1. Introduction

The "14th Five-Year Plan" emphasizes leveraging human capital and innovation for economic growth, necessitating improved enterprise training. As career patterns evolve and professional boundaries blur, companies face high employee turnover and shifting employment perceptions. Enhancing employee organizational identity and maintaining team stability are critical challenges amid these changes. According to the unprecedented 2024 Discharge and Remuneration Survey, the total employee discharge rate in 2023 was 16.6%, down 1.3 percentage points from the previous year, and the movement of personnel has slowed for two consecutive years [1]. The Human Resources White Paper of 2022 shows that 50% of graduates do their first job in less than six months, and there are limited opportunities for growth and space in enterprises, lack of training, and a small space to enhance personal capabilities [2]. It can be seen that inadequate training is also a major reason for the employee's departure. This study investigates the impact of corporate training on employee retention. It explores whether training helps retain employees or encourages them to seek higher positions elsewhere.

2. Literature Review

There are two types of departures: general and narrow. The general departure represents labor movement, categorized into inter-industry, inter-professional, and inter-regional movements, and also signifies employment and departure of employees from a specific unit [3]. The narrow departure refers to the withdrawal of employees who receive material benefits from the unit. It includes two types, with the focus of this paper being the active exit. Employee departure negatively impacts the unit, hence analyzing dismissal tendency is crucial for companies to retain employees. Given limited research on the impact of enterprise training on the willingness to leave, this article focuses on this issue.

Enterprise training is a key form of human capital investment and a vital aspect of enterprise development and internal human resource management, constituting an essential part of the enterprise strategy. It encompasses various forms, including online, offline, and mixed training, with content classified into technical, soft skills, and industry training. Based on the training object, it can be subdivided into new staff, post, and senior management training [4]. By training purpose, it is classified into skills enhancement, quality improvement, and career development, and by mode, into internal and external training.

The definition of organizational culture has always been controversial and continues to be an area of exploration and debate. This paper synthesizes diverse perspectives from various scholars. Deal and Kennedy posit that corporate culture comprises five elements: environment, values, heroes, cultural networks, and customs [5]. In contrast, Schein argues that organizational culture is an effective norm that emerges from internal resource integration and external adaptation, shaping new hires' problem-solving mindset [6]. Cameron and Quinn propose that corporate culture is a prominent business and management philosophy formed over long-term development [7]. Kotter and Heskett define It as a shared blend of values and behaviors among employees, particularly senior managers, accumulated through enterprise development [8]. For Chinese scholars, Zhang believes that enterprise culture sums up values, concepts, goals, etc., collectively observed by employees, evolving through long-term business processes, while Zhou presents that organizational culture combines values, behavioral norms, thinking patterns, and group consciousness, unique to the organization and developed over time [9-10]. In summary, differences in definitions notwithstanding, a certain consensus exists regarding organizational culture. First, culture evolves over time, not instantaneously. And it revolves around shared values among employees. Third, management necessitates flexibility. Lastly, culture is human-centric, emphasizing motivation & subjective dynamics.

Based on the above views and analyses this paper makes the first assumption: H1: The intensity of corporate culture training is negatively related to the willingness of employees to leave.That is: the stronger the intensity of corporate culture training, the lower the willingness of employees to leave.

Several studies have shown that there is a significant negative correlation between organizational identity and employee’s willingness to leave. The meta-analysis of Zhang Shuhua and Liu Zhaoyan found that organizational identity is associated with high negative intentions to leave [11]. Furthermore, meta-analysis explored the link between organizational identity and turnover intention, revealing a high correlation between stronger organizational identification and lower turnover intentions. This consistently indicates that organizational identity minimizes turnover willingness, stabilizing workforce and fostering organizational growth. Thus, it negatively impacts turnover intent. Corporate culture training enhances employees' understanding and alignment with company values, strengthening organizational identity. By doing so, employees feel more connected to the organization's culture, values, and goals, fostering a sense of belonging.

Based on the above analysis, this paper makes the second assumption: H2: Organizational identity acts as a mediator in the negative impact of corporate culture training on the willingness of employees to leave. In other words, the stronger the corporate culture training, the higher the employee's organizational identity, so that the willingness of employees to leave the job is lower.

3. Research Design

This study proposes 3 methodological options: questionnaires, experiments, and interviews. Questionnaires swiftly gather data for analysis at low cost but may face misinterpretation, dishonesty, or reluctance. Experiments ensure rigor, control, & causality but raise ethical concerns, diverge from reality and limit generalization. Interviews offer insights but are costly, dependent, & subjectively influenced. Given employees' subjective judgments and perceptions influencing variables, objective measurement is challenging. Interviews unlikely to yield significant quantitative data, making questionnaires the most suitable method. The study focuses on employees aged 22 to 50. It uses a questionnaire survey distributed via the "Question Star" platform, with participants identified through third-party platforms. The survey process includes three phases: issuing a pilot questionnaire to test validity and gather feedback distributing the revised questionnaire on "Question Star,” and collecting 245 questionnaires, all of which were returned, with 191 being valid. The final sample includes 56% females, 44% males, and 67% with academic backgrounds.

4. Data Analysis

Table 1: Descriptive statistical results of samples.

Overall, there are a total of 191 samples, with 84 men (44%) and 107 women (56%). As for their age, there are 5 individuals under 22 (2.6%), 64 individuals aged 22-26 (33.5%), 51 individuals aged 27-31 (26.7%), 38 individuals aged 32-36 (19.9%), 17 individuals aged 37-41 (8.9%), 7 individuals aged 42-46 (3.7%), and 9 individuals aged 46 and above (4.7%). In terms of their working age, there are 24 individuals with a working age less than 1 year (12.6%), 91 individuals with a working age 1-5 years (47.6%), 43 individuals with a working age 5-10 years (22.5%), 23 individuals with a working age 10-15 years (12%), 4 individuals with a working age 15-20 years (2.1%), and lastly 6 individuals with a working age over 20 years, accounting for 3.1%. The survey sample has a slight female majority. Most participants are aged 22-26 (33.5%) and 27-31 (26.7%). As shown in Table 1, educationally, 67% have bachelor's degrees and 25.7% have associate's degrees. The majority work in private enterprises, mainly from third- and fourth-tier cities. Most have 1 to 5 years of work experience (47.6%), with grassroots employees being the largest group (68.6%), followed by middle-level employees (15.2%).

Table 2: Credibility Analysis of Variables.

This paper uses SPSS27.0 software to obtain the results of corporate culture training, organizational identity and the employee’s willingness to leave analysis of three variables as shown in the table. Table 2 shows that three variables and their dimensions have a Cronbachα value greater than 0.7, so the questionnaire has a higher credibility.

Table 3: Related coefficients between variables.

As shown in table 3, the analysis of the Pearson correlation coefficients between factors reveals that the correlations between factors are both significant at the level of 0.01, which lays the basis for subsequent regression analysis. From the point of view of the coherence of the relevant factors, the tendency to leave the workplace is negatively correlated with the various dimensions of organizational culture training and organizational identity and basically matches the expectations.

5. Assumption Testing

From the table can be seen that the control variable has a significant predictive effect on the departure tendency, P=0,000. When the training enters the regression equation, the return coefficient is significant (β=-0.525, P = 0,000), the overall interpretation rate of the result is 27.1%, indicating that after the exclusion of the impact of the controlling variable, the organizational culture training has a noticeable predictable effect on leaving the tendency.

The regression equation results indicate that the model better explains the impact of sample data on departure tendencies (F=12.435, P=0.000, R² =0.353). Organizational culture training has a significantly negative correlation with the impact of departure tendencies, and thus the assumption H1: The intensity of corporate cultural training is correlated with the willingness of employees to leave has been validated (Table 4).

Table 4: Impact of corporate culture training on willingness to leave.

This study employs Age, Gender, Academic Qualification, Unit Nature, Working Age, and City Level as control variables, and Organizational Identification as the independent variable, to conduct a hierarchical linear regression analysis. The control variables significantly predict departure tendencies (P=0.000). After incorporating Organizational Identification, the beta coefficient is -0.546 (P=0.000), with an overall explanatory rate of 29.1%. The model demonstrates strong explanatory power (F=13.502, P=0.000, R²=0.372). Organizational Identification is negatively correlated with departure tendencies, leading to the conclusion that H2 is supported: Organizational Identification mediates the negative relationship between organizational culture training and departure tendencies (Table 5).

Table 5: Impact of organizational identity on willingness to leave.

The control variable is first incorporated into the regression equation, and then the self-variable is incorporated. Table 6 shows that the control variable has a significant predictive effect on the organization's commitment, P=0,000; step two, when corporate culture training enters the regression equation, the return factor is significant (β=0.804, P=0.000), △R²=0.642, the overall interpretation rate of the outcome increases by 64.2%, indicating that the impact of the elimination of control variables, organizational cultural training has a marked predictable effect on organizational identity. The regression equation results show that the model better explains the impact of sample data on tissue identification (F=46.195, P=0.000, R²=0.670). Corporate culture training is significantly relevant to the impact of organizational identity, and thus the assumption H2: Organizational identity acts as a mediator in corporate cultural training and the influence of employees' willingness to leave work has been validated (Table 6).

Table 6: Impact of corporate culture training on organizational identity.

6. Conclusion

This paper examines how corporate culture training affects employee departure tendencies and finds that training opportunities and organizational recognition can reduce job turnover by fostering cohesion and teamwork. This environment helps employees align with the company's cultural values, enhancing their sense of belonging and loyalty, which is crucial for long-term service. To retain employees, companies should cultivate a robust organizational culture with clear, long-term goals. Foster shared values, communication, and cooperation among employees to boost cohesion and motivation. Invest in employee training, encourage participation in management, and enhance personal capacity and enthusiasm. Monitor internal and external changes, view external signals as innovation opportunities, and improve adaptability to external environments.

However, the study has limitations due to a small, concentrated sample (191 respondents) primarily from younger, undergraduate-level grassroots employees in third-tier cities. This limits the generalizability and authenticity of the findings. Further research should explore different training methods and their impact on employee retention, as well as other factors influencing departure rates, such as market competitiveness.