Top 5 reasons people are quitting during the “Great Resignation”

Excerpted from an INC. post by Jessica Stillman

There have been endless think pieces written about what exactly is driving the “Great Resignation.” Is it people leaving to start their own business? Is it fed-up, low-wage workers using new leverage to demand better treatment? Or is it professionals who can afford to be choosy?

There are certainly individual cases in which each of these scenarios apply, but if you want a less anecdotal and more data-driven explanation of the “Great Resignation,” we suggest a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article.

The Great Resignation isn’t mainly about pay
The authors conducted a massive analysis of workplace data from Revelio Labs and more than a million Glassdoor reviews. This information allowed them to see which companies have been struggling with higher rates of attrition and what employees were saying about the companies.

What were employees complaining about during the current tsunami of resignations? It wasn’t mainly pay.

“Much of the media discussion about the Great Resignation has focused on employee dissatisfaction with wages. How frequently and positively employees mentioned compensation, however, ranks 16th among all topics in terms of predicting employee turnover,” the authors report.

Why employees leave
Instead, the biggest predictor of employee resignations was a toxic culture. But other unexpected factors also seemed important. Here are the top five predictors of high rates of attrition the research uncovered.

1. Toxic culture
“A toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition and is 10 times more important than compensation in predicting turnover,” report the authors. What does toxic mean exactly? The authors explain the main elements include “failure to promote diversity, equity and inclusion; workers feeling disrespected; and unethical behavior.”

2. Job insecurity and reorganization
It’s probably no shock that feeling like you could lose your job at any moment makes you start thinking about getting another job. “Research has found that employees’ negative assessments of their company’s future outlook is a strong predictor of attrition,” the authors point out.

3. High levels of innovation
This one is less intuitive, but the authors found “that the more positively employees talked about innovation at their company, the more likely they were to quit.” They suspect that’s because innovation is hard — and harder on workers. Innovation may be interesting and inspiring but it can also burn people out.

4. Failure to recognize performance
“Employees are more likely to leave companies that fail to distinguish between high performers and laggards when it comes to recognition and rewards,” write the authors. This isn’t about compensation. It’s about feeling noticed and valued when you do excellent work.

5. Poor response to COVID-19
Again no shocker here, but companies bungling their way through the pandemic get a stark reminder of the consequences of their incompetence. “Employees who mentioned COVID-19 more frequently in their reviews or talked about their company’s response to the pandemic in negative terms were more likely to quit,” according to the article.

The article goes into detail about the study methodology and also offers advice to bosses looking to head off resignations, to include career development and more flexibility.

The top takeaway is that most analyses of the Great Resignation are getting the most important drivers of the phenomenon wrong. No one likes to be underpaid. But it turns out people dislike disrespect and insecurity even more.

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