Attrition & Retention is About Push & Pull

Attrition & Retention. Employee retention is the money-saving flip side of the recruitment coin. In addition to the obvious connection between recruiting and retention, a company with high employee retention also has a better ability to recruit others. In our highly connected world, word gets out about companies that are great places to work, and those companies have more success attracting the top talent they want. Can you say, “GlassDoor?”

That being the case, it’s helpful to understand why people choose to stay with some employers and why they choose to leave others. Enter McKinsey & Company with some new data. They?surveyed?over 13,000 people to understand the factors driving employee attrition and retention. Of those respondents, 7,500 people were employed and planning to stay with their company. Almost 5,000 were employed but were planning to leave. And another 1,100 or so were ‘active quitters.’ The people who had left their most recent previous employer between April 2021 and April 2022.

McKinsey’s findings are a valuable, data-rich source of insight into what it takes to hang onto your best employees and attract others like them.

Survey Says …

On the surface, some results bear out what most employers think of as retention factors. The top overall reason for leaving a job was the lack of career development and advancement. 41% of respondents named that as the main reason they quit their last job. The second most common reason is likely for most employers: 36% of respondents named inadequate total compensation as the reason they left. In some fields in recent years, it seemed as though all it takes to dislodge an otherwise loyal employee is a call from a recruiter with the prospect of a higher offer elsewhere.

However, going a bit deeper into the survey, some results become more surprising.

Digging Deeper into Attrition & Retention

A significant number of employers are focused on creating a flexible workplace. Particularly through and in the wake of the pandemic, companies are offering hybrid or fully remote positions in some cases, and more flexible work schedules in others, to attract and retain talent. Interestingly, only one out of four survey respondents cited a ‘lack of workplace flexibility’ as their primary reason for leaving their last job. This isn’t to suggest that creating a more flexible workplace isn’t worth pursuing; far from it. It means that other factors play a more significant part in the decision to leave.

Intriguing things happen, too, when you look at the overlap between some of the reasons given.

Nearly one-third of respondents said that a ‘lack of meaningful work’ was the main reason they left their last job. However, for some people, that lack of meaning may stem from a lack of development and advancement opportunities. In other words, if you believe that you’ve plateaued and your career isn’t going anywhere, that can feel very much like a lack of meaning.

Similarly, 34% of people named ‘uncaring and uninspiring leaders’ why they left their last job. A significant part of a leader’s job is to foster a sense of purpose and meaning in work. So, some of that 34% might also belong in the group looking for more meaning in their work.

There may be a significant crossover between the 26% who said a lack of flexibility caused them to quit. And the 29% who feel that their employer’s expectations were unsustainable. Likewise, the 26% who felt a lack of support for health and wellbeing might also have been experiencing the effects of unsustainable expectations, unsupportive colleagues, and uncaring leaders in their last jobs.

The Push & Pull of Attrition & Retention

The other thought-provoking breakdown in the survey results is the split between retention factors that make employees want to stay with their company and the attrition factors that make employees think about leaving. The primary reasons mentioned above tend to fall on the side of ‘retention’ factors. While the related factors tend to increase the risk of attrition.

Meaningful work, for example, is a factor of retention. In other words, it is more often why employees choose to stay with a company, rather than a lack thereof being why they would leave. However, the lack of development and advancement opportunities, and uncaring and uninspiring leaders, are factors more related to attrition.

Flexible work environments are a retention factor, whereas unsustainable expectations – one possible ‘dark side’ of the lack of flexibility – creates an attrition risk. Support for health and wellbeing is a factor that supports retention. At the same time, unreasonable performance expectations, unsupportive colleagues, and uncaring and uninspiring leaders are all factors that can cause employees to look for the nearest exit.

Key Takeaways

Retention – a non-negotiable building block for successful recruitment. It means focusing on both the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors. Thus, minimizing those that can cause attrition and promoting those that keep your best employees happy and engaged in their work. It can be helpful to consider the insights drawn from Kinsey’s large dataset to prioritize.

Here are the three most important elements we see in the data.

• Provide Meaningful Work?(to the extent possible). Empower leaders – by title or otherwise – with the capacity to foster a sense of meaning in work. However, don’t overlook that to some people meaning is defined in terms of continuous development, learning, and greater levels of accountability. Also, if you’re not compensating your people for the work, you’re at greater risk of attrition. And you’ll find it very difficult to attract others.
• Offer Adequate Flexibility?(to a reasonable degree). If you can offer hybrid or remote options to your employees, it’s certainly worth considering. But hybrid and remote aren’t the be-all-end-all. Just as importantly, ensure that the workload for your employees is manageable and allows them to set appropriate boundaries between work and the rest of their lives.
• Support Employees’ Health and Wellbeing?(as much as is reasonable). Healthcare support and other formal wellness programs may be part of this, as may be the balance mentioned above. Less formal but equally important is creating a culture in which leaders and staff feel free to talk openly about self-care and managing wellbeing.

With dozens of new articles and news items every day promoting creative new ways to attract and retain employees, it can be overwhelming and dizzying to narrow focus on the things that will produce the desired results. I hope this summary of McKinsey’s data helps you do that.

Additional Resources

1. JimNewcomb.com:?Employee Retention: 5 Pillars of the Employee Experience
2. JimNewcomb.com:?Should I Stay or Should I Go?
3. JimNewcomb.com:?Quality of Life is a Balancing Act