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What are the top 5 employees' termination reasons?
Thank you for your question enquiring about the top five reasons employees resign. My most useful sources were the Cornerstone Career Trends report, Gallup, and various HR surveys. The short version is that the top reasons employees resign are: work-life balance, needing a successful career, wanting promotions, company hiring from outside, lack of flexibility.
ASSUMPTIONS AND METHODOLOGY
-Since no region was specified, I've searched for data from the US (based on your previous requests). I've also included some global figures.
-Various surveys have uncovered different results as to the numerical data behind why employees resign. Often, different, limited options are provided for respondents to choose from, or different samples of people are talked to. I'll include a range of surveys, to get the best result.
UNITED STATES: TOP 5
BambooHR's survey of 1,005 US employees over the age of 24 found that the top 5 reasons workers gave for leaving their jobs shortly after being hired were:
1. Changing their mind on work type
2. The work was different than expected (Job description issue)
3. The boss “was a jerk”
4. They didn't receive enough training (feeling unprepared)
5. The job wasn't fun (job description issues, perhaps) (HR Morning 2016)
According to Cornerstone (2016), 29% of US employees resign due to work overload and lack of a healthy work-life balance. When asked what the main reason was they left their last company, survey respondents said:
1. “I felt overworked/ didn't have a health work-life balance” (23% of total, 24% of millennials, 25% of GenX, 19% of baby boomers)
2. “I didn't get the attention or resources I needed to be successful in my career” (8%, 10%, 8%, 6% respectively)
3. “I wasn't given a clear message about what I had to do to get to the next level within the company (6%, 7%, 6%, 5%)
4. “The company typically hired from outside instead of promoting internal talent” (5%, 6%, 7%, 2%)
5. “I was not given a flexible work schedule” (5%, 9%, 5%, 1%)
For ICEDR, a study conducted by, and focused more on millenial women (but that includes men), For this study, the top reasons for both men and women for leaving their jobs, were:
1. Compensation (finding a higher paying job elsewhere)
2. Career advancement (not enough opportunities for learning and development at current job)
3. Pay v work amount (desiring a fair balance between how hard they work and pay received)
4. Need interesting work (current work isn't as interesting or meaningful as they'd like)
A 2015 Gallup study of 7,272 US adults found that one in two left their job to get away from their manger or, to improve their overall life (ie those were the top two reasons).
CLC has some somewhat older data (2012) that found that 42% of employees leave their job because of a lack of future career opportunity. In second place was compensation, then people management, manager quality, and development opportunities following.
SYNTHESISING THE US DATA: THE TOP 5
If we take all these various surveys into account, we can see some reasons for quitting that are common through out – though in each case worded a little differently, and which I would argue could count for a synthesised top 5:
Life / Work balance: Forbes wrote today that employers can see the productivity and retention benefits of promoting a healthy work-life balance among employees. For management professor and author Stew Friedman, work life balance includes four main domains: work, home and family, community and society, and self. He argues that all four will be fluid depending on an individual's stage in life.
Career development: For the Huffington Post (2017), its important that employees invest in holistic development: that is, employees personal and professional development. Seven out of ten people factor growth opportunities into their decision to leave or stay with a job. Employers should consider each employees' goals and aspirations and provide training and development opportunities.
Compensation: Computer World found that a 10% increase in base pay raised the chance of an average employee staying in a company by 1.5%.
Flexibility: According to Forbes (2017), more than ever people, especially younger workers, want flexible hours. People in their late twenties and early thirties are fantasizing about handing in their notice to freelance or work for themselves.
Interesting and meaningful work: Being challenged, being valued at work, doing something meaningful, engaging, useful, or interesting, have all been found to be important in employee motivation, and therefore their output quality and retention.
RELATED CONTEXT
According to HR Morning, 2016, 31% of people in the US have quit their job within the first 6 months, with 16.45% of those leaving in the first week.
According to Gallup, employees who use their strengths every day are 15% less likely to quit their jobs.
GLOBALLY: TOP 5
According to an EY global generations report (2015), surveying full-time workers in eight countries, the top five reasons for quitting were: minimal wage growth (76%), lack of opportunity to advance (74%), excessive overtime (71%), a non-teamwork like work environment (71%) and a boss that doesn't allow work flexibility (69%) - here respondents rated the factors that would cause them to seriously consider leaving a job.
The report also looked at why millennials quit, broken down by country. The top reason for the US, UK, Brazil, and China, was minimal wage growth. In Germany and Japan, it was excessive overtime. In India and Mexico, it was a lack of opportunity to advance.
CONCLUSION
Though survey results vary, in the US, people resign because they want a work-life balance, flexibility, career development, better pay, and interesting work. Thanks for using Wonder! Let us know if we can help with anything else.