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  • Naiman Labs Newsletter #7. Why do people leave their jobs?

Naiman Labs Newsletter #7. Why do people leave their jobs?

Hi everyone and welcome to the new issue of Naiman Labs Newsletter!

I am sure you’ve noticed many buzzwords about HR and careers lately, such as layoffs, quiet quitting, quiet firing, and the “Great Resignation.” Although the latter one isn’t as loud as it was a year ago, in fact, it hasn’t gone anywhere. Today, I want to talk about why people leave their jobs.

Most of the time, the first answer that comes to mind for why people quit is “a better offer.” It’s easy to assume that a better offer simply means better money, but research conducted by McKinsey has found that this isn’t always the case. In this research, McKinsey compared what employees mentioned as the prime reasons why they want to quit versus what managers assume are the prime reasons for quitting.

Here are the top five factors that make employees want to stick around:

  • Feeling valued by their manager

  • Feeling valued by their company

  • Sense of belonging

  • Work-life balance

  • Potential for career advancement

On the other hand, here are the top five reasons that managers think employees leave:

  • Inadequate compensation

  • Hunting for a better job opportunity

  • Health/family issues

  • Work-life balance

  • Lack of development opportunities

Interesting, right? The reasons for leaving a job can be very different depending on who you ask, but one thing is clear: money isn’t everything.

There’s another interesting and robust research about the reasons why people want to leave their jobs. Researchers analyzed 34 million online employee profiles to identify U.S. workers who left their employer for any reason (including quitting, retiring, or being laid off) between April and September 2021. In addition to this, they analyzed the free text of more than 1.4 million Glassdoor reviews using the Natural Employee Language Understanding platform developed by CultureX.

This study found that pay was only the 16th most important factor in employees’ decision to leave their jobs. So what are the biggest predictors of a resignation? Here they are:

  • Toxic culture

  • Job insecurity

  • High speed of innovation and changes

  • Failure to recognize performance

These factors are several times stronger than compensation issues. So when you work with retention in your companies, keep this in mind.

The bottom line is this: it’s important to understand why your employees might be thinking about leaving. Talk to your managers, get to know your people, and create a workplace that values and supports its employees. Because, at the end of the day, we all want to feel happy and fulfilled in our careers, and that’s about so much more than just our paycheck.

🙌 By the way, I am working on a big article on this topic, so stay tuned!

📃 People management article of the week

For this week I want to continue the topic above and share the articles I’ve already mentioned:

That’s a great reading, take some time and enjoy!

💼 Your career tip of the week

CVs are often considered old-fashioned, unnecessary, and boring today. However, they are still essential for your job search. So don’t look down at your CV.

My advice is to have several CV formats:

🎨 a “creative” one, such as a webpage, presentation slide, or figma file

👔 a “formal” one, a simple Word document with a proper description of your work experience and achievements.

A creative CV is useful for catching attention on social networks or in personal messages, but most companies today use automated recruitment tracking systems that read Word documents and PDFs. To ensure that your profile is read correctly, use “boring” formal CVs.

⚒️ Productivity tip of the week

I love listening some focus music while I’m working.

Just go for “focus” in Spotify, or Apple Music to see various playlists you like.

This is the one of my favorites: Coding Mode ​

Another option is the “Endel” app. It’s a very cool app that provides you with a neuroscience-based soundscape and music that depend on the time of day and your activity.

It helps you focus or relax and can be a great support for your morning stretching and routine, or it can be a background sound while you’re in bed and getting ready to sleep. I use it when I work from home, and it is a perfect sound companion for me.

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Have a great week ahead!Vlad from Naiman Labs

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