Through Good Times and Bad: The Influence of Workplace Social Support on IT Professionals' Turnover Intention during the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly impacted both employers and employees in many sectors. What is not yet clear is how the current changes will affect the IT job market and the career behavior of information technology (IT) professionals. Regardless of what these changes will look like, retaining qualified IT professionals will remain a crucial challenge for many companies that want to master the digitization accelerated by COVID-19. This challenge raises the following major question-how will companies retain their IT staff, even in times of crisis? We therefore examine the construct of workplace social support by using a survey of 212 IT professionals to investigate the extent to which workplace social support can be used as a suitable instrument for reducing turnover intention during crises. We discover that workplace social support reduces the perceived negative influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on professional life and increases perceived job security during the crisis. Furthermore, IT professionals with a high level of workplace social support suffer less often from negative emotions such as anger or fear. This positive influence subsequently reduces IT professionals' turnover intention. Our study provides insights into the positive effects of workplace social support during crises and informs companies about how they can successfully guide their IT employees through a crisis.