Turnover and transferable skills in a professional service firm

Abstract

Retaining the most valuable employees is a core priority of professional service firms (PSFs). Our study addresses turnover (quit) among employees in a PSF that hires lawyers, auditors, and management consultants. We examine the extent to which the decision to quit varies by professions, skills, and job satisfaction in a PSF in Norway. The analyses are based on a survey of employees conducted in 2013 (N = 455) combined with information on those who quit after 28 months. We find that the sub-group of non-certified auditors quit more often than all other professional groups. In addition, we find that client-contact and transferability of skills are positively related to quits, when controlling for job satisfaction, suggesting that these skills provide employees with alternative job opportunities and greater bargaining power. These measures of skills are also positively related to job satisfaction. Our study contributes to the literature on turnover and professions by emphasizing the interplay between the skills of professional workers and job satisfaction in employees’ decision to quit. In addition, we add to our understanding of the concepts of general- and firm-specific skills in a multi-profession context.

Retaining the learning professional: A survival study on workplace learning in professional service firms

“…In the face of continuous change, technological development, and increasing competition, it is essential for a PSF not only to retain its knowledge base, but also to develop new proprietary knowledge, and encourage exchange of knowledge between its professionals. Generating, exchanging, and managing this knowledge is a necessary core ability for PSFs (Eraut, 2000;Olsen et al, 2019;Vaiman, 2008). This need to continuously create new and proprietary knowledge also requires that the professionals who hold this knowledge are retained within the firm and the profession to foster PSF's performance (Egan et al, 2004;Govaerts et al, 2011;Peterson, 2004;Vaiman, 2008).…”

“…Models of workplace learning, such as the work by Tynjälä (2013) or Marsick and Watkins (2001), show that professionals' engagement in learning behaviors, such as reflection, is driven by characteristics of the work environment: the learning professional is nested in a social and organizational environment that interact to generate outcomes. To date, few studies have focused on interactions between drivers of learning at different levels either for learning (Egan et al, 2004;Govaerts et al, 2011;Hwang & Chang, 2009;Peterson, 2004) or for turnover (Olsen et al, 2019;Yalabik et al, 2017). Recent work by Olsen et al (2019) and Yalabik et al (2017) suggests that lower turnover is related to the fit between the professional's learning needs and how the PSF supports those needs.…”

“…To date, few studies have focused on interactions between drivers of learning at different levels either for learning (Egan et al, 2004;Govaerts et al, 2011;Hwang & Chang, 2009;Peterson, 2004) or for turnover (Olsen et al, 2019;Yalabik et al, 2017). Recent work by Olsen et al (2019) and Yalabik et al (2017) suggests that lower turnover is related to the fit between the professional's learning needs and how the PSF supports those needs. These studies show the importance of creating synergy between the professional's needs for learning and how this is supported through creating organizational conditions that value learning.…”

Research on professional organizations: A review of theoretical traditions, themes, methods and locations

“…Contemporary research on PSFs thus appears in top quality journals, and addresses a wide variety of important and relative issues—spanning narrow managerial interests to broader societal concerns. Several papers, for example, tackle vexing managerial issues such as staff turnover (Brymer & Sirmon, 2018; Olsen et al., 2019) and quality control (Martin, et al., 2013; Wadmann, Holm‐Petersen & Levay, 2019). Others address tricky organizational issues like boundary spanning (Mors et al., 2018; Schotter et al., 2017) and networks (Mawdsley & Somaya, 2015; Salvoldi & Brock, 2019).…”

Persepsi Transferable Skills Guru Produktif Ditinjau dari Pengalaman Mengajar dan Pengalaman Pelatihan

“…Luk, Ho, & Chan (2014) menegaskan bahwa transferable skills penting dimiliki oleh siswa, guru, karyawan, universitas, pemerintah, dan badan akreditasi baik dalam pendidikan maupun pekerjaan. Olsen, Sverdrup, & Kalleberg (2019) mengatakan bahwa mengembangkan dan meningkatkan aspek Transferable skills secara positif dapat berpengaruh pada kepuasan kerja.…”