Business leaders are fully aware that we’re facing a global skills shortage. Whilst scaling and bringing new team members onboard presents one challenge, stopping the ‘brain drain’ from organisations represents a separate issue facing companies worldwide.
In today’s business economy, what are the main reasons star performers might leave? Working with hundreds of managers across technical sectors including pharmaceutical, life sciences and IT, several common themes emerge that leaders need to address.
Understanding why talented employees leave enables organisations to implement targeted retention strategies before losing valuable expertise and institutional knowledge.
Reason 1: Their Line Manager
This might surprise you, but poor management remains a crucial driver for people leaving organisations. The saying that people leave managers, not organisations, is as relevant today as ever.
The central relationship between manager and employee plays a critical role in creating engaged and productive employees. Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development consistently shows that the quality of line management significantly impacts employee retention¹.
In short, many managers lack the skills, abilities and empathy to effectively manage and lead their teams, particularly multigenerational workforces with diverse needs and expectations.
The Impact
Poor management creates environments where talented individuals feel undervalued and unsupported. When employees don’t receive adequate guidance, feedback or recognition from their direct manager, disengagement follows quickly.
Effective managers possess skills in communication, coaching and team development. However, many organisations promote technical specialists into management roles without providing adequate leadership training. This gap in management capability directly contributes to employee turnover.
What You Can Do
Perhaps it’s time to review the skills and abilities of current managers and identify whether they’re still fit for purpose. Investing in management development programmes addresses this critical retention factor and creates the foundation for improved employee engagement.
Reason 2: Lack of Flexibility
Within the next few years, the majority of the workforce will fall firmly in both the Millennial and Generation X demographics. Both generations have specific wants and needs, especially around work-life balance and flexibility.
In today’s economy, offering flexible working is critical. In fact, UK employees have the legal right to request flexible working after six months of employment. A better approach involves offering flexible working as an added benefit of working with your organisation rather than waiting for requests.
The Impact
Rigid workplace policies and inflexible management approaches create friction that drives talented employees away. Modern professionals expect autonomy in managing their schedules, approaching their responsibilities and balancing personal commitments with professional obligations.
Having a policy where attendance at school events or family appointments is part of the organisational wellbeing culture proves vital for developing an engaged and productive workforce.
What You Can Do
Implement comprehensive flexibility policies that demonstrate commitment to employee wellbeing. These policies should address various working arrangements, including remote work, flexible hours and compressed working weeks. Ensure managers receive training to effectively lead distributed teams and maintain productivity across different working arrangements.
Reason 3: Lack of Development and Challenge
Today’s employees want more. More challenge, more training, more opportunities for growth and development. Without clear pathways for professional advancement, talented employees often seek opportunities elsewhere.
Employee engagement thrives when individuals see clear opportunities for skill development and career progression. The absence of learning programmes and advancement prospects significantly contributes to turnover amongst high performers.
The Impact
Talented employees need intellectual stimulation and growth opportunities. When organisations fail to provide development programmes, stretch assignments or career advancement pathways, their best people leave to find these opportunities elsewhere.
This creates a cycle where organisations lose their most capable individuals, further impacting overall performance and making it harder to attract new talent.
What You Can Do
Organisations that actively facilitate and encourage teams to seek development opportunities and training create cultures of growth that naturally enhance engagement and retention. Structured development programmes should include formal training, mentoring opportunities and challenging assignments that help individuals grow.
Regular career conversations between managers and employees help identify development needs and create personalised growth plans that align with both individual aspirations and organisational requirements.
Reason 4: Company Culture
Company culture is becoming a huge driver of retention. Expectations of leaders and managers are increasingly high, and lack of focus on wellbeing is creating problems in more organisations than ever before.
Not everyone is fortunate enough to experience a culture that works for them. Toxic workplace cultures characterised by poor communication, lack of recognition and excessive workloads create environments where talented people cannot thrive.
The Impact
Overworking employees is becoming frighteningly familiar. Nothing burns good employees out quite like overworking them. It can be tempting to work your best people hard, but this approach frequently backfires.
Overworking top performers is perplexing because it makes them feel as if they’re being punished for performing well. It’s also counterproductive. Research from Stanford University shows that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops so significantly after 55 hours that additional work yields minimal returns².
Talented employees will leave when cultures become unsustainable. Why? Because they can. The other issue is that information about challenging cultures spreads quickly. Word travels fast about organisations that don’t value their people.
What You Can Do
Creating positive workplace cultures requires intentional effort and consistent leadership commitment. Culture-building initiatives should focus on recognition, communication and shared values that resonate with employees.
Regular employee feedback mechanisms provide insights into cultural strengths and areas for improvement. Leadership behaviour significantly influences organisational culture, so leaders must model the behaviours and values they expect from their teams.
Frequently Asked Questions About Employee Engagement
What Next? Taking Action on Retention
Review these four areas honestly. Where does your team or organisation fit? At the last exit interviews you conducted, what themes emerged? What patterns did you notice?
The evidence clearly demonstrates that talented employees leave for predictable, addressable reasons. Poor management, lack of flexibility, insufficient development opportunities and negative cultures all contribute to turnover that organisations can prevent.
Success in retention requires leadership teams that understand modern workplace dynamics and possess the skills to create compelling employee experiences. Those organisations that invest in management development, workplace flexibility, growth opportunities and positive cultures will retain their talented employees whilst competitors struggle with constant turnover.
The question now is: what will you do differently?