Leave, Stay or Progress? The Intention Profiles of Call Centre Agents
The theory of reasoned action and voluntary turnover models have always regarded the intention to terminate employment in order to go to another employer as the best predictor of turnover. However, in practice, employees have two other options: to move to another job within the same company (internal turnover) or stay in their current job for an indefinite period. From the perspective of turnover prevention, it would be advantageous if research would identify intention profiles according to these three options. This study aims to explore the different intention profiles of employees and whether job satisfaction, job-search behaviour and rates of voluntary and internal turnover differ according to these profiles. The analysis of results collected from 434 agents from three call centres suggests the existence of four intention profiles, which are about equal in number: (1) Stay in present job (strong intention to remain in current job, low intention to progress internally and low intention to leave for a job externally); (2) Stay whilst waiting to progress (strong intention to remain in current job, but strong intention to progress to a job internally and low intention to leave for a job externally); (3) Priority is to progress (low intention to stay in current job, strong intention to progress internally and low intention to leave for an external job); (4) Priority is to move on (low intention to stay in current job, strong intention to progress internally and leave for a job externally). The results of the study show that these four intention profiles reveal different levels of job satisfaction and job-search behaviour. Similarly, the rates of voluntary staff turnover and internal turnover vary according to the intention profile.