Voluntary Turnover in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations: The Impact of High Performance Work Practices

Abstract

Voluntary turnover in nonprofits can present a significant cost, reducing the performance of a nonprofit and challenging its sustainability over time. This study examines voluntary turnover in a sample of human service (HS) nonprofit organizations in eight states, exploring the relationship between the implementation of high performance work practices (HPWP) and voluntary turnover. The findings demonstrate that certain HPWPs, including onboarding, leadership development, compensation, and employee relations, are associated with lower voluntary turnover. The results suggest that human service nonprofits seeking to improve retention should invest more time and resources in developing employees as future leaders and cultivating a positive working environment.

Human resource management, employee engagement, and nonprofit hospital performance

“…We include a measure of the priority the manager places on HR and a measure of how much the hospital works to create a common corporate culture among all employees as well as the manager's race and gender. We include a measure of employee turnover, as numerous studies have demonstrated the relationship between turnover and organizational performance (see Batt & Colvin, ; Gardner et al, ; Selden & Sowa, for a small sample of these studies). Turnover is measured by the following response from the CEO: “Our hospital has high clinical turnover.” In addition, resources can have a significant impact on the performance of nonprofits; this was particularly true during the time period in which this study was conducted (Boris, deLeon, Roeger, & Nikolova, ; Salamon, Geller, & Spence, ).…”

“…For many nonprofits, one of their primary expenditures at the program level is their staff; while there is no one set figure for this, salaries can often be the largest portion of a nonprofit's budget. Effective HRM practices can ensure these expenditures are maximized to promote the most value (Akingbola, ; Pynes, ; Ridder et al, ; Ridder & McCandless, ; Selden & Sowa, ; Walk et al, ). In nonprofits providing direct services to clients, such as health and human service organizations, the worker–client interaction is one of the fundamental ways in which value is produced (Benjamin & Campbell, ; Hasenfeld, ; Sosin, ).…”

“…Nonprofits also experience some particular HRM challenges that highlight the need for continuing research. These challenges can include high levels of turnover (overall and in often low‐paid front‐line work), difficulty attracting qualified professionals (as extrinsic rewards may be higher in the public or private sector), career development and promotion paths (as many nonprofits are relatively lean on staff and have fewer avenues for development and promotion), and overall motivation and retention over time (Abzug, ; Ban, Drahnak‐Faller, & Towers, ; Guo et al, ; Kang, Huh, Cho, & Auh, ; Preston, ; Selden & Sowa, ; Suh, ). While the connection many nonprofit workers feel toward their organizations and their missions brings many workers through the door, deficiencies in HRM practices and the effective management of workers can hinder the ability of that initial connection and mission attachment to keep employees motivated and retained (Brown & Yoshioka, ; Brown, Yoshioka, & Munoz, ; Kim & Lee, ).…”

“…To understand the relationship between HRM and performance, HRM scholars have started isolating what are commonly referred to as high performance or high involvement work practices (HPWPs). It is argued that these human resource (HR) practices individually, or as a bundled set of practices (referred to as high performance work systems), should harness the competitive advantage provided by an organization's human capital to improve overall performance (Kehoe & Wright, 2013;Messersmith & Guthrie, 2010;Messersmith, Patel, Lepak, & Gould-Williams, 2011;Mostafa, Gould-Williams, & Bottomley, 2015;Posthuma et al, 2013;Selden & Sowa, 2015). In this article, we explore how one such practice, employee engagement, may affect nonprofit performance.…”

Group-Tacit Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness: Analysis of Effects Using a Mixed Method Approach

“…However, most authors argue that a multidimensional approach is most appropriate since it captures a wider scope of organisational elements and presents a more accurate view of organisational effectiveness (Matthews 2011, Giti and Suhaida 2012, Selden and Sowa 2015.…”