Does the front door match the backdoor? : A single case study on how employee turnover affects the level of engagement & investment in EVP touchpoints: pre-, on-, and off-boarding

Sammanfattning: Research questions: In particular, how does employee turnover relate to the level of engagement and investment during the EVP touchpoints: preboarding, onboarding, offboarding? Purpose & Aim: The purpose is to explore the relationship between the level of employee turnover and the level of engagement in the EVP: preboarding, onboarding, and offboarding.  Method: A qualitative approach was chosen for the thesis, which was conducted through seven semi-structured interviews. The informants were different managers with personal responsibility for both white and blue-collar workers from a multinational company, operating mostly B2B in a matrix-like organization. Conclusion: The engagement & investment in the three different EVP touchpoints was shown to be affected by the turnover in different ways, thus affecting the organizational socialization. With a generally low turnover for many years, a sudden drop due to retirements and resignations, from very loyal employees in most departments,  a sudden lack of employees developed. This was followed by a strain on the resources that already were not considered superfluous, creating a negative spiral. A considerable difference was found in the engagement between the preboarding, onboarding, and offboarding. The entry points were increasingly more of a priority than the exit points, with a growing imminent need for employees. However, this also halted the efficiency of a “proper” onboarding in the most afflicted departments, as the knowledge transfer and socialization was not able to properly be induced into every employee. With a not fully integrated approach across the organization, the core values were not integrated nor consistent either. Conclusively, there needs to be a consistent proactive effort to manage these EVP touchpoints in order to create prerequisites for a sustainable EB, especially in today’s labour market.