Empirical Literature on Determinants of Voluntary Turnover
Turnover literature presents several drivers of voluntary employee turnover, which scholars
classify into different categories. Drivers of turnover can be intrinsic and therefore relate to
the job itself or extrinsic and therefore non-job related. Intrinsic factors include.
Achievement, recognition, works itself, responsibility, advancement and growth while
extrinsic factors include organizational policies, salary, co-worker relations, and supervisory
styles (Chiboiwa et al. 2010).
Voluntary employee turnover can result from factors inherent to the organization or personal
factors inherent to an individual (Ellet et al., 2006). The organizational factors include:
extremely large workloads, organizational culture of tension and fear, uncompetitive salary,
employee feeling of not valued by organization or general public. Others are inadequate
selection and hiring processes, inefficient communication structures, insufficient career,
mentoring and professional development opportunities; and unstable central leadership.
Personal factors on the other hand include: intrusion of work responsibilities into family and
personal life, lack of fundamental knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositions for the job,
inability to adapt to frequent, unanticipated changes, lack of personal interest and
professional commitment, and feeling personally or professionally undervalued by the
organization.
Voluntary turnover can also be result from enterprise, individual and industry factors (Kemei
2014). According to Khoele and Daya, (2014) industry factors are intrinsic to the operating
environment of all the organization. These include: Job security, retrenchments, non-
availability of better jobs, skills shortage, industry networking and social networks,
transformation, and employment equity policies and legislation. Organizational factors are
unique to the organization. These include: manager relationship, organizational culture,
disconnect between top management and lower level staff, lack of trusting environment,
work-life balance among others. Individual factors relate to determinants specific to
individuals and these include: career development, money, congruence of organisational and
personal values and meaning; travel opportunities, and working hours.
According to Kuria et al. (2012) internal factors are within the control of the employer and
these include: performance of the organization, organizational culture, characteristics of the
job, unrealistic expectations, demographics, and factors relating to an individual. External
factors are considered beyond the control of the employer. These include: economy, better
pay elsewhere, increases of pay in other industries, strong local or regional economy, and low
quality of employees overall.
Insync Surveys (2012) however classifies drivers of turnover into five broad categories. The
first is job enrichment factor that comprises job satisfaction, level of challenge, career
opportunities, and professional development. Structural factors comprise job security, pay
and conditions, incentive plan, equipment, resources and infrastructure, and work stress. The
third category is interpersonal factors that include relationship with manager or supervisor,
relationships with work team, and fit with organisation culture. Home life factors comprise
location of job, balancing work and life demands, and personal reasons. Finally, environment
factor comprising approach by a better job offer among others. This study focuses on the
factors affecting voluntary turnover. These factors include employee attribute, work life
balance, financial compensation and career development.
Employee attribute and Voluntary Turnover
Alkahtani (2015) reviewed of existing empirical works on factors that influence employees’
turnover intention. The study observed that demographic variables such as age, tenure, level
of education, level of income, job category, and gender have been discovered to have
established relationship with employee voluntary turnover. This observation is echoed in
Loewenberg (2014) who conducted a study on causes of turnover among social workers in
Israel. The study found that young workers have higher voluntary turnover rates than older
workers. Hayes (2015) found significant relationship between age, income and turnover
intention but no statistical significance between education, gender and length of service.
Weisburg and Kirschenbaum (1993) observe that gender has been an inconclusive factor in
understanding employee voluntary turnover decisions. They found that women had greater
rates of actual voluntary turnover than men, but no difference were found in the intention to
leave. Lyness and Judiesch (2001) found that female voluntary turnover were lower than
those of male counterparts. This is echoed in Lee (2012) who found no supporting evidence
that women are more prone to voluntary turnover than men in Pakistan.
In a retention review study in Australia, Insync Survey (2012) and Society for Human
Resource Management (2011) found that life circumstances such as home life were important
motivation for voluntary turnover for women (47%) compared to men (40%). However, both
job satisfaction and career opportunities are highly valued both genders. Insync Survey
(2012) also observes that men highly value job and structural factors such as career
opportunities, professional development and job satisfaction.
Work life balance and Voluntary Turnover
Work-life balance is considered a critical strategy for employee retention. Riley (2008) (cited
in Noor and Maad, 2008) found no significant relationship between work-life conflict and
employee voluntary turnover intentions. However, in a study of marketers in Pakistan, Saeed
et al. (2013) found a significant correlation between work-life balance, stress and employee
turnover.
Noor and Maad (2008) in a study of Marketing Executives in Pakistan found a significant
positive relationship with employee voluntary turnover intention. In a study of employee
turnover in the hospitality industry in Kenya, Kuria et al. (2012) found lack of balance
between work and personal life as the major cause of employee voluntary turnover.
Suifan, Abdallah and Diab (2016) conducted a study on the influence of work-life
balance on employee turnover intention in private hospitals. Results revealed that
manager support was the only WLB practice that had a significant negative direct
effect on employee voluntary turnover intentions. Job autonomy had a negative
indirect effect on employee voluntary turnover intentions through work-life conflict.
Meanwhile, schedule flexibility had insignificant effect on employee voluntary
turnover intentions. Therefore, it was clear that the informal WLB practices (manager
support and job autonomy) had the most significant effect and are the determinants of
employee voluntary turnover intentions. The mediating role of work-life conflict was
only significant with job autonomy. Additionally, the effect of work- life conflict on
employee voluntary turnover intentions was positive and significant.
Saeed, Lodhi, Ahmed, Afzal, Mahmood and Ahmed (2013) conducted a study on
work-life balance and stress with the voluntary turnover rate of the employees.
Research conducted on the marketers of the Pakistan. Results of correlation show that
there is a relationship of work- life balance and stress with the employee voluntary
turnover rate.
REFERENCES
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