Staff Engagement, Coworkers' Complementarity and Employee Retention: Evidence from English NHS Hospitals

Giuseppe Moscelli, Melisa Sayli () and Marco Mello ()
Additional contact information
Melisa Sayli: University of Surrey
Marco Mello: University of Aberdeen

No 15638, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Retention of skilled workers is essential for labour-intensive organisations like hospitals, where an excessive turnover of doctors and nurses can reduce the quality and quantity of services to patients. In the public sector, where salaries are often not negotiable at individual level, workers increasingly care about the non-pecuniary aspects of their jobs. We empirically investigate the role played by two such aspects, staff engagement and the retention of complementary coworkers, in affecting employee retention within the public hospital sector. We exploit a unique and rich panel dataset based on employee-level payroll and staff survey records from the universe of English NHS hospitals, and estimate dynamic panel data models to deal with the bias due to reverse causality. We find that nurses' retention is positively associated with their engagement, whereas doctors' retention is positively associated with nurses' retention. This heterogeneous response of employee retention can be explained by the hierarchy of workers' professional roles within the organisation.

Keywords: job complementarities; staff engagement; employee retention; coworkers; hospitals; endogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 C36 I11 J22 J28 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2022-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea, nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published in: Economica, 2025, 92 (365), 42 - 83 (with Alberto Vesperoni)

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Journal Article: Staff engagement, co‐workers' complementarity and employee retention: evidence from English NHS hospitals (2025)
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