Human Resources
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7
min read
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When people leave your organisation, it’s important to find out why, as this can be a valuable way to reduce future attrition.
Taking the time to ask your people why they are leaving and what feedback they can offer your organisation can go a long way to improving organisational culture and performance.
In addition, how you ask for feedback can positively impact your organisation's future retention rates.
A positive offboarding experience can influence how an employee speaks about your business and increases the likelihood of that employee returning to your company in the future.
Xref Engage offers Offboarding Surveys that dive into the reasons an employee leaves their organisation. Xref Engage Offboarding surveys allow organisations to act on individual feedback and understand team and demographic attrition trends.
Reviewing the data from completed Offboarding Surveys from 2021-2024, Xref Engage has compiled the top five reasons employees choose to leave their workplace.
This blog explores those five reasons and uncovers some tips to create a strong offboarding program so your organisation can uncover insightful feedback from departing employees.
While there are many reasons why an employee may choose to resign from their current work role and leave an organisation, the following five reasons are the leading results from Xref Engage Offboarding Surveys conducted with thousands of employees over a four-year period.
Here are the reasons and some tips to reduce future attrition if your organisation continually faces these reasons for leaving.
Looking for increased or different career opportunities was the single largest reason for employees departing their organisation. About half of the surveyed respondents wanted more opportunities.
If your people are reporting that their reason for leaving is due to another career opportunity, it could be helpful to understand what career opportunities your people are leaving for.
For example, if a departing employee was leaving for a more senior position, it may be possible to explore an internal promotion program.
Or if another reason for wanting another career opportunity was the desire to learn more, your organisation could explore a Learning and Development budget or the opportunity for cross-skilling.
By asking the right questions, Xref Engage’s Offboarding Survey allows organisations to understand if employees want growth and promotion opportunities or guidance and support to develop into their current role.
Personal reasons were the second largest reason for leaving uncovered by the Xref Engage Offboarding Surveys in the last four years. Some examples of personal reasons included health, caring commitments, study, relocating, travel or career break.
It can be challenging for an organisation to combat personal reasons when a person leaves your organisation. Some things are simply unavoidable and outside your control.
However, workplace benefits such as flexible working arrangements or allowing for leave of absence could be valuable in helping to retain your talent for long-term tenure.
Insights gathered from a strong offboarding program can soon uncover if your departing employees would have benefited from more flexible work arrangements.
While many workplace leaders believe pay is the leading reason for employee attrition, this is often not the case.
Xref Engage data has uncovered that pay is the third most common reason for an employee’s departure.
To reduce your people leaving for a similar role with more pay and/or better benefits, it can be valuable to first; know the market rate for the roles your employees perform and second; request honest feedback about benefits employees seek.
With employee feedback about what benefits would be valuable and subsequently implementing some of those requested benefits, within reason, you may find employee turnover is reduced.
It is important to recognise that employees weigh up remuneration against the effort involved in their everyday tasks and the experience required at work. Pay can feel insufficient if the workload or workplace is very demanding.
It is often more feasible to balance this equation by making workplace changes, rather than paying employees more and your people continuing to tolerate a poor work experience. An employee engagement survey is a great way to uncover valuable insights about your organisation's culture and employee wellbeing.
Gathering regular feedback goes a long way to increasing employee engagement, which in turn, improves company culture and employee retention, reducing attrition.
According to Xref Engage data, unreasonable workloads and reduced work/life balance are key reasons for employees wanting to leave their current organisation.
In fact, ‘unreasonable job demands’ is the first psychosocial risk recognised by Comcare in Australia.
If your people report workload as their reason for leaving, it is essential to dig deeper. Are the work demands too high? Or are they too low?
Workers who experience high job demands may feel overwhelmed or unable to cope. Those experiencing low job demands may feel bored, disengaged or underutilised.
Workers reporting low work demands may be looking for increased task variety or more senior career opportunities.
Managers can mitigate the risks of high job demands by guiding employees on what tasks are top priorities and providing reasonable deadlines.
If an Offboarding Survey reveals that work demands are a common reason for leaving, it may be worth exploring hiring more resources or finding additional tasks for your people to complete.
Alternatively, finding more stimulating tasks may be a way to ensure workload is not a reason for employee departure. Have an open and honest conversation with your people about their opinions regarding their workload and what interests them.
Finally, the last reason on our list for employee departure is lack of recognition for work and appreciation for tasks well done.
Humans want to feel valued, recognised and appreciated. Appropriate recognition at work can motivate your people.
When employees are recognised for their efforts, they understand what success looks like in your organisation and are often more inclined to continue working hard.
Recognition is a powerful retention strategy, and your employees may leave if they do not feel adequately recognised or appreciated for their work.
Employee recognition also reduces turnover and absenteeism in the workplace and is often more cost-effective and flexible than remuneration.
If you find that ‘lack of recognition’ is a reason for your employees leaving your organisation, setting up an employee recognition program can help.
There is also value in encouraging managers to recognise and promote the efforts and achievements of their team.
Alternatively, speak to your people about what you can offer to help them feel recognised. Gathering feedback throughout the employee lifecycle and implementing change over time can go a long way to improving organisational metrics.
We have gone through the five most common reasons employees leave their jobs. The next step is to ensure a positive offboarding process for the departing employee.
Facilitating a positive offboarding process involves formalities such as returning company equipment and receiving a final paycheck.
It can also include exit surveys, invitations to join talent pools, alumni networks and farewell events.
How you offboard an employee can influence how they feel about your company.
Maintaining a positive offboarding culture can be valuable for HR teams. Top talent may be more inclined to seek a position at your company based on positive impressions and good feedback from a departed employee.
A strong offboarding process provides timely insights from departing employees, allowing organisations to make change, if and where necessary.
Offboarding surveys also tell all remaining workers you value their feedback and are willing to make organisational change where possible.
Here are some ways to create a positive experience when going through the employee offboarding process.
If an exit survey highlights areas needing improvement, escalate these concerns and look for areas of improvement to enhance subsequent employee retention.
Now we know the top reasons for employee resignations and understand how to offboard an employee effectively, creating a positive experience for your people.
It is preferable to create a culture of regular feedback with your employees to gauge employee happiness and spot problems earlier, with the goal of reducing attrition.
However, there are many reasons why employees leave and it is not always possible to prevent an employee from resigning.
The Xref Engage Offboarding Survey can help you to:
Learning from your departing employees can strengthen retention for long-term organisational success. Request a free demo today.
Uncover data-driven, actionable insights with automated reference, pulse and exit surveys.
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