Reducing Information Asymmetries to Improve Employee Retention: A Randomized Hiring Intervention in Manufacturing Firms

High employee turnover in blue-collar manufacturing jobs imposes large costs on firms and job switching costs on workers while limiting productivity growth. I test whether reducing information asymmetries in the hiring process can improve employee retention. I run a randomized controlled trial in a medium-sized Turkish manufacturing firm with four arms: standard hiring practices (control), psychological assessments revealing candidate suitability, hands-on job testing assessing physical capabilities, and realistic job previews informing workers about job demands. I track retention over six to twelve months. The findings will help to identify which low-cost interventions are effective at reducing turnover and guide the design of a larger trial across multiple manufacturing firms.

Key facts

Principal Investigator: Şimal Köseoğlu
Affiliation: PhD Student, LMU Munich, Department of Economics