Retention and Turnover of Social Workers in China: Experimental Evidence from Beijing

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The aim of this study was to identify the critical factors that influenced the turnover and retention of social workers and to propose strategies for enhancing professional social work teams.

Method

A discrete-choice experiment (DCE) method was employed to approach to assess social workers’ preferences regarding both income-related and non-income-related factors affecting their willingness to remain or leave their positions.

Results

Both income-related and non-income-related measures significantly affected social workers’ the willingness to retain in their roles. Specifically, increasing the base salary had a stronger effect compared to performance pay. Among the non-income factors, providing career development opportunities had the strongest effect, followed by improving management, while honors had the weakest effect. Furthermore, it was observed that the effects of these improvements varied depending on the social workers’ backgrounds and the types of social work clubs they were associated with. For instance, promoting career development was found to be more effective in well-developed clubs, while income incentives appeared to be more impactful in less developed clubs.

Discussion and Conclusion

The study highlighted the importance of both income-related measures and non-income factors in addressing the issue of turnover and promoting stability within professional social work teams. Additionally, the observed heterogeneity in the effects of these improvements emphasized the need for tailored retention strategies that consider the diverse backgrounds of social workers and the specific organizational contexts they operate in.

KEYWORDS:

• social work
• turnover
• discrete-choice experiment
• China
• retention of social workers

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Haidian District Committee of the Communist Youth League of China for supporting this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.