Will they Stay or will they Go: Collective Engagement and Turnover Volatility during the Pandemic

Abstract

Using a large, geographically dispersed organization designated as “essential” and required to stay open during the COVID-19 crisis, we examine the relative influence of store-level versus macro-level differences in collective turnover over time. Capitalizing on the unique situation in which employees were at minimal risk of being unemployed, but who likely perceived high levels of uncertainty surrounding health risks, we responded to calls to disentangle the influence of store and macro factors of collective turnover. The findings illustrate that store-level differences explain most changes in collective turnover, and that high collective engagement appears to limit increases in collective turnover as crises unfold. The findings result from examining monthly collective voluntary turnover between January and June of 2020 in 4,528 stores in the United States from a large, North American organization coupled with a detailed examination of collective engagement in a random subsample of 472 stores. In combination, the results inform theory regarding collective turnover and collective responses to crises while also providing practitioners suggestions for how to minimize negative employee responses to unexpected events through employee engagement. The lessons learned are applicable to crisis situations but also have important implications for practitioners and researchers in non-crisis situations.