Grit Won't Quit: Reduce Turnover by Hiring for Passion + Perseverance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore how employers in rural economies take grit into consideration when hiring employees. Many rural economies experience the costly and unpredictable issue of employee turnover. Low unemployment and the draw of urban living have negatively impacted the rural labor pool. The Grit Scale can be used to help predict long-term employee success. A combination of passion and perseverance, the Grit Scale focuses on the important, yet overlooked attributes that many successful employees possess. This study extends upon the work started by Butz and his colleagues in 2015 by resurveying the initial sample to test if grit continues to affect employability years after the initial data were collected. The results confirmed that employee turnover and grit remain negatively correlated. As grit scores increase, employee turnover rates decrease. Furthermore, the results suggest that employers who focus on hiring for grit are more likely to reduce their employee turnover. Overall, further utilization of the Grit Scale may help reduce turnover rates, thus improving rural economies across the United States.