Understanding Why Employees Are Leaving Your Company

It’s not always immediately clear why employees choose to leave, but identifying the root causes is essential for improving retention. What’s a good process to uncover these reasons?

Start by examining when employees are leaving. For example, if you notice a trend of employees leaving after organizational changes, such as restructures or new leadership, it could signal that these changes are not being communicated effectively. Another example would be, if employees are leaving during their probationary periods, this might point to issues such as misleading job descriptions or ineffective onboarding processes.

Next, consider who is leaving. If top talent is exiting the company, it may indicate a lack of career development opportunities, leading them to seek growth elsewhere. If several employees from the same department are leaving, there could be specific issues within that team or department that need addressing.

To gain deeper insights, conduct exit interviews with departing employees and supplement this with regular stay interviews with current staff. Stay interviews allow you to ask employees how long they plan to remain with the company and, if they are considering leaving, what factors are driving that decision. By using both methods, you can gather valuable feedback on the reasons behind employee departures and take action to address them before turnover becomes a larger issue.

We help set up feedback systems which are more likely to get honest answers, especially as we’re an impartial third party, so contact us if we can help.