Understanding Retention

Today, let’s talk about attrition and specifically what are the drivers of attrition, and what makes people want to leave. Then conversely, when we think about retention, what makes people want to stay? I’ve used this model from Gartner, a consulting firm, that sort of breaks down the factors that drive retention and attrition. So, let’s take a look at that.

You can see that there are really things that are triggered by the internal or external environment, meaning internal to the organization or external to it. And there are things that are more related to work experience and more related to personal life. They use the model of a house for this. So, if it’s mostly related to personal life but maybe it’s also triggered by the organization, it could be that there’s a lack of alignment between that person’s need and what the organization has to offer. If it’s mostly related to work experience and it’s triggered by the organization, then that means something’s wrong with the organization—it’s not providing the type of value or experience that people want to have. If it’s mostly related to personal life but it’s triggered by the external environment, then that’s often just saying, “Well, the employee has found a better option elsewhere.” And then finally, if it’s mostly related to work experience and it’s externally triggered, then that could mean that other houses or other competitors are much better.

Some common causes, then, right? When you think about it being triggered by the organization and mostly related to personal life, it could be: working here makes me feel burnt out, or my personal values don’t align with the work. When you think about it being mostly related to work experience and triggered by the organization, as opposed to mostly related to personal life triggered by the organization, it could be a lack of professional recognition or a poor relationship with a manager. When you think about it being mostly personal and then focused on the external environment, it could be: “Well, I have time and I want to do something else,” or “I want to go back to school,” or “I want to change my lifestyle in some way.” And then finally, when it’s mostly related to work and it’s triggered by the external environment, maybe there’s more interesting companies, or there are companies where I could make more money, or improve my skills, etc. So, these drivers are hopefully going to be helpful as you think about maybe what makes you want to stay in your role, how you can improve your own role, but again, also the higher you are in an organization, the more leveraged these types of things are. So, when you think about your team or your organization as a whole, these are some of the things that are going to drive retention.

So now that you have more of an understanding of attrition and, conversely, retention—what makes people leave and what makes them stay—once you get into small groups, just have a little bit of discussion around this. A place you can start is that for each of you in that small group, think about what makes you stay and potentially, it could be thinking about a past role or something. What made you leave and what kind of category or quadrant would that fall into, right, in terms of your motivation for leaving and also thinking about your motivation for staying? That’s part one.

The second thing I want you to do, still in groups, is just to discuss how you could, for whatever your sphere of leadership is—so sphere of leadership I mean is kind of the level of leadership you’re responsible for, right? Maybe it’s just your small group or a small team, but maybe it’s several teams, maybe it’s a whole department, maybe it’s an entire unit or function or organization. Whatever that is, I want you to discuss how you could better understand what makes people stay and what makes them leave. So, who would you want to talk to and how would those conversations go? What are the types of questions you might ask them? And overall, how can you sort of systemize that into something that you do somewhat consistently so that you understand, for whatever your domain or sphere of influence as a leader is, how you can support and improve retention by understanding, again, what makes people leave and what makes them want to stay?

So, thanks for watching. I’ll see you next time.