Examining the relationship between personality traits, work experience, burnout, and intention to stay among home care aides in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Home care aides play an important role in providing long-term care services, but there is currently an insufficient supply of workers to meet the growing demand in Taiwan due to the increasing number of older adults and people with disabilities requiring care. There are numerous factors that influence the retention of home care aides. Previous research has indicated that taking employees’ individual personalities into account can enhance task delegation and organizational efficiency within an organization. Severe occupational burnout is likely to diminish vitality and disrupt sleep, which, in turn, can result in higher employee turnover rates. To date, no research has explored the correlation between personality traits, burnout, work experience, and the retention of home care aides. Given these gaps in knowledge, the present study aims to investigate how personality traits and occupational burnout are associated with the intention to stay among home care aides in Taiwan. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional survey that utilized purposive sampling to interview 285 home care aides in Hualien County from December 2020 to January 2021. A self-report questionnaire, administered with informed consent, was used to collect data on demographics, work experience, occupational burnout, personality, and intention to stay. The researchers utilized hierarchical regression analysis to analyze the data. All measurements exhibited high reliability and consistency, with Cronbach’s α values ranging from 0.8 to 0.9. RESULTS: The subscales for personal burnout, work-related burnout, and client-related burnout, along with all personality scales, were highly correlated with intention to stay, except for the openness trait (p < .05). Moreover, married, full-time employment, satisfied with the promotion system and current job as home care aides on the whole, lower levels of work-related burnout, and agreeable personality type were found to be significant predictors for intention to stay (p < .05) , and the adjusted R(2) of the model was 29.4%. CONCLUSIONS: This study has concluded that using personality traits as a criterion to select home care aides with a high level of agreeableness prior to recruitment, enhancing the professionalism and comprehensive of promotion system, and reducing work burnout are measures that may help home care service providers increase the intention to stay among home care aides.