Why Do Good People Leave? Managing Attrition – Leadership Insights from Liddell Consulting

Why do good people leave their jobs?

Leaders, managers, and HR executives ponder and debate this question all the time. The most recent trend says that employees leave bad managers. Which is true. But one of the other reasons that has bubbled to the top is job flexibility and company culture.

Millennial and Gen Z employees may have popularized the work-life balance priority, but they aren’t the only ones seeking it. One thing the crazy year we’ve had has taught many is that remote work isn’t a recipe for lagging productivity. Not for everyone. In fact, it has highlighted that personality type, job function, and leadership style play a huge part in productivity.

Hiring right is hard enough, but retaining the best talent is an investment in your business success. Attrition in many senses of the word, although a fact of business, is expensive. Blaming attrition on salary and benefits or job growth alone is short sighted.

Company culture is grown deliberately with leadership example, hiring decisions, strategic and succession planning, and growth potential, among other things. For those analytical types, however, company culture seems a lot harder to define and control.

The benefits of a strong company culture are simple. As stated in a recent SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) piece Understanding and Developing Organizational Culture, in a company with a strong culture:

“Employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation, employees believe that the expected response is the proper one, and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization’s values.”

So why do good people leave? The answer is as complicated and diverse as people themselves, but leaders can take comfort in some control. That control takes the form of providing a strong leadership example and creating a culture where employees are treated as individuals so they (and you) can achieve their potential.

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