Turnover Contagion Is Real

Many of us have witnessed it, some may have been part of it: As soon as a colleague puts in their resignation at work, their peers start questioning their own career trajectories, exploring other opportunities outside of their organization until they leave their company for the next gig. While many personal, professional, and economic factors contribute to a person’s decision to leave a company, the phenomenon of workers quitting their jobs because their peers resigned has long been studied under the term “turnover contagion.” The present report describes the findings from an experimental research study powered by data science, based on the millions of live employee records in the Visier Community Data. The goal of this study: To test if turnover contagion is a real phenomenon that can be detected and better understood in its nature, effect size, and time frame.