Zuidstad Consultation

In Zuidstad’s municipality, the annual voluntary employee turnover rate of the employees and managers with a non-Western migration background is 20%, as compared a 3% of native Dutch employees. Voluntary employee turnover is the percentage of all employees that leave the organization on their own initiative. The HR team holds exit interviews with all employees who voluntary leave the organization to find out about their motives for leaving. The exit interviews indicated that most employees left for another organization within the Netherlands. The exit interviews indicated that voluntary turnover is caused by feelings of dissatisfaction about how they were treated by their colleagues and sometimes by their superiors. For example, one employee complained that colleagues made jokes about her religion. Other employees felt stigmatized and neglected for promotions. Another

employee mentioned a case of harassment that was not really dealt with. The HR team worries about these findings and looks for effective, evidence based interventions.

1. Explain the logic of exit-voice-loyalty (silence) theory in your own words.

2. What does the exit-voice-loyalty (silence) theory imply for the strategy that should be followed to reduce voluntary turnover among employees with a non-Western migration background?

3. Mention three HR interventions that the organization could implement in order to decrease voluntary turnover caused by reasons mentioned in the exit interviews.