiliate professor Sima Sajjadiani co-authored the research that discovered worker exits, by means of termination, layoffs or by voluntary quitting, change the operational and social cloth of workplaces, prompting extra departures.
“The research sends a clear message to organizations that they should be extremely careful when they make exit decisions, or they risk destabilizing the whole organization very quickly,” she mentioned.
Sajjadiani, alongside two researchers from the University of Minnesota, analyzed knowledge of about 1,000,000 workers at 1,620 shops of a U.S.-based retail chain over a 22-month interval.
They discovered that layoff bulletins had a powerful and speedy influence, rising voluntary turnover amongst those that remained on the firm.
Such occasions can improve emotions of job insecurity amongst those that stay, resulting in extra workers quitting, the research says.
However, the researchers discovered voluntary departures resulted in fewer turnovers, and that it usually takes longer for the ripple impact of subsequent departures to occur.
“To high performers, voluntary exits are a positive signal that there are better opportunities elsewhere, so while employees might not leave immediately, they do begin to look for other opportunities,” Sajjadiani mentioned.
“Usually, the subsequent voluntary turnovers after voluntary turnover takes like three months or so, but for layoffs, it’s really within the first month that a layoff is announced that a lot of employees leave the organization,” she mentioned in an interview.
The research additionally revealed that when employees are fired, their departures have a comparatively small, fleeting impact, and might even cut back voluntary turnover afterwards.
“Usually these are people who are disruptive or abusive, or aren’t doing their fair share,” Sajjadiani mentioned. “When they go, high performers tend to stay longer, and the risk of voluntary turnover actually goes down.”
But the research notes that if excessive performers are dismissed with out clear justification and communication as to why, “employers not only open themselves to legal headaches, it also sends the wrong message to other high performers (and) they also start heading for the door.”
Sajjadiani mentioned the research is the primary of its variety and may sign to employers that they should take into account attainable elevated turnover charges when telling different employees about an worker exit.
“Not all turnover events are the same. It really depends on how disruptive, critical and novel the experience of these events are for the workers in the organization and, depending on these three factors, we are going to see various effects of these events over time.”
While the research’s knowledge predates the COVID-19 pandemic, Sajjadiani mentioned she believes the analysis stays related.
“It is very timely for organizations to pay attention to these results because the final message of our paper is that whenever you makeexit decisions, especially when it’s involuntary, when there’s a layoff or you dismiss employees, those decisions don’t end there.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed May 7, 2023.
