About Cenek Report

“For useful, readable posts about new research and trends “in the world of work.  Robert Cenek is the self-proclaimed “fad-free” blogger, and he delivers on that promise. No buzzwords.”
Business Week Online


“I like what I see in your blog.
You’re cuts above the average.
I plan to be a regular reader!”
Joyce Lain Kennedy
syndicated columnist
Los Angeles Times

“Well-researched and well-written. The blog captures news that professionals would be interested in. I read the blog.”
humanresources.about.com


 

Subscribe

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Tell me when this blog is updated

what is this?

Library
Directory
View blog authority View blog reactions Add to Technorati Favorites Business Blog Top Sites Use JavaScript to scramble your email from spiders and spammers. Business Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory Check Google Page Rank
Powered by Squarespace
SmartLinks
« Generational Differences in the Workplace: Fact or Fiction | Main | The Wal-Mart Effect »
Wednesday
25Jan2006

A Fresh Look at Employee Turnover

TW Lee and TR Mitchell, both professors at the U of Washington, have been conducting solid research focused on the subject of turnover for several decades now.  An article that they co-penned, along with BC Holton and EJ Inderrieden, "Shocks as Causes of Turnover:  What They Are and How Organizations Can Manage Them," nicely summarizes some of their ongoing research:

"Contrary to conventional wisdom, accumulated job dissatisfaction is not the immediate cause of most voluntary turnover.  Job dissatisfaction is a factor, but to focus on it as the dominant cause of most turnover is incomplete and limited.  Instead, we argue that turnover is triggered by a precipitating event (e.g., a fight with the boss or an unexpected job offer) that we call a "shock" to the system.

Retention has always been a stated concern of most organizations, including those same organizations that pioneered that hackneyed phrase that "people are our most important asset."  The latter half of this decade will become known as the era in which the projected labor shortage due to the aging of the Baby Boomers actually begins to be evidenced.   Organizations will have no choice but to take a very sobering look at turnover, and to exact effective approaches for stemming the loss of talent - and that includes more than just the high potentials.  We think that this will be especially true in the retail sector, where stratospheric levels of turnover are simply assumed to be a cost of doing business.

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.