15 reasons why people leave jobs

Staff turnover is an indicator that something is not right. Understanding why people leave a job is important. It can provide you with some profound information that will help you with your staff retention, talent and recruitment strategies, employee engagement strategies, and improving your employer brand.

Retaining your employees is critical to the success of your business. When you lose staff not only are performance and results impacted, the culture is also affected. Understanding the reasons why people leave jobs will help you assess your own business and identify gaps to immediately improve.

There are 15 main reasons why people leave their jobs.

1. Vision and purpose

The vision of the company is not communicated or believed in giving a feeling that there was no purpose or direction.

2. Leadership

The quality of the leadership in the capabilities, actions, and behaviours they demonstrate.

3. Values

Behaviours of leadership and employees are not in line with the values of the company.

4. Lack of opportunities

Lack of career opportunities or well-defined career path.

5. Investment in learning

Minimal investment in professional development or creating opportunities to learn.

6. Financial benefits

Salary package and benefits not competitive enough in the market.

7. Flexibility in the work environment

Inflexible working environment, not catering for lifestyles, mental health, well-being, and multi-generational workforce.

8. Digital innovation

Slow investment in technology and systems to improve efficiencies and productivity.

9. Morale

Staff morale being low, and no action taken to improve morale or engagement.

10. Culture

Little or no investment in the company culture creating subcultures and a toxic environment.

11. Recognition

Lack of recognition when you do well and little opportunity to celebrate success

12. Mentoring

Lack of coaching and mentoring from direct manager or other leaders within the business creating a lack of personalised development.

13. Activity verses Outcomes

Performance and recognition are driven by activity and unrealistic metrics, not outcomes and results.

14. Social engagement

Lack of social interaction with minimal social events to have fun and get to know people.

15. Toxicity

Not acting on toxic employees or negative behaviour that changes the culture and environment.

Even though some of the feedback can be negative or hard to hear, it is an opportunity to have feedback on how your company is perceived by your employees and others. It is an opportunity to learn and to improve how your organisation is perceived.

For further insights, applicable to your industry, Hunton Executive is available to help.

For comprehensive instructions on how to attract, recruit, and retain talent yourself sign up to our Employer Guide online course.

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