“Why You Left” Survey Results May Surprise You
In a survey I conducted on this website respondents were presented with a list of 39 possible reasons for leaving and asked to select up to five that entered into their decision to leave their employer. (Exact wording: From the list below, please check up to, but no more than, five factors that first caused you to start thinking seriously about leaving your organization.) The question was worded this way in order to surface the root cause of the turnover, not necessarily the same reason the employee might give during an on-site exit interview. Of the 39 reasons, 29 are "Push" factors related to an issue within the workplace and 11 are "Pull" factors indicating an external motivation. Here then, in order, are the reasons with the percentages of respondents who selected them:
Reported Reasons for Leaving:
| 1. Lack of trust in senior leaders (10.6%) | Push |
| 2. Insufficient pay (5.7%) | Push |
| 3. Unhealthy/undesirable culture (5.5%) | Push |
| 4. Lack of concern for development (5.1%) | Push |
| 5. Lack of honesty/integrity/ethics (4.9%) | Push |
| 6. Unfair treatment (4.8%) | Push |
| 7. Lack of open communication (4.6%) | Push |
| 8. Lack of encouragement of input or ideas (4.6%) | Push |
| 9. Lack of teamwork among co-workers (4.5%) | Push |
| 10. Excessive workload (4.4%) | Push |
| 11. Lack of opportunity for training and development (3.9%) | Push |
| 12. Lack of recognition (3.9%) | Push |
| 13. Lack of clear expectations (3.8%) | Push |
| 14. Uncertainty about future of company (3.8%) | Push |
| 15. Uninteresting or unchallenging work (3.6%) | Push |
| 16. Not having needed resources (3.2%) | Push |
| 17. Pay not based on performance (2.6%) | Push |
| 18. Lack of encouragement of input or ideas (2.3%) | Push |
| 19. Unfair pay practices (2.1%) | Push |
| 20. Uncertainty about job security (2.0%) | Push |
| 21. Lack of work-life balance (1.9%) | Push |
| 22. Negative relationship with coworker (1.7%) | Push |
| 23. Decision to change careers (1.7%) | Pull |
| 24. Unexpected job/career opportunity (1.6%) | Pull |
| 25. Lack of focus on quality (1.5%) | Push |
| 26. Lack of feedback (1.5%) | Push |
| 27. Inflexible work arrangements (1.3%) | Push |
| 28. Lack of focus on productivity (1.2%) | Push |
| 29. Unsatisfactory benefits (1.0%) | Push |
| 30. Spend more time with family (.09%) | Push |
| 31. Excessive travel demands (.08%) | Push |
| 32 . Desire to relocate (.07%) | Pull |
| 33. Start a business (.05%) | Pull |
| 34. Desire to return to school (.05%) | Pull |
| 35. Start a family (.04%) | Pull |
| 36. Family emergency/illness (.04%) | Pull |
| 37. Spouse/partner relocation (.03%) | Pull |
| 38. Retirement (.03%) | Pull |
| 39. Inheritance/monetary windfall (.005%) | Pull |
Analysis:
Most Turnover is Avoidable.
The vast majority of respondents--94%-- reported leaving more for push reasons than for pull reasons--only 6%. These percentages are almost exactly the same as those reported in my analysis of post-exit data from the Saratoga Institute in The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave (AMACOM, 2nd edition, 2012). These more recent findings add still more evidence that most turnover is at least potentially preventable if there is a commitment to re-engage and keep the individual. Of course, we may not care to avoid some turnover, though it may be avoidable.
Toward the end of the survey, we asked respondents to choose the one of the following that best describes their motivation to leave their employer. Here were the results
{{INSERT RESULTS}}
Toward the end of the survey, we asked respondents to choose the one of the following that best describes their motivation to leave their employer. Here were the results:
A. Motivated more by my dissatisfaction or desire to leave than by the attraction or availability of an outside opportunity.
(Selected by 55%)
B. Motivated more by the attraction or availability of an outside opportunity than by my dissatisfaction or desire to leave.
(Selected by 12%)
C. Equally motivated by my dissatisfaction or desire to leave and the attraction or availability of an outside opportunity.
(Selected by 33%)
The finding that people are more than four times more likely to leave a job based on an internal issue than an outside opportunity would still come as a surprise to significant numbers of managers.
Trust in Senior Leaders Was the #1 Reason...But Why? The most-cited reason for leaving was "lack of trust in senior leaders". This may surprise some and certainly runs counter to the conventional wisdom that employees leave managers--usually interpreted as one's immediate boss. However, this finding confirms the conclusion Mark Hirschfeld and I presented in our analysis of 2.1 million engagement surveys from 10,000 employers, as described in our book, Re-Engage (McGraw-Hill, 2010)--that caring, competent, and trustworthy senior leadership is the number one driver of employee engagement.I believe this may be related to the fall from grace of CEOs found guilty of malfeasance, reports of disproportionate CEO compensation, and the greed of Wall Street senior executives before and after the financial collapse of 2008. Sadly, many employees now consider CEOs guilty until proven innocent instead of innocent until proven guilty. This generalized distrust may be having a dual and counterintuitive effect--increasing employee cynicism while at the same time raising expectations of CEO behavior at our own employers.
Pay is A Significant Push Factor for Some. Insufficient pay was the second most-cited reason for leaving and continues to be a "dissatisfier" that causes some employees to move on. As you may have noticed, three of the 39 reasons are pay-related. When we add reasons #17 (Pay not based on performance) and #19 (Unfair pay practices), the percentage that selected pay-related reasons becomes 10.4%, still second to senior leadership, but a significant root cause for many.Note that reasons #17 and #19 have more to do with dissatisfaction with the way pay is determined, not the amount of pay per se--an important distinction. Keep in mind also that respondents were asked to cite up to five reasons for leaving, so that pay may not be the number one reason, but one among a handful of others.
Leaders and Managers Can Prevent the Push Factors. Reason #3--Unhealthy/undesirable culture--is mostly influenced by the values, mindsets, and standards of senior leaders, but also by managers who must be counted on to uphold the cultural values and people practices. Most of the remaining push factors in the list can be influenced and prevented by the actions of both senior leaders, managers, and supervisors. "Lack of work/life balance", for example, is influenced by staffing/budget decisions and work/life policies made at the most senior levels, but also by the daily decisions of direct managers about granting time off to care for sick children and family emergencies, etc.
The Push factors still fall easily into the seven major categories as initially described in The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave:
1. Not Feeling Valued
2. Lack of Career Growth or Opportunity
3. Lack of Trust and Confidence in Senior Leaders
4. Low Job Interest/Challenge
5. Stress, Burnout, and Work-Life Imbalance
6. Poor or Insufficient Manager Coaching and Feedback
7. Unrealistic Short-term Expectations
Conclusion:
Most of the reasons employees disengage and leave are avoidable, given the desire to retain, and the willingness to invest the time to take preventive or corrective actions. This is good news, since most don't require significant monetary investment. Time is money, yes; but the cost of disengagement and turnover is greater.
The Turning Point: Events that Triggered the Decision to Leave
In his distinguished lifetime of research on employee turnover, University of Washington professor, Dr. Thomas Lee has reported that there is a precipitating event or turning point in 66% of all employee turnover. I was curious to confirm this finding, so I included this question in our web survey:
Q: Was there a turning point in your final decision to leave your employer?
The results so far confirm Dr. Lee's research:
Yes: 64% No: 36%
The triggering events cited fall into two major categories--push factors (such as abusive boss) and pull factors (such as an outside job offer), with the push factors outnumbering the pull factors almost four to one. Here's a sampling of the comments describing "the last straw", starting with those about respondents' immediate managers:
Being told that my best skills (organization and time management) were the ones I needed to work on.
When my boss unfairly required me to arrange doctor's appointments on evenings and weekends.
Promotion denied; found out that boss did not even show up to meeting to discuss it.
My employer didn't want to "offend" two inefficient coworkers, tried to be a buddy to everyone.
I couldn't go get my son from daycare when he was sick without getting reprimanded
Got negative reaction when I took time off to care for a terminally sick family member.
Was denied a benefit which was given to another employee in the same position.
The coworker the boss was sleeping with got promoted over me.
Public recognition for someone who was not a team player/did not carry her weight.
Many comments refer to actions taken by more senior leaders:
Seeing an unethical manager be promoted.
Company owner swearing at a customer in an open internet forum.
The arbitrary termination of half of the employees within one week.
Significant staff turnover without a change in governance from the Board.
Management treating professional staff like imbeciles, top-down communication only.
They began to push the founder out, then fired her friends, it was not a good place to be.
Was berated by an SVP who made me feel incompetent for making a small mistake.
I saw the owner taking money from the till, and I quit the next morning.
When my employer groped me to see if I was wearing underwear.
Workload was excessive and the senior HR mgt were not listening to the concerns.
Fell back on promise to pay me back for my Real Estate Course which they asked me to take.
They moved me for my "protection" instead of removing the bullying manager and her minions.
Among the triggering event comments, there were slightly more comments about higher-ups than about the direct manager, providing a bit more evidence to our finding in our book, Re-Engage (co-authored with Mark Hirschfeld and based on our analysis of 2.1 million employee engagement surveys) that senior leadership plays slightly more heavily than direct manager in the employee engagement equation.
Other turning points mentioned in the survey were less specific as to the root cause, but no less emotional:
I couldn't sleep at night thinking of having to go back in.
I realized my job was literally making me sick!
Realization that co-workers were not the people I wanted to be with professionally.
Had a heart attack at work.
Pull-factor triggers/turning points were diverse:
My Dream Job opened up at my professional society.
New opportunity to work in a creative environment.
Was accepted to grad school.
We had our first child and decided we wanted to be closer to our parents and siblings.
Received a $7,000 annual increase in pay with guaranteed work-from-home opportunity.
Mental health issues
The end of a 3-year $400 million project
Paying my tuition
Sometimes the push and pull turning points coincided:
Opportunity to spend more time with family as the company was quickly failing.
Resolve that nothing would change and I needed to leave. Exciting new opportunity presented.
The bottom line for leaders and managers:
Keeping employees engaged is just as much about avoiding the triggers of disengagement as it is about doing the proactive things that spark engagement. We cannot prevent all turnover, nor do we want to, but being alert to the kinds of events that precipitate thoughts of leaving and other behavioral warning signs, we may be able to re-engage before it's too late.