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Corporate social responsibility and labor turnover

Corporate social responsibility and labor turnover Purpose – This paper aims to estimate empirically the effect on the voluntary turnover (quit) rate of employees when a large public corporation already judged as an outstanding employer is also ranked as being socially responsible by an external review organization. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a cross‐section regression of the turnover rate of 84 of Fortune magazine's “100 Best Employers” against measures of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and several other control variables such as annual wages, ethnic and gender composition of the labor force that economic theory and prior studies have identified as explaining firm labor turnover. Findings – Adoption of business policies that cause the firm to be rated as socially responsible reduce the annual quit rate by 3 percent to 3.5 percent, which amounts to a 25‐30 percent reduction, as compared to non‐CSR public corporations or a larger comparison set including privately held and not‐for‐profit firms. Research limitations/implications – The wider universe of public corporations may not realize comparable turnover benefits from CSR as these “best employers” because these firms might be especially vulnerable or sensitive to corporate image when hiring workers. Practical implications – The model estimated permits calculation of the annual rise in average wages that would be required to reduce turnover by the same amount as CSR, a sum of approximately $3,700 per year or about 9 percent of the mean wage, with a lower bound estimate of about $1,000. This suggests that these firms can significantly reduce labor costs by investing in worker‐friendly employment policies, which account for half of the entire measured CSR impact. Originality/value – This is believed to be the first effort to quantify rigorously the effect of CSR on the employment side of firm performance. Prior labor studies have looked at hypothetical employment scenarios involving students. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Corporate Governance Emerald Publishing

Corporate social responsibility and labor turnover

Donald F. Vitaliano
Corporate Governance , Volume 10 (5): 11 – Oct 19, 2010
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1472-0701
DOI
10.1108/14720701011085544
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to estimate empirically the effect on the voluntary turnover (quit) rate of employees when a large public corporation already judged as an outstanding employer is also ranked as being socially responsible by an external review organization. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs a cross‐section regression of the turnover rate of 84 of Fortune magazine's “100 Best Employers” against measures of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and several other control variables such as annual wages, ethnic and gender composition of the labor force that economic theory and prior studies have identified as explaining firm labor turnover. Findings – Adoption of business policies that cause the firm to be rated as socially responsible reduce the annual quit rate by 3 percent to 3.5 percent, which amounts to a 25‐30 percent reduction, as compared to non‐CSR public corporations or a larger comparison set including privately held and not‐for‐profit firms. Research limitations/implications – The wider universe of public corporations may not realize comparable turnover benefits from CSR as these “best employers” because these firms might be especially vulnerable or sensitive to corporate image when hiring workers. Practical implications – The model estimated permits calculation of the annual rise in average wages that would be required to reduce turnover by the same amount as CSR, a sum of approximately $3,700 per year or about 9 percent of the mean wage, with a lower bound estimate of about $1,000. This suggests that these firms can significantly reduce labor costs by investing in worker‐friendly employment policies, which account for half of the entire measured CSR impact. Originality/value – This is believed to be the first effort to quantify rigorously the effect of CSR on the employment side of firm performance. Prior labor studies have looked at hypothetical employment scenarios involving students.

Journal

Corporate Governance – Emerald Publishing

Published: Oct 19, 2010

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Employee turnover; Employers; Corporate image; Public sector organizations

References

  • Exploring the relationship between corporate social performance and employer attractiveness
    Backhaus, K.B.; Stone, B.A.; Heiner, K.
  • Issues in the analysis of selection bias
    Barnow, B.; Cain, G.; Goldberger, A.
  • Race and sex differences in quits by young workers
    Blau, F.D.; Kahn, L.M.
  • A Dictionary of Econometrics
    Darnell, A.