The measurable cause

Most resignations are about the immediate manager

Turnover is discussed as a market problem and is largely a local one. The variation between teams inside a single organisation is usually greater than the variation between employers.

When an organisation loses people it tends to reach for external explanations: the market is competitive, salaries have moved, this generation changes jobs more often. Some of that is true, and it does not explain the thing that is visible in almost every organisation's own data, which is that turnover is not distributed evenly. Some teams lose nobody for years. Others lose several people annually while doing similar work, for the same pay, under the same policies, in the same building.

That variation is the most useful information an organisation has about why people leave, and it is generally not examined, because examining it means arriving at a conclusion about a named manager. It is considerably more comfortable to conclude that the labour market is difficult, and the comfortable conclusion also has the advantage of implying that nothing internal needs to change.

Arriving

The first month decides more than the first year

Early departures are almost always an arrival failure.

Onboarding is knowledge transfer, not orientation

Policies can be read. How things actually work cannot.

Probation used properly, in both directions

It is also the new person deciding.

Staying

Managers are selected for the wrong thing

The best practitioner is not automatically the best manager.

Progression that people can see

Ambiguity is read as a no.

Recognition, and why most schemes fail

Formalising it usually devalues it.

Leaving

Exit interviews capture the trigger and miss the cause

People leave for an accumulation and cite the final item.

Turnover is a number that needs decomposing

An overall rate conceals every actionable fact.

Counter-offers usually buy a year

And they change the relationship afterwards.

Conditions

Flexibility is retention, and it is unevenly granted

Informal arrangements favour whoever is comfortable asking.

Workload that never lets up

Sustained pressure loses people slowly and predictably.

What people say they want when asked properly

A consistent list across surveys and decades.

About Excellent Employees

Excellent Employees is about retaining capable people: onboarding, management quality, progression, recognition, workload and what turnover data actually shows when it is decomposed rather than reported as a rate.

The editorial position is that retention is mostly management work rather than programme work, that the variation between teams inside one organisation usually exceeds the variation between employers, and that the highest-yield interventions are unglamorous enough to be routinely skipped.

This publication is independent. It is not affiliated with any employer, recruitment firm, human resources software vendor or consultancy, it does not accept payment for coverage, and it does not profile organisations or individuals.

Nothing here is legal or employment advice. Obligations around probation, notice, termination, flexible work requests, discrimination and workplace health differ substantially by jurisdiction and by the industrial instrument that applies, and should be established from the applicable law and, where consequences are material, with qualified advice.