How Bad Does It Have to be for Someone to Quit Your Company?

A new study tells us that altering your employment creates on average about a third as much stress as the death of a spouse, half as much as divorce, about the same amount as the death of a close friend, and 50% more than quitting smoking.[i]

I’ve never been a smoker but have been close to people who’ve labored through the quitting process, over and over and over. So changing jobs is 50% more stressful than that?

So let’s say your company’s annual turnover is that same number, 50%, or half that at 25%. What does this new information tell us about how badly your employees want out? How much they disdain working for your company? What could be SO bad that they are willing to drag themselves through half of the same stress level as if they were getting divorced? Or the identical amount of stress from the death of a close friend?

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Further Reading: How Employee Turnover Is Like Losing a Marriage

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The Data Behind the Data on the Stress of Quitting

This study was published in The Atlantic which brings a pristine reputation for data quality. The study was conducted on the Holmes-Raye Life Stress Inventory[ii] which compares life’s common stress events, scoring the top life event which is death of a spouse at 100, and then compares the remaining events to this number. The remaining top five stress events after spouse death are divorce at 73, marital separation from mate at 65, and then detention in jail or another institution along with death of a close family member are tied at 63.

But we also know that quit stress levels differ among individuals. One study focused on technology workers tells us that just 30% of those who indicated that they would quit within a year actually did quit[iii]…which is why I never quote “January studies” that say a certain percentage of workers intend to quit this year. The more relevant data is how many actually do quit later.

That same study indicated that while many who said they would quit did not quit, that about a third of them had risk-averse personalities that make it even harder for them to quit.

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Further Reading: The Blatant Unfairness of Retaining Poor Supervisors

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So How Do You Prevent Employees from Quitting?

This weekly piece has been packed with employee retention ideas…so given the space available, let me offer the top four:

Hire employees who want to do the main parts of your job…and implementing realistic job previews which are also called RJPs is your best pathway for doing so.
Retain leaders on all levels who build trust with their employees, and fire the leaders who don’t.
Train those leaders to conduct Stay Interviews so they can learn face-to-face why each employee stays, might leave, and what that leader can to do retain them.
Then hold those leaders accountable to retention goals…with real accountability.

Sounds easy I know…but there are many obstacles to make that above happen in any organization. Our clients cut turnover by an average of 34% across all industries, so we’ve conquered every challenge that’s included in these top four approaches.