Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/267375 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 15638
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Retention of skilled workers is essential for labour-intensive organisations like hospitals, where an excessive turnover of doctors and nurses can reduce the quality and quantity of services to patients. In the public sector, where salaries are often not negotiable at individual level, workers increasingly care about the non-pecuniary aspects of their jobs. We empirically investigate the role played by two such aspects, staff engagement and the retention of complementary coworkers, in affecting employee retention within the public hospital sector. We exploit a unique and rich panel dataset based on employee-level payroll and staff survey records from the universe of English NHS hospitals, and estimate dynamic panel data models to deal with the bias due to reverse causality. We find that nurses' retention is positively associated with their engagement, whereas doctors' retention is positively associated with nurses' retention. This heterogeneous response of employee retention can be explained by the hierarchy of workers' professional roles within the organisation.
Subjects: 
employee retention
staff engagement
job complementarities
coworkers
hospitals
endogeneity
JEL: 
C33
C36
I11
J22
J28
J63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
1.99 MB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.