Job preview effects during the critical initial employment period

Two interventions were implemented in an effort to reduce voluntary labor turnover rates among the basic-care staff of a large residential facility for retarded persons. The intervention strategy is derived from the hypothesis that misalignment of initial expectations of the inductee is a major irritant contributing to the withdrawal process. In one case, a written job preview containing realistic and candid descriptions of the various job characteristics was given to 149 prospective employees and withheld from 129 prospective employees. The 2nd intervention involved presentation of essentially the same information to 38 prospective employees in a videotape preview and the withholding of the information from 82 prospective employees. Attrition among those employees given the realistic description and among control Ss was monitored over a 9-mo period. Both interventions produced a small but nonsignificant improvement in turnover rates. Results are consistent with those of similar studies in more industrial settings. (17 ref)