Open AccessAssociation of Employee Engagement Factors and Turnover Intention Among the 2015 U.S. Federal Government Workforce
Author(s) -
Alexander McCarthy,
Ramal Moonesinghe,
Hazel D. Dean
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
sage open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.357
H-Index - 32
ISSN - 2158-2440
DOI - 10.1177/2158244020931847
Subject(s) - turnover , workforce , turnover intention , employee engagement , demographics , government (linguistics) , psychology , human capital , business , association (psychology) , demographic economics , public relations , social psychology , job satisfaction , political science , management , economics , demography , linguistics , philosophy , sociology , economic growth , law , psychotherapist
Employee turnover is a major challenge facing the federal workforce, which has lost more employees to voluntary turnover than any other form of turnover. This study determined the associations between engagement, demographic factors, and voluntary turnover intention by analyzing 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data. The findings indicate that employees with higher engagement levels are less likely to report an intention to leave their jobs than those with lower engagement levels. All engagement factors—perceptions of supervisors, leaders, and intrinsic work experience—are independently associated with turnover intention. Demographics also influenced turnover intention; being younger, male, and in a supervisory role and having a higher education level and shorter tenure were more likely to indicate turnover intention. Increasing employee engagement can have a positive effect on retaining a productive federal workforce. To retain an effective federal workforce, human capital management practices are needed to optimize factors that reduce turnover intention.