Selecting for Retention: The Interactive Role of Coupledom and Mobility Frequency

It is valuable when making hiring decisions to be able to use objective biographical data from job applications to predict who will leave quickly – i.e., to select for retention duration. However, such objective factors do not play a prominent role in most turnover research or theory. We address this issue by drawing on theories of job embeddedness and career scholarship to develop hypotheses about how retention duration is predicted by mobility frequency (also known as “physical career mobility”), coupledom, and their interaction. Based on a sample of 7,830 employees, we find that retention duration is predicted by mobility frequency (negatively), coupledom (positively), and their interaction. Retention duration is also predicted by a number of other objective biographical variables – e.g., education, gender, and employment gap. Implications for research and practice are discussed."