Employee mobility intentions within a regional industry : A study on high-tech employees' perceived opportunities and preferences for mobility within a regional industry

Abstract: Background As digitalization and the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves in a rapid pace, the need for engineers, IT specialists and software developers introduce an increasing shortage of skilled workers. Managing the existing workforce is a challenge, increasing the interest in the antecedents and implications of their mobility activities. Employee turnover has been broadly viewed as a disadvantage for firms losing valuable human capital, increasing the implementation of retention strategies. On the other hand, an increasing amount of studies argue that mobility within a region is a source of knowledge spillovers and can enhance innovation and productivity, as well as regional economic growth by facilitating access to new external ideas and capabilities. There is a gap in the research on employees’ perception of opportunities and preferences that leads them to engage in mobility within the regional high-tech sector instead of other types of mobility. Objectives The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of what factors influence the mobility of employees within the regional high-tech industry. Therefore, the perceived opportunities and preferences for different types of mobility are investigated. The aim is that the findings will facilitate the management of employee mobility and maximize the local organizations’ joint human capital. Method A quantitative survey study is conducted, collecting data from two high-tech organizations operating within the same geographical region. The collected data includes individual, organizational and external factors, as well as the intentions for turnover and considerations for different types of mobility. SPSS is used to statistically test what factors are associated with high-tech employees’ opportunities and preferences for mobility within the regional industry. Results High-tech personnel perceive most opportunities for alternative employment within the high-tech industry in another region, while finding another job within the region is perceived more difficult. If employees considered leaving their current organization, most would prefer to take a job within the regional high-tech industry. Satisfaction with pay, training opportunities and supervisors in the current job have a reducing effect on the intention to leave the organization, while perception of having alternative employment opportunities have an increasing effect on both turnover intention and for considering mobility within the same industry. No significant model for predicting the preference for mobility within the same region was found in this study. Conclusions The majority of high-tech personnel already prefer mobility within the regional industry if they were leaving their current job, but there is a mismatch with the perceived opportunities for this type of mobility. Actions towards matching the opportunities with the preferences are expected to result in benefits for the region by increasing the local overall knowledge base, provide the organizations with more opportunities to attract highly skilled workers locally, and increase employees’ job satisfaction and performance through better job-matches.