The Theoretical-Conceptual Model of Churning in Human Resources: The Importance of Its Operationalization

Abstract

Given the current socio-economic context in which the labor market is set in, if we were to consider both employment opportunities in specific economic periods and the individual expectations workers have regarding one’s working conditions, it should be a matter of one’s individual right of choice to decide whether or not to stay or leave and change companies. The paper we present before you took into account the phenomenon of churning as a cyclical process. Our main goal was to understand the main causes leading to it in the context of human resources and, ultimately, what were the consequences emerging from it. In order to carry out this analysis, we put forward a conceptual-theoretical model of the phenomenon of churning, made possible through the analysis of both the currently available literature and the empirical studies and conclusions stemming from the latter. The aforementioned analysis allowed us to trace all main causes responsible for the origin of churning and also, to understand how it could be implemented further on, in order to minimize the costs associated with hiring new personnel and retaining qualified employees by resorting beforehand to the implementation of strategic measures of human resources retention. By applying the methodology based on grounded theory, this study allowed us to further contribute to the already available, yet limited, literature and definition of this multifaceted and greatly complex subject that is the phenomenon of churning.

Human Resources Churning Management and its Articulation with Organisational Policies

“…As previously stated, in agreement with Pirrolas & Correia (2021a), although churning in human resources is a theme not explored enough, its operationalization triggers the minimization of the resulting costs of replacements, through the strategic implementation of human resources policies.…”

“…Being that it is about the context associated with the replacement of workers exiting voluntarily, the concept of human resources churning emerges (Duhautois et al, 2016;Pirrolas & Correia, 2021a).…”

Organizational culture, organizational support, positive psychological capital and common mental disorder: theoretical model applied to workers

“…In this perspective, all these alterations in the world of work have spontaneously started to leave their marks on the worker's health, declared through the productive restructuration, with the energization of the compressions, of the work compass, the lack of responsibility, the precariousness in the company and in the work methods, among other factors that can come to put in impetus the worker's health (Pirrolas & Correia, 2021).…”

“…For this reason, certain basic parameters are advised for the verification of the similarity of the psychic signs and symptoms with labor. That is, because it is multifactorial, the entanglement and altercation in linking work to psychic illness, and there is no conformity that condescendingly presents a subdivision of work-related mental disorders (Rincón, Bustamante, & Peña-Sarmiento, 2022).…”

The Scale of Causes of Churning: Elaboration and Validation for Portuguese Human Resources

“…Due to the multiplicity of definitions stemming from the concept of churning, and considering the existing literature and its subsquent complexity (Burgess et al 2000;Duhautois et al 2016), we chose to adopt, as a premise of this concept, the costs associated with voluntary departures, which are directly associated with new hirings that have to be made to cope with personnel changes (replacements); with the costs associated with the loss of investment in workers' training and the loss of knowledge and skills, given that workers departing from these organizations take these with them to other competing organizations. This amounts to added value for the latter and a loss to the former (Pirrolas and Correia 2021). Correia (2022a, 2022c) report that although churning is related to turnover, there are differences; while turnover is related to employee turnover and churning follows the same approach, churning is mainly focused on the costs associated with employee replacements arising from voluntary departures, i.e., churning is only related to the costs of hiring that result from the process of replacement.…”