Understanding Employee Turnover

Employees don’t just leave for money. Understand your employees. They leave because they feel unheard, undervalued, and unsupported. Because their reasons for leaving matter. Many companies focus only on hiring replacements,  instead of fixing the root cause. 🚨 Ignoring the reasons behind turnover creates: ⚠️ A toxic cycle of dissatisfaction ⚠️ A disengaged workforce ⚠️ Higher hiring and training costs But this approach leads to more problems. It creates a cycle of dissatisfaction. Every organization has a chance to do better. Instead of reacting when employees quit, proactively address retention: ✅ Spot early signs of disengagement (e.g., missed deadlines, lack of participation). ✅ Conduct stay interviews, not just exit interviews. ✅ Provide clear career growth paths and meaningful work. ✅ Equip managers with leadership training to support their teams. ✅ Foster a culture of recognition and flexibility. Be proactive, not reactive.  Understand what employees need. Focusing on these areas builds loyalty. Loyal employees stay longer and work harder. Companies that care about their teams attract top talent. They also save money on hiring costs. A healthy workplace culture is key to success. Engaged employees drive better results. Commit to continuous improvement. This is how organizations thrive in a competitive world. Invest in your employees. It pays off in the long run. If you’re a leader, ask yourself:  What am I doing today to keep my best people tomorrow? ❓ How does your company approach retention?  💬 Let’s discuss in the comments. ♻️ Repost to promote retention. 👋 I write posts like this every day at 9:30am EST. Follow me (Dr. Chris Mullen) so you don't miss the next one.

Sound of talent walking out the door... without a plan B. Ever noticed a trend? Employees packing up and leaving without another job lined up? That's not just a career change; it's a flashing red flag. People don't Quit Jobs they quit Negativity! 1} Burnout ➥Your top performers are exhausted, visibly drained, and suddenly resign. ~Check workload distribution, encourage time off. ~Create a culture where saying "I need a break" isn't a bad thing. 2} Culture ➥Employees start feeling disconnected or not fitting in as their reason for leaving. ~Regularly gather feedback on company culture. ~Culture is a complex process in itself. 3} Growth Gap ➥Ambitious team members leave, mentioning a lack of opportunities to learn and advance. ~Invest in training, mentorship programs, and clear career paths. ~Show them there's room to grow within your company. 4} Micromanagement ➥Skilled individuals leave, complaining about feeling stifled and unable to make decisions. ~Trust your team. ~Delegate effectively, empower them to own their work, and celebrate their wins. 5} No Feedback ➥Employees resign, revealing long-standing frustrations they never felt comfortable sharing. ~Implement regular, two-way feedback sessions. ~Create a safe space for open communication. 6} Unfairness ➥High performers leave, by seeing favoritism or unequal treatment. ~Ensure transparency in promotions, pay, and recognition. ~Address any instances of bias promptly and fairly. 7} Value Disconnect ➥Employees leave, expressing a sense that their contributions aren't valued or appreciated. ~Publicly acknowledge achievements, offer genuine praise. ~Show them how their work impacts the bigger picture. 8} Stress & Mental Health Issues ➥Multiple employees leave, mentioning high-pressure environments and a lack of work-life balance. ~Promote flexible work arrangements, encourage healthy boundaries. ~Prioritize employee well-being. 9} Leadership Lapse ➥Employees leave, citing a lack of confidence in leadership or a feeling of being unsupported. ~Invest in leadership development, open communication between leaders and teams ~Ensure leaders are approachable and supportive. When talented people walk away without a safety net, it's a sign they're running from something, not just to something else. A solid Human Resource is the base of strong businesses! Follow Pranav Gupta For More ✅️

Why Are Employees Resigning Without Another Offer in Hand? A few years ago, employees were cautious—they wouldn’t resign without securing another job offer. But today, I see a shift. More professionals are leaving without a backup plan. Why is this happening? 1️⃣ Workplace Expectations Have Changed – Employees are prioritizing work-life balance, mental well-being, and job satisfaction over job security. 2️⃣ Confidence in the Job Market – Many believe they can find new opportunities quickly, thanks to freelancing, remote work, and skill-based hiring. 3️⃣ Generational Shift – Gen Z and Millennials focus on growth and flexibility rather than long-term stability in a single company. 4️⃣ Post-Pandemic Mindset – The pandemic changed perspectives; people now seek fulfillment, even if it means taking a career break. 5️⃣ Toxic Work Environments – If employees feel undervalued or unheard, they’d rather leave than stay unhappy. From an HR perspective, this is a wake-up call. Companies must focus on employee engagement, career growth, and a positive work culture to improve retention. Have you noticed this shift? What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss in the comments. #HRInsights #WorkplaceTrends #EmployeeRetention #GreatResignation #HRPerspective #JobMarket #WorkCulture #EmployeeEngagement #FutureOfWork #CareerGrowth #GenZWorkCulture #HiringTrends #MentalWellbeingAtWork #WorkLifeBalance #HRStrategies

If you're applying to jobs that you're "overqualified" for, questions recruiters may ask themselves: "Why would someone want to take a step back into this role?" "Are they stepping back because they were a low performer?" "Are they just trying to get a foot in the door?" "Will they leave as soon as they get something better?" "Given their experience, do their current skills actually align to this role?" If you're applying to jobs that require relocation, questions recruiters may ask themselves: "Are they aware of the location requirement?" "Do they expect us to cover the cost of relocation?" "Are they planning to relocate anyway?" "Will they choose us over an offer in their current location?" "Are they a greater attrition risk if they end up not liking this location?" If you're applying to jobs after a 2+ year period of unemployment, questions recruiters may ask themselves: "Are there skills current?" "Why haven't they been able to find job?" "Are they going to be a greater attrition risk if they realize they no longer enjoy full-time work?" "Can they still navigate the complexities of the workplace with so much time away?" If you're applying with a resume with lots of sub-2 year stints, questions recruiters may ask themselves: "Were these moves a result of low performance?" "Is this person able to commit and grow with a workplace?" "Does this person jump ship the moment they hit a challenge or roadblock?" If you're applying for jobs you're "underqualified" for, questions recruiters may ask themselves: "Have they had enough exposure to the stakeholders and types of challenges they'd take on in this role?" "Does their career trajectory show me they have the potential to quickly ramp up?" If you're applying for jobs after being stagnant at one level or company for many years, questions recruiters may ask themselves: "Is the lack of growth a signal that this person lacks drive or performance?" "Does this person have the skills to quickly learn a new role or workplace?" Now this is important: none of the things above are automatically disqualifying. But these are the questions a recruiter may be asking themselves when considering you for a role. If you're aware of this, you can then tailor your resume and leverage a summary, cover letter, or application questions to proactively address questions they may have and strengthen your candidacy.

Fewer people are leaving companies, but more people who do (voluntarily or involuntarily) aren't finding a new role within the same calendar year. As ongoing jobless claims continue to rise, I analyzed the data on 16M+ white-collar professionals who left a company from 2019 through 2024. Here's how the data breakdown by year 📆 2019: "The Last Normal Year" What even is normal anymore? 2019 was still far from "normal" as we remained in the thick of ZIRP-era hiring and an employee-favorable job market. High departure volume was coupled with high rates of people finding their next role quickly. Then... the chaos started. 2020: "The Pandemic" The pandemic kicked off the last 5 years of job market chaos. Many people lost their jobs in the early days of the pandemic, only to have the job market tilt in favor of employees and remote work situations by the second half of the year. 2021: "The Great Resignation" The headlines in 2021 told stories of people quitting jobs on their first day, working multiple remote jobs at once, or job-hopping with >10% pay bumps multiple times a year. Everyone was changing jobs... mostly voluntarily and mostly with another job already lined up. 2022: "The Calm Before the Storm" Overall departure volume was the lowest, largely driven by the tail end of the ZIRP-era hiring binge early in the year and a lull in activity before the earliest rounds of mass layoffs started in Q4. 2023: "The Great Termination" As mass layoffs rattled the white-collar employment landscape, the share of people who left a company and didn't find a new role within the year climbed. Layoffs were the primary driver behind departure volume and hiring freezes left more impacted employees out in the cold. 2024: "The Great Stay" More people stayed at their current company, with many clutching to their existing roles, driving the total volume of departures down. But, the other side of the "stay" is that people stayed unemployed for longer with almost half of the people who left a company in 2024 not finding a role before the year's end. Will 2025 be better or worse for white-collar job seekers? A glimpse of hope comes from the data on recruiter hiring from late 2024 (previous post linked in comments). Recruiter hiring is generally a leading indicator for overall hiring. After all, you need to hire the people who will do the hiring first. #jobs #employment #hiring

Employees with 3 or more different managers in a year are up to 75% more likely to leave your company Yesterday, we saw that only ~50% of employees in Pave’s dataset have kept the same manager for a full year. Today, let’s go one step deeper and look at the impact of “manager thrash” on employee attrition. _____________ As a quick caveat, the reported turnover rates include both voluntary and involuntary (as well as regrettable and non-regrettable) attrition. And yes, this includes layoffs too. _____________ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝘃𝗲’𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘁? • 𝗢𝗻𝗲 consistent manager over the past 12 months => Attrition rates between 𝟭𝟲% 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟮𝟬% depending on company stage. • 𝗧𝘄𝗼 managers over the past 12 months => Attrition rates between 𝟮𝟭% 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟮𝟳%. • 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 managers over the past 12 months => Attrition rates between 𝟮𝟱% 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟯𝟰%. _____________ 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝘁: 1️⃣ In general, the more managers an employee has, the more likely they are to leave the company. 2️⃣ Attrition rates are usually highest at early stage startups and gradually decrease as companies mature. ________________ 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗥 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀: ✅ Re-orgs, performance management, and layoffs are somewhat inevitable in the world of company building. However, be cognizant of the tangible impact that “manager thrash” has on employee attrition. In particular, I encourage you to run a cohort analysis around how much manager thrash your top performers have undergone over the past 12 months as a way to proactively predict attrition risk org-by-org. I’d also call out that it’s important to consider whether or not attrition spikes caused by “manager thrash” are due to causation or correlation with other forces. Think critically here. Is it the disruption, inconsistent expectations, or something else? #pave #orgchart #benchmarks

I still get messages EVERY DAY from women who have been forced out of their jobs because they had children. Women who were brilliant at their jobs, promoted constantly, told they were capable of taking over but then dared to go on maternity leave and return to work and ask for some flexibility. So they're let go. Or they're told they can't be accommodated. Or they're made redundant in a re-structure for one. Or in some cases, their lives are made so miserable that they have no other choice but to quit. It makes me sick to my stomach that we keep letting this happen. Business leaders are watching their best people walk out the door and do nothing about it. Do you know how many incredible women out there want to work but can't because of the idiocy of so many employers? Do you know how many women are doing crappy admin jobs when they are more capable than most of the existing leaders? My careers after babies report earlier this year found that there's a 32% drop off in women in management positions and a 44% increase in women in admin roles after having children. It's ludicrous. Yes mothers need flexibility (85% can't make full time work alongside having a family. Yes women have a huge confidence dip when they return to work. Yes they have other priorities. But people, please! They're still them. They're still skilled. They're still brilliant. They just need a little time, a little empathy and a little support. If you can't give them that you never deserved them in the first place. If you can, and you are, then we need to talk.

Women are not losing ambition; they are losing patience with environments that punish it. The real story is not an ambition gap, but a support, fairness, and respect gap. One of the earliest pieces of career advice I received was: “To progress, you need to have ambition.” Over 24 years in the corporate world, that's been a double edged sword - I have been praised for being driven and, in the same breath, criticised for being “too ambitious.” I have also sat in talent reviews where women were quietly written off as “not ambitious enough". In 2022, during a leadership review, a male colleague even said out loud: “Women don’t progress because they don’t have ambition .” 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 The latest Lean In and McKinsey Women in the Workplace report highlights a growing ambition gap: fewer women than men say they want to be promoted. Yet the same data make something else crystal clear: women and men are equally committed to their careers, and when women receive the same sponsorship, support, and stretch opportunities as men, the ambition gap largely disappears. So the issue is not that women suddenly woke up less driven; it is that many are looking at the “next level” and seeing more burnout, less support, and fewer real chances to succeed. In that context, stepping back from the race is not a lack of ambition - it is a rational response to a system that feels rigged. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝟮𝟬+ 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 For roughly the first 15–20 years, many women respond to blocked opportunities with even more effort and ambition: working harder & overdelivering. When doors are repeatedly closed with vague feedback like “lack of executive presence,” or “too emotional,” frustration accumulates. After decades of having to prove yourself again and again, it is not ambition that runs out; it is the willingness to keep playing a game where the rules feel opaque and uneven. That is one of the reasons so many experienced women leave corporate roles or step off the traditional ladder mid-career. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 The complete career advice is: protect your ambition by choosing workplaces where: Support systems, fair processes, and allyship actively enable women’s progression. Sponsorship, not just mentorship, is in place so that women are advocated for, not just advised. Policies, leadership behaviour, and culture reduce burnout. Because ambition without support does not magically create opportunity; it only creates exhaustion, cynicism, and burnout. What would your organisation need to change so that they would choose to stay and grow? #careeradvice ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have learned a lot during my 2 decades in the corporate world, mostly the hard way. Every Sunday, I share some of my learnings and what has helped me climb the corporate ladder while staying true to my values

Is the Great Resignation going to return with a vengeance globally? If employees act on their ‘very/extremely likely’ intentions, it will. Why? One key catalyst: Employees want upskilling to stay competitive. They recognize the evolving tech-driven, skills-focused job market. ~50%+ of adopters expect GenAI to lead to higher salaries. Employees likely to switch employer are TWICE as likely to “strongly consider opportunities to learn new skills” in their decisions. But ONLY 46% of workers find their employer provides enough upskilling to support career progression.   At the same time, key factors employees find 'very important' or 'extremely important' relating to engagement and performance: - Fair pay - 82% - Fulfilling work - 74% - Flexibility - 65% Is your company poised for a(nother?) Great Resignation? Is talent getting upskilled for their careers and business growth? How was the last feedback about employees' experiences? We all need to up-level for modern work. Change is inevitable and ongoing. It’s easier when everyone engages to co-create the way forward. A human-centric work approach counterbalances tech-infused business operations. Consider steps that facilitate a meaningful mindset shift: - Listen to employees’ requirements and concerns. - Invest in training and upskilling to support competitive needs. - Nurture trusting relationships to create belonging and community. - Foster a learning culture to stimulate ongoing growth. - Connect people with the purpose of their work. - Enable teams to agree optimal work configurations. What will ensure your company competes effectively through year end? A strong emphasis on empathy-centered leadership and skills acquisition will get you a long way. What do you think? Data from 56,000 workers across 50 countries reported in PwC's Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2024 #retention #greatresignation #turnover #employeeexperience #employeeengagement #engagement #flexibility #upskilling #skillsinventory #skillsneeds #reskilling

Saw a stat saying women of colour are leaving their jobs at the highest rate in over a decade and, while I had my suspicions, I decided to find out why. Here’s what I found 👇 According to the 2024 McKinsey & LeanIn Women in the Workplace report:  📊 1 in 3 women of colour have considered leaving their job in the past year – not for better pay, but for better treatment.  📊 40% say their judgment is questioned in their area of expertise.  📊 More than half say they’ve been mistaken for someone more junior.  📊 And only 1 in 4 say their manager actively supports their career growth. Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review (2023) reports that women of colour face greater barriers to advancement and receive less recognition for their contributions, often being described as “invisible” in leadership discussions. These aren’t small numbers. They show how bias and exclusion play out daily – in performance reviews, promotions, and who managers choose to invest in. And while it’s easy to talk about “the pipeline” or “culture fit,” the reality is this: when workplaces don’t evolve, people eventually leave. To the WOC in my network: what’s your experience? Have you left a job, or thought about leaving, for any of these reasons? Did your situation improve?