Turnover is costly, and when something costs too much, making it cost less requires that you know more about it. Understanding why employees leave is critical to knowing how to keep them. So why do they leave?
According to Gallup, that’s a question you should be gathering data on when they do. Exit surveys can be a great tool for cutting turnover costs. Here’s what to find out:
- What was the employee’s overall experience in their role
- What do they feel is the company culture
- Why did they take the job initially, and what prompted the desire to leave
- What are their professional goals
- What new opportunities are available to them
Since Gallup is an expert on asking questions, we’ll defer to them for how you should find those things out. Getting an Exit Interview Right.
People are quitting their jobs in droves each month – over 3 million per month, in fact – and the numbers are rising. Don’t have the data yet to know the best ways to stay out of those stats? To keep turnover costs down and productivity up, you might want to look to external data for quicker answers.
SHRM: Why are Workers Quitting Their Jobs in Record Numbers?
Harvard Business Review: Why People Really Quit Their Jobs
CNBC: A third of US workers seriously considered quitting their job in the last 3 months. Here’s why.
Some say pay is number 1, others say its advancement opportunities or a bad boss. The bottom line is to keep employees happy every way you can – salary, benefits, culture, balance, opportunity, and relationships. The benefit of happy employees can be measured – it’s the cost of unhappy employees who leave, which is estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 times an employee’s annual salary!