The provision of work–life balance practices across welfare states and industries and their impact on extraordinary turnover

Abstract

AbstractThis study focusses on the provision of work–life balance practices across welfare states and industries and its effect on extraordinary turnover. Given the welfare states and the industry's differences, it is important to focus on extraordinary employee turnover defined as positive and negative deviations from the relevant means per year and by welfare state and industry. Based on a sample of 199 listed companies in these European welfare states from 2002 to 2011, the results showed that the provision of daycare services is higher in socially oriented welfare states (e.g., Sweden, Germany) or in low‐technology industries (consumer services) than in liberally oriented welfare states (e.g., Italy, the United Kingdom) or in high‐technology industries (e.g., IT). For the provision of daycare services, the findings support a decreasing effect on extraordinary employee turnover, whereas other practices such as flexible working, generous vacations and additional maternity leave have no effect.