Preventing healthcare professionals from leaving: An exploratory study using age and tenure as predictors

Abstract

This research investigates measures for preventing employees in the health and welfare sector in Region Utrecht from leaving and examines to what extent predictors age and tenure explain the differences in these prevention measures. The study is conducted in two steps. First, the prevention measures are identified using a document-term-matrix (DTM) analysis of responses to the open answered question “What could ‘organization’ have done to prevent your leave?”. Approximately 25 prevention measures were revealed, of which recognition and appreciation, development opportunities, communication, and rewards were mentioned most frequently. Second, logistic and marginality tests revealed that younger employees and employees with 5 to 10 years of tenure were more likely to mention development opportunities, while recognition and appreciation was significantly more mentioned by employees aged 35 to 44 and employees with a tenure of 5 to 10 years. The study highlights the importance of differentiating between groups of employees based on age and tenure in developing prevention measures. These findings provide practical insights for health and welfare organizations that seek to reduce employee turnover. Future research should consider applying further differentiation in demographic and job characteristics and testing the prevention measures through experimental research.