The Temporal Model: Combining Job Embeddedness with the Unfolding Model to Reduce Voluntary Employee Turnover in Law Firms ()
1. Introduction
Employee turnover is one of the biggest concerns for employers and costs them A third of an employee’s annual salary (Hall, 2019) . This is mainly a concern in law because of the high demands of becoming a lawyer and the investments law firms make to hire and train new employees. Firms risk losing 125% of their associates in five years (Thomson Reuters, 2022a) .
Prior work uses an unfolding model to explain how employees may leave (Lee et al., 1999) . This model is based on climactic events triggering various paths to turnover. However, this model does not consider the idea of job embeddedness, which is where relational factors can change a person’s propensity for leaving. A person with high job embeddedness is less likely to exit the company than someone with low job embeddedness (Lee et al., 2014) .
This literature review first covers the concepts of turnover rates, the unfolding model, and job embeddedness to provide background knowledge. It then introduces the temporal model, which incorporates the unfolding model and job embeddedness to address high turnover rates by looking at the different stages of an employee’s journey through a law firm. These stages are hiring, tenure, and job exit. Finally, this paper reviews strategies firms can use to address turnover at any stage of employment.
2. Turnover Rate
Turnover is the “percentage of employees that leave your organization during a given time period” (Shweta et al., 2022) . Different law firms experience different levels of turnover. Firms that can prevent extensive attrition of their employees are classified as Stay firms, and those that suffer higher turnover are known as Go firms (Thomson Reuters, 2022a) . Additionally, Stay firms experience a greater growth in demand and productivity than their counterparts, and their employees tend to be happier and more satisfied. There appears to be a correlation between turnover rate and the success of a firm.
3. The Unfolding Model
The unfolding model is a model of voluntary employee turnover (Holtom et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2017) . It identifies four paths to job exit. In these paths, a shock is a jarring event that triggers thoughts of leaving. Shocks can occur both in and outside the workplace.
3.1. Path One (Scripts)
The first path to employee turnover identified by the unfolding model is when a shock initiates a script. A script is a pre-existing plan of action. This could be as broad as general aspirations or as specific as life plans for the next 5 or 10 years. On this first path, the employee often leaves without considering alternatives or their attachment to the company (Holtom et al., 2008) .
There are some standard scripts that many lawyers share, as the career path in the law is similar in most firms. Lawyers begin their careers as associates and often plan to become partners in the next 5 - 10 years. As such, any shock that makes them realize they cannot fulfill their script at their current firm would prompt turnover. For example, if a senior associate who wants to make partner is passed over for a promotion, the shock could trigger their exit from the firm if they expected the promotion and they receive negative feedback on their chances of making partner.
3.2. Path Two (Immediate Quitting)
The second path to employee turnover is when a shock prompts immediate quitting (Lee et al., 1999) . Subsequent work expands this path to include a short evaluation of their attachment to the firm before quitting. Several shocks might prompt this second path, including image violations and despicable workplace events (Holtom et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2017) . An image violation is when employees realize their morals and ideals do not match the firm’s. In this scenario, the employee rethinks their “image” of the firm and leaves when they believe the reality does not match their expectations. They also consider their attachment to the firm. Despicable workplace events could be when a superior condones illegal activities (Lee et al., 2017) . Such events can also be considered image violations if they conflict with the employee’s values.
For lawyers, shocks could be when the firm defrauds their client or breaks legal procedure during a case. Lawyers take an oath after they pass the bar exam, and while this oath may differ per state, it consistently affirms that lawyers must conduct their duties ethically (Andrews, 2009) . Therefore, if lawyers hold their firms to higher ethical standards, they may be more likely to leave if the firm asks them to do something that violates their standards. Research shows that employees are more likely to leave when they disagree with their firms’ moral standards (Carucci & Praslova, 2022) .
3.3. Path Three (Outside Offers)
The third path to employee turnover is outside job offers or strong feelers (Lee et al., 2017) . These job offers are also considered shocks, pushing employees to question their commitment to the company. Outside job offers are even more significant in the legal industry. Firms compete over the most talented attorneys who can bring significant business and win cases. Thus, a lawyer may receive job offers throughout their tenure at a firm, and when they receive a deal too good to pass up (e.g., promotions, salary hikes, name partner status, offer from a client), they will leave their firm for these better opportunities.
3.4. Path Four (Low Job Satisfaction)
The final path to turnover is low job satisfaction (Holtom et al., 2008) . Job satisfaction is how much value an employee feels their work provides in terms of intellectual, emotional, or financial benefits to both the employee and the firm. This is the only path that is not triggered by a shock. Instead, an employee realizes that they are dissatisfied with their job, and they leave. This is where the path splits into two. An employee can leave with or without searching for alternatives. Leaving without an alternative may be more abrupt than with an alternative.
Job satisfaction plays a vital, mediating role in turnover intention, or the “intention of an employee to leave the current organization” (Dasilveira et al., 2020) . High job satisfaction can keep turnover intention among employees at a minimum, so it is an important factor to consider.
Job satisfaction holds particular importance in law because of high workplace demands. Such demands include long hours and mentally challenging work. Lawyers who feel that their work does not contribute to the betterment of their lives/careers and the firm’s operations may feel that all the sacrifices they make for their job are for naught. Others may feel burdened by the feeling of responsibility for others’ outcomes.
The unfolding model has been proven to describe the thought processes of Western societies very well (Holtom et al., 2008) . However, it must incorporate an essential aspect of employment and turnover: job embeddedness (Figure 1).
4. Job Embeddedness
Job embeddedness concerns the relations between the employee, the employer, the job, coworkers, their communities, and the like. It is broken down into three main parts: links, fit, and sacrifice (Holtom et al., 2006) . These three parts exist on and off the job, creating six dimensions of embeddedness. On-the-job embeddedness looks specifically at the workplace and the job’s demands. Off-the-job embeddedness looks specifically at the community outside the workplace.
4.1. Links
Links are an employee’s connections with others or institutions (Holtom et al., 2006) . Connections include colleagues, friends, or even mentors. The more connections an employee has, the more embedded they are in the company. The strength of these connections also plays a role in how embedded the employee is.
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Figure 1. Breakdown of the unfolding model.
4.2. Fit
Fit is how compatible an employee is with the company and the community (Holtom et al., 2006) . It is an employee’s perceived compatibility. Their ideals and plans should fit both their job and the corporate culture. The employee must also believe that they fit into their local community.
4.3. Sacrifice
Rather than focusing on embeddedness during an employee’s stay at a company, sacrifice looks at what it would cost the employee, both materialistically and psychologically, to leave the company (Holtom et al., 2006) . This would include official losses such as job benefits and salary and personal losses such as losing friends and colleagues (severing the links).
4.4. On-and-Off-the-Job Embeddedness
While the construct is labeled job embeddedness, it has two different subcategories: on-the-job embeddedness and off-the-job embeddedness. On-the-job embeddedness looks specifically at the workplace and the job’s demands. This would include links with other workers and managers, the perceived fit with the company and the job, and sacrifices that leaving the job would require.
Off-the-job embeddedness looks specifically at the community outside the workplace. Links here would be with neighbors, friends, and local stores (institutions). The perceived fit would be with the culture and atmosphere of the community (a laid-back atmosphere vs. a driven atmosphere). Sacrifices would be made by leaving the community (both the people and the institutions), such as if the employee has to relocate for their new job, or by reducing time spent with the community, such as if the employer requires working long hours.
Research on job embeddedness suggests strong correlations between embeddedness and employee turnover (Mitchell et al., 2001) . Thus, this research can be applied to each stage of an employee’s tenure to address the paths of employee turnover.
5. The Temporal Model
Temporal aspects of an employee’s career journey can frame how firms address employee turnover. The unfolding model, with its four paths that lead to employee turnover based on shocks or dissatisfaction, is reactive, considering employee decisions long after being hired. Job embeddedness focuses primarily on what makes an employee stay, even though factors influencing leaving are equally important. The temporal model combines the unfolding model with job embeddedness as a model of employee turnover. By combining research about the two models, we learn more about strategies that can help prevent turnover.
The model is broken into three main stages of an employee’s journey—hiring, tenure, and exit. Each part of job embeddedness corresponds to each stage of the journey. Firms can utilize strategies that harness the power of job embeddedness in each stage to preempt or disrupt paths to employee turnover described in the unfolding model. The strategies either block triggers to each path or prevent completion once the employee starts down the path (Figure 2 and Figure 3).
5.1. Hiring (Fit)
5.1.1. On-the-Job Fit
Law firms must consider two vital on-the-job factors when hiring employees: how the candidate fits with the firm and how their skills fit with their potential job. Research indicates that firms with employees who fit the organization and the job “improve new hire-retention rates”, and employees who feel that they do not fit will seek “alternate employment” (Cloutier et al., 2015) .
Studies show that companies hire candidates whose mindset and values match the firm’s (Coverdill & Finlay, 1998) . However, interviewers may have different ideas about the firm’s values and mission than the applicants they interview. To solve this problem, law firms can craft a clear “strategic intent”, or a statement of their core values and corporate goals (Cloutier et al., 2015) . A firm-specific explicit statement of strategic intent provides hiring managers with a guide to
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Figure 2. Breakdown of the temporal model.
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Figure 3. Relationship between the temporal model and the unfolding model.
hiring employees who may be more likely to mesh well with the firm environment. Formulating a clear strategic intent also benefits the employees because they can maintain a clear commitment to the firm’s specific mission through their work. Clear commitment addresses the fourth path of employee turnover—job dissatisfaction—because employees know what goal they are working towards and how their work is essential to achieving that goal. They feel satisfied that they are contributing to the firm. Furthermore, if their values and goals match the companies’ values, employees are less likely to fall prey to image violations, which leads to the second path of turnover. When they witness a workplace event that questions their view of the firm, lawyers may not be as quick to conclude that the firm is unsuitable for them because their mindset matches the firm’s.
All lawyers have specific skills or qualifications they must meet to earn a job at a law firm. They must have a law degree and be admitted into the bar. However, firms may seek specific experiences or skills particular to their job, called hot buttons (Coverdill & Finlay, 1998) . Hot buttons elicit an employer’s positive reaction, as they tend to be solutions to problems that prompted the initial job search. Once again, a clear definition is the key to hiring the right employee. Firms must define to their HR department what kind of problem led to the need for new hires and detail the skills they are looking for. When the firm hires a candidate with these skills, they may be more likely to stay as their skills are put to good use by the firm to solve specific problems. This increases their job satisfaction, preventing turnover through the fourth path of the unfolding model.
A final way to ensure on-the-job fit is to consider that as communities become more diverse, especially in big cities, demands for law firms to have a more diverse workforce have increased, and employees who feel like they are in the minority at work are more likely to leave (Frey, 2021; Thomson Reuters, 2022b) . Hiring diverse candidates can help prevent minority employees from leaving. Proactively opening the job selection process to more women, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+ communities can attract qualified candidates from these groups and improve diversity. Firms with more diversity appeal more to employees than undiversified firms, addressing the third path to employee turnover, in which employees may value an outside offer more because they feel they fit in better elsewhere.
5.1.2. Off-the-Job Fit
Ensuring employees fit into the firm’s local community can reduce turnover, and community embeddedness is a crucial indicator of voluntary employee turnover (Holtom et al., 2006; Lee et al., 2014) . There are two routes that firms can take to fulfill off-the-job fit. One route is hiring employees who are already a part of the community. The other route is integrating hired employees into the community with various strategies.
Hiring employees from neighborhoods close to firm offices or helping them to live nearby is one way to ensure they fit into the local community, and it has several advantages (Holtom et al., 2006) . Lawyers work long hours, and a short commute would maximize their time at work and with their loved ones. This can make working at one firm favorable to working for another, addressing the third path to employee turnover, which an employee may take if they receive an outside offer that is closer to their home. Furthermore, if a person is living in a neighborhood, they are likely to know their neighbors, and they are likely to mesh with the energy of the local community. One example the Holtom et al. (2006) paper provides is North Shore Bank, which hired people from local communities, allowing the employees to provide services to immigrant customers who lived in “ethnically concentrated neighborhoods” (323). This same principle applies to law firms. Employees from local communities with diverse backgrounds can provide unique services to firm clients, which is another way they will feel content with the value of their work, which could increase job satisfaction and reduce employee turnover by removing the trigger to path four.
However, firms must consider the drawbacks of this strategy. Looking only at candidates from local communities can eliminate the opportunity to hire more qualified candidates who live outside the nearby area. This is especially important for law firms, as being a lawyer is a high-skill, high-demand job that only some can successfully do. Firms should consider how large of a radius they would consider “local”.
The second route is to hire candidates that firms believe will fit into the community. This requires an exploration of the community’s values and environment. A lawyer from the city may not mesh well with a suburban law firm, and a candidate with small-town values may not fare well with the big-city mindset. Lawyers who do not fit in the community may have trouble signing and representing local clients. Interviewers must also gauge the candidate’s personality and preferences to determine whether they would fit the community well.
Overall, employees who are a good fit for the company and the community are less likely to seek other opportunities. A firm with a clear statement of strategic intent can hire lawyers who should be more satisfied with their jobs and less prone to image violations and immediate quitting. Lawyers who have unique skill sets that can solve a problem or allow them to work with local communities should also be more satisfied with their jobs. Hiring diverse lawyers appeals to minority lawyers within the firm, making homogenous firms unappealing and potentially preempting paths like outside offers to leave the firm and low job satisfaction.
5.2. Tenure (Links)
After hiring a lawyer, firms should take various steps to create links between employees, the firm, and the community.
5.2.1. On-the-Job Links
Lawyers at firms that have successfully kept turnover in check cited the “people with whom they work” and the “collegial nature of relationships within the firm” as two of the main factors that motivated them to stay with the firm (Thomson Reuters, 2022a) . In other words, these firms have created extensive links between their employees, allowing the firm itself to become a web that prevents workforce attrition. But how do firms encourage these links?
One way to create links within the firm is for senior employees to connect with their juniors. This entails partners connecting with associates or even connections between senior and junior associates. In other industries, turnover decreases when senior employees have lunch with their juniors (Holtom et al., 2006) . Lunches allow employees to connect on a personal level, creating bonds that are stronger than work-only bonds. Associates may discuss their struggles with or ask for advice from more senior employees, which provides opportunities for the partners to take steps to alleviate those struggles. This creates loyalty between the employees and the firm, which may reduce turnover by making it more difficult for other firms to convince employees to leave and work under new leadership.
In a field as complex as law, where both technical and communication skills matter, mentorship from a senior is invaluable to new employees. A senior lawyer can develop links with junior employees by working together with them on a case. This provides multiple benefits to both employees. The senior may feel a sense of responsibility to their juniors, keeping them from leaving the firm. The junior employee may feel that their input is contributing to the work of a senior employee, making them more satisfied with their own work.
Firms can also promote links between co-workers. A U.K. law firm known for its employee retention, Pannone and Partners, “provides gym memberships so that employees can work out together” and sponsors “social events like barbeques, shopping weekends, and ‘cake days’” (Holtom et al., 2006) . The common concept behind these activities is that the firm is investing money into providing opportunities for its employees to connect personally. The investment pays off with less turnover. Firms should investigate sponsoring ways for employees to create and develop links with each other.
5.2.2. Off-the-Job Links
Because firms have less control over employees’ lives outside of work, it may be challenging to create many off-the-job links. Instead, firms should focus on allowing employees to strengthen existing links or give them information to create a few high-quality links. In this case, the quality of links is more important than the quantity (Feldman et al., 2012) .
Firms can track and notify their employees of local events and community activities (Holtom et al., 2006) . As employees participate in local activities, they become more embedded in the local community, and they may be more resistant to leaving as they get attached to the environment. Firms can also foster the development of these links in their communities by encouraging employees to create links of their own rather than forcing the creation of these links. This differs from on-the-job links because the firm does not know who or what the employee might connect with. For example, the firm can advertise or suggest events in the community, such as service opportunities in which employees might enjoy participating in. Subsequently, employees may connect with people they meet while volunteering or identify with the community service’s cause, allowing them to create their own links.
Lawyers may need encouragement from their firm to go out and involve themselves in their community because their job can be a much greater time commitment than many professions. Employees may feel they don’t have time to be a part of their community, but if the firm recommends or allots time for employees, they may be more willing to create or develop off-the-job links. Off-the-job links also include friends and family, so a firm can help to strengthen those links by allowing for extra days off work to spend with loved ones (Holtom et al., 2006) .
Overall, links address various paths of the unfolding model in employee turnover. Links can increase job satisfaction by allowing employees to connect with seniors at the firm. These on-the-job connections create loyalty to the firm and make it more difficult for other firms to poach attorneys. Furthermore, allowing employees to participate in their community strengthens existing off-the-job links, which may increase job satisfaction or reduce the value of outside offers. It also may paint the firm in a better light and thus may disrupt the path to turnover following a potential image violation because the employees are more appreciative of their employer.
5.3. Exit (Sacrifice)
If all else fails and the employee considers leaving the company, sacrifices are the final barrier against turnover. Sacrifices are all about the employee’s perception. They are the “perceived costs of leaving” (Feldman et al., 2012) .
5.3.1. On-the-Job Sacrifices
On-the-job sacrifices entail benefits and positive aspects of their work that employees feel will be lost when they leave the job. Benefits may include healthcare contributions, retirement programs, and flexible work arrangements (Holtom et al., 2006) . Other workplaces may not offer these benefits to the same degree or at all, which preempts path three.
Flexible work arrangements are one benefit that lawyers may greatly appreciate because of the time commitment and the variety of work they must do. For example, if an attorney has no client meetings scheduled on a particular day, they may save commute time by working from home and attending staff meetings virtually. After the COVID-19 pandemic, many people realized the comfort and efficiency involved in working from home, and workplaces have recognized this change by allowing employees to work from home for half the week. One survey finds that 58% of U.S. job holders surveyed reported they are allowed to work from home at least part-time (Dua et al., 2022) . Therefore, leaving a firm that provides such a benefit for a firm that does not could be disadvantageous for the employee. While it may seem that work-from-home environments limit the development of on-the-job links, employees who work virtually still interact and create links with their colleagues through the camera in meetings, direct messages, emails, and other ways. In addition, firms can address the potential for weaker development of on-the-job links by encouraging the programs suggested earlier, such as mentoring and occasional in-person lunches when in the office.
One sacrifice that lawyers, in particular, may have to make relates to the non-compete agreements that many firms require their employees to sign. A non-compete agreement is a contract between an employer and an employee that prevents the employee from “competing with the business directly or indirectly for a specific duration of time after their employment has ended” (Thomson Reuters, 2022b) . The scope of this agreement includes restrictions on working for a competing business, recruiting former colleagues to leave the firm, and hiring their former firm’s clients. A non-compete agreement induces sacrifices a lawyer must make if they want to leave the firm. They may lose job opportunities in a geographic area or for a certain period and lose business opportunities with long-time clients.
Breaking the links at a job by quitting is another sacrifice employees of the firm must make. Firms that promote links may completely circumvent the paths of employee turnover for some, and for others, even if such thoughts occur, may find their employees think transitioning to a new firm would be too difficult because of the colleagues they leave behind.
5.3.2. Off-the-Job Sacrifices
Off-the-job sacrifices entail losing benefits that the firm provided to an employee’s community. The community could be as small as the employee’s family. When the sacrifice directly affects more than just the employee, it falls into the realm of off-the-job embeddedness. For example, the level of healthcare coverage for an employee’s whole family may be sacrificed if the employee left a firm that offered that benefit.
Firms can financially support employees in big purchases they make outside of work, such as providing part of a down payment on a home (Holtom et al., 2006) . If the firm contributes a sum towards the down payment on a big purchase or covers a percentage of the monthly payments, the attorney must sacrifice the financial support if they choose to leave. They often must pay back some of the money the firm gave them. Law firms in big cities with high expenses can influence whether a younger, less wealthy attorney stays by supporting their financial decisions.
Additionally, suppose a non-compete agreement forces an employee to move to find new jobs. In that case, the whole family sacrifices their current living situation because the employee chose to leave. While this may be a viable strategy for some, firms must maintain fairness in their non-compete agreements to avoid damaging employees’ well-being extensively if they choose to leave. Furthermore, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is “considering a proposed rule that would ban noncompete clauses in employment contracts” (Federal Trade Commission, 2023) . They have already overruled noncompete clauses in various cases, such as with 7-Eleven and DaVita.
Thoughtfully increasing the perceived sacrifices an employee must make can address various paths to employee turnover. Treating employees well by providing benefits that improve an employee’s work and personal life makes it more difficult for those employees to pursue path three by leaving for a firm that does not provide the same benefits. Non-compete agreements may decrease an employee’s opportunities outside of their current job, making them less likely to go through with scripts if they are disappointed, which is path one, and making outside offers less valuable, which is path three (Table 1).
6. Other Strategies
Other strategies exist that law firms can utilize to address paths of turnover. These strategies do not necessarily fall under a stage of an employee’s journey in the temporal model. Although they can also utilize links, fit, or sacrifices, they do not specifically address any particular path to employee turnover.
Firms can assist lawyers in achieving their future plans. For instance, Kraft Canada creates development plans for its employees, which include career moves and current employee progress (Holtom et al., 2006) . Firms can adopt these strategies by surveying employees on their goals at the firm and advising them on how to achieve them. For example, associates wishing to partner in five to ten years may benefit from a track to promotion provided by the firm. This would counteract scripts that prompt employees to leave the company to achieve
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Table 1. Review of potential strategies in the temporal model.
Source: Prepared by the author.
their plans elsewhere. However, one tradeoff is that with an explicit plan, some employees may be more likely to leave via path one if they do not make as much progress on their plan as they hoped, triggering a script to start looking for a new job.
Firms that are early adopters of new technology may make work easier for employees and can also increase retention. Studies show that standout lawyers at firms with impressive retention are quick to adopt new technology, which may be indicative of these firms better integrating technology into their employees’ workflows, which helps lawyers feel that the tools are “more useful” (Thomson Reuters, 2022a) . For example, artificial intelligence tools have become more prevalent over the past few years. Firms that provide training on and encourage ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence could enhance their attorneys’ workflows, increasing job satisfaction and making the firm more appealing than firms that do not have the systems in place to support such tools, which would disrupt both paths four and three, respectively.
7. Conclusion
The unfolding model and job embeddedness as separate theories do not fully address voluntary employee turnover. However, the temporal model applies job embeddedness to each stage of an employee’s journey at a firm to address the paths to turnover described by the unfolding model. For example, when hiring attorneys, law firms must consider how a candidate fits with the organization and the community. During a lawyer’s tenure, the firm should promote and strengthen links in and outside the workplace. And when a lawyer thinks of leaving their job, the perceived sacrifices must be too great for them to quit.
However, there are some limits to the temporal model and the strategies discussed in this paper. Some firms may not have the resources to apply some of the strategies in this paper, especially those that require heavy financial investment. Firms should adapt the strategies and use the concepts behind them to address excess employee turnover. By conducting surveys and using focus groups to understand the “unique and diverse needs of its people”, firms can choose how to implement these strategies without spending unnecessary resources (Holtom et al., 2006) .
The temporal model may also apply to companies outside law firms, especially those in similar industries such as consulting and financial services. While each industry has its own unique challenges and situations, the concepts of links, fit, and sacrifice throughout an employee’s tenure at a firm apply to every sector. Once again, selecting and tailoring strategies to the business’s specific needs may reduce voluntary employee turnover.
There are some aspects of this model that would benefit from further research. Firms’ strategies may affect employees differently, depending on where they are in their careers. For example, a senior partner would have fewer superior employees they can look up to and connect with, and a junior associate does not have many people to mentor. The business that a senior partner can bring in is much more valuable than an associate’s, so competitors may be more likely to poach the senior partner. Strategies must be tailored to each rank of employee to effectively reduce turnover. The temporal model is flexible and simply provides a framework for what type of strategies to implement, but the strategies themselves are each firm’s unique decision.
By providing strategies that fit within the temporal model as well as miscellaneous strategies, this paper provides a playbook for law firms to combat the rising issue of turnover in the industry. Firms can incorporate parts of each strategy into their human resource management plan, or they can take the broader concepts of the temporal model to develop their own strategies. With less turnover rates, firms could experience more success by devoting resources to other parts of the business.