Reducing Voluntary, Avoidable Turnover Through Selection

I would like to thank Dr. Zimmerman for giving me the opportunity to speak to his graduate and undergraduate classes at Texas A&M. I had a great time, and I think I actually taught them something on what it takes to be a successful recruiter.

During my time at Texas A&M, I spoke to Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. Boswell about their research papers they have published and over the next month or so I will be highlighting their findings.

Dr. Zimmerman sent me a copy of his research report he co-authored with Murray Barrick, titled "Reducing Voluntary, Avoidable Turnover Through Selection" that was published in The Journal of Applied Psychology, June 2005. In this paper, selection methods and practices are analyzed in regards to reducing employee turnover. "Specifically, systematically explore whether applicants with high turnover propensities can be identified prior to organizational entry."

"When making hiring decisions, organizations have historically focused on trying to determine which job candidate will likely be the best performer. However, as it becomes more difficult to retain employees, organizations have started to show interest in also determining which candidate will likely stay with the organization"

The seven hypotheses that were explored were as follows:


Hypothesis 1: Employees who had a longer tenure with their immediate former employers will be more apt to stay with their current employers than employees who had a shorter tenure with their previous employers.
Hypothesis 2: Employees who were referred by current employees will be more likely to remain with their current employers.
Hypothesis 3: The more friends and family employees had at the current organization at the time of hire, the more likely they are to remain.
Hypothesis 4: Employees who have a greater intent to quit prior to hire will be more apt to do so than those who are not intending to quit.
Hypothesis 5: Employees with be less likely to quit than desire for the job.
Hypothesis 6: Employees with higher self-confidence will be more likely to stay with the organization than those with lower self-confidence.
Hypothesis 7: Employees who are more decisive will be more apt to stay than those employees who are not as decisive.

Findings:

"Overall, the results revealed that prehire dispositions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions predicted voluntary, organizationally avoidable turnover, whether it was assessed with clear-purpose retention scales or disguised-purpose retention scales. The results also supported prior findings (Hom & Griffeth, 1995) that biodata is an important predictor of turnover. This study extends previous work by examining the incremental validity of these biodata predictors beyond the variance explained by the attitudes, intentions, and dispositions measured in this study." Also this study also "provides some assurances that organizations using these predictors would not incur adverse impact based on age, race, or gender." The results also show that ..."practitioners would substantially benefit from....to selection batteries designed to reduce turnover."

I will say that this study opened my eyes. The following statement really places everything in perspective for me, some employees plan on quiting their next job even before they start! ".... the results of this study show that some people may intend to quit even before starting the job. The construct of intent to quit may need to be reconceptualized as a decision that is not just affected by what employees find out about the job once they are hired but also as a decision that may be made even before they start their new position. These findings suggest that where intent to quit is placed in a model of turnover is in part dependent on whether it is assessed before or after organizational entry."

Again, thank you to Dr. Zimmerman for inviting me to speak and sharing is research.