I’ve been studying turnover and retention recently and it led me to wonder about the real reasons for turnover. Everybody understands that some turnover is functional (or beneficial to the organisation) and some turnover is dysfunctional (bad for the organisation). And we all understand that some turnover is necessary, otherwise organisations would stagnate.
So, the fundamental reason that employees leave organisations is that they are not satisfied. Their dissatisfaction could occur on many levels. Much published research on turnover indicates that money is often NOT the most important reason. Employees leave for other reasons such as career growth and development, or a change in life circumstances, or factors like that.
It’s handy to think of the reasons for dissatisfaction in terms of push factors (things that make employees more dissatisfied) and pull factors (things that make employees more satisfied). Here’s a diagram.
The factors that are going to make some MORE dissatisfied are things like:
- poor pay
- poor compensation
- poor work conditions
- lack of promotions
- poor benefits offering
- lack of job security
Curiously enough, if you were to fix all these factors, you’d still not get a satisfied employee. If you fixed everything above, you’d have an employee sitting somewhere in the middle of the satisfaction scale, so they would be neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.
The factors that make an employee MORE satisfied are things like:
- good leadership in the organisation
- good relationship with their manager
- recognition for their achievements (not necessarily monetary recognition)
- advancement in their careers
- personal growth and development
- feedback and support (meaningful feedback, not just naked criticism)
- clear direction and objectives
So there is a lot that can be done on the positive side to increase satisfaction. Naturally, there are of course many opportunities on this side of the house where a good talent management solution can helps things along.
