Relationship between turnover intention and workplace personal relations among care workers employed by elder care facilities.

BACKGROUND: This study focuses on care workers at elder care facilities to examine what factors (including workplace personal relations) influence turnover intention and to what extent. Based on this analysis, the study discusses the content of workplace personal relations problems in qualitative terms. METHODS: The study targeted care workers at elder care facilities. There were 406 participants with no missing data who were analyzed. The survey period ranged from September to November 2021. Questions consisted of basic attributes, turnover intention, problems with workplace personal relations, content of personal relation problems, and psychological distress. RESULTS: Female care workers were 2.25 times more likely than male care workers to have turnover intention. Care workers with workplace personal relation problems were 1.97 times more likely than those without these problems to have high turnover intention. Moreover, with regard to psychological distress, the ratio increased to 4.99 times. The following six categories were extracted from the text data on workplace personal relation problems: insufficient communication, bullying, sense of unfair workload, different attitudes to care work, difficulty in guidance for subordinates/new staff, and labelling. CONCLUSIONS: Gender, workplace personal relation problems, and psychological distress have shown to affect care workers' turnover intentions. To prevent care worker turnover, future studies should focus on the development and impact of strategies to improve workplace personal relations specific to care workers, targeting the six factors identified in this study.