A recent study highlights that specific workplaces managed to significantly curb employee turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic better than others. Researchers discovered that business units that had previously cultivated a strong sense of “collective engagement” among their staff experienced lower turnover rates than those that hadn’t fostered such engagement.

Patrick Flynn, an assistant professor of management at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management and co-author of the study, explained that while numerous studies have explored how internal changes within a company, such as adjustments in management, pay, or benefits, influence employee retention and turnover, less focus has been placed on how external factors beyond an employer’s control might impact turnover rates. Flynn pointed out that these external factors could range from local competitors offering better salaries to major global crises like the COVID pandemic, which was used as a backdrop for this study to examine how large-scale external events could affect workforce stability.

In their research, Flynn and his colleagues partnered with a major U.S.-based company with a presence in every state and over 70,000 employees. They analysed employee turnover data across all company stores during the first half of 2020. They correlated this with results from a comprehensive employee engagement and satisfaction survey conducted at the end of 2019.

The findings revealed a general drop in employee turnover from March to April 2020, coinciding with the initial shock of the pandemic. However, from May to June, despite an overall rise in turnover, certain stores markedly outperformed others in retaining staff. These stores shared a common characteristic: significantly higher levels of collective engagement. Flynn described this as a unified understanding and commitment to the company’s mission and community among the employees, fostered by effective store leadership.

While the study did not detail the management strategies used to cultivate this collective engagement, the correlation suggests that such engagement was crucial in reducing turnover during the pandemic. Looking ahead, Flynn expressed interest in further exploring whether collective engagement can consistently mitigate turnover in response to various external pressures and if specific techniques to foster such engagement are particularly effective during external crises.

More information: Patrick Flynn et al, How context shapes collective turnover over time: The relative impact of internal versus external factors, Journal of Applied Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/apl0001230

Journal information: Journal of Applied Psychology Provided by North Carolina State University