2017

RETENTIONREPORT
Trends, Reasons &Recommendations
Insights fromover 240,000
employeeinterviews

Report authored by
Lindsay Sears, Ph.D.

workinstitute.com/retentionreportThrough this work,
we recognized astaggering lack ofawareness around thereal reasons people
leave their jobs.

— DANNY NELMS
President
Work InstituteFOREWORD
Over the past 17 years, Work Institute has
been dedicated to collecting insights from
employees to effectively inform changes
that drive engagement, performance andretention in organizations. Through this work,
we recognized a staggering lack of awarenessaround the real reasons people leave theirjobs. Seeing this lack of awareness around thereal reasons employees leave and the hugecost turnover poses for companies, we are
excited to share the findings from our data inthis unique report on retention.
Work Institute believes that effective changes
start and end with data. However, not alldata is created equal. The quality of yourdata can make or break your efforts to drive
improvements. We see clients routinely try tosolve turnover issues with survey ratings andscores, sliced and diced by department, age,gender and other common segmentation.
These attempts are unsuccessful because
ratings and scores require assumptions as tothe areas that need improvement and don’t
get to the why, or real reasons, that drive
employee attitudes and behaviors.
That is how we are different. Our methodology
is focused on getting to the why and lets theemployee tell us the real reasons, without
assuming we know what's most important tothem. When you have the real answers, youhave deeper insights and more actionable
data to make better business decisions thatare more likely to drive the outcomes you
want.
One of the biggest learnings in our 17 yearsof helping businesses optimize their humancapital is that no two companies are alikein their workforce culture, context andreasons people are leave and stay. The data

powerfully shows us how diverse companies
really are, yet many companies are still using
off-the-shelf, one size fits all programs andfocusing on external benchmarks. With
reasons for leaving being so different from one
organization to the next, a single approachcannot possibly meet the unique needs of allorganizations, nor can external benchmark
measurements possibly gauge performance inan organization. The most effective approachis one where you collect high quality data
first to understand and diagnose the issues
in your workforce, and then use that data todrive decisions and create solutions in yourorganization. Best practices come from withinyour organization. To do this, you must first ask
your employees for feedback.
In this report, you’ll learn why turnover is such
big source of cost for organizations and why
it won’t get better on its own any time soon.
We’ll unveil findings that show why you should
focus on your organization.
Ultimately, we hope that sharing thesefindings will open your eyes to a new way oflooking at your workforce and lead you to takeaction to help drive key business outcomes inyour organization.

Danny Nelms, President

3

2017

RETENTIONREPORT
Trends, Reasons &Recommendations

Report authored by Lindsay Sears, Ph.D.

4

workinstitute.com

Table of Contents2

Foreword

6

The Truth About the Employee Marketplace

6

Escalating Competition for Workers

7

Shrinking Talent Pool

8

Employees are in Control

9

Employer Costs Will Increase with Rising Turnover

10

Getting to the Real Reasons Employees Leave

12

The Truth About the Reasons Employees Leave

12

Truth #1: Nearly All Companies are Unique

14

Truth #2: Most Turnover is Preventable

16

Truth #3: Career Development is the Top Reason Employees Leave

20

Truth #4: First Year Employees are The Highest Risk for Turnover

21

Truth #5: Common Stereotypes about Departing Employees are Myths

22

The Truth About the Reasons Employees Stay

22

Truth #6: Turnover is Predictable and Preventable

23

Truth #7: Reasons for Staying are Not the Same as Reasons for Leaving

24

Truth #8: Ratings and Benchmarks Don’t Tell the Whole Story

25

Truth #9: Asking Employees Less Will Tell More

26

Truth #10: Small Investments in Retention Yield a High Return

27

Organizations Must Take Action to Improve Employee Retention

28

About Work Institute29

Analytic Methodology & Limitations

30

References

31

About the Authors

workinstitute.com

5THE TRUTH ABOUT THE
EMPLOYEE MARKETPLACE

Employment
Definitions:

Escalating Competition for Workers
Trends in the UnitedStates illustrate a thriving
economy in which thenumber of available jobs
and the competition forworkers are both sharply
increasing.

Job Openings Rate:
percentage of all jobs that havenot been filled by the last dayof each month.

70%.1 These trends remain strong as theunemployment rate held at a low 4.7%,
and 235,000 new jobs were created in
February 2017.

Over the past seven years, job growthhas been on the rise and unemployment
has been on the decline. The changes
since 2010 are significant as theunemployment rate has been cut in half
and job openings have increased over

Unemployment Rate:
percentage of people in thelabor force who do not havea job and are actively seeking
work.

Along with job growth and lower
unemployment, more workers arechoosing to leave their jobs. Total
separations have gone up 14% since2010, largely driven by a 46% increasein voluntary quits. In fact, 2015 marked
the first time in over 15 years thatjob openings were higher than total
separations. This demonstrates thatjobs are opening faster than employers
can fill them and that workers can beincreasingly selective in where they work.

Total Separations Rate:
percentage of employees who
ended their employment,
including voluntary andinvoluntary turnover.
Quits Rate: percentageof employees who leave
voluntarily, excluding
retirement and relocation.

TRENDS in Unemployment, Job Openings, Total Separations and Quits Rateover the past 10 years point to a thriving economy in which competition for
top talent is growing. 1
10.00

Unemployment
Job Openings
Total Separations
Quits Rate

8.00
PERCENTAGE POINTS

10 Year
Trends:

9.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

YEAR

6

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2013

2014

2015

2016

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE
EMPLOYEE MARKETPLACE

Redefining
Education

Shrinking Talent Pool

The most in demandoccupations will require an
education beyond a highschool diploma to include:
Associate’s Degree, somecollege, Bachelor’s Degree,
Master’s Degree andDoctoral or Professional
Degree. 2

The need for educatedand skilled workers is
growing faster than theiravailability.
In forward looking projections, theBureau of Labor Statistics expects evenfurther job growth and a talent pool thatcannot keep pace. A large portion of the
population is reaching retirement age, 2while not enough workers are obtaining
the skills required to fill growing
occupations.
It’s important to note that the trends
around job growth apply to some
occupations and industries more thanothers. Almost 95% of the job growth

between 2014 and 2024 is expected tocome from service-related sectors, 41%of which will come from healthcare andsocial assistance industries. 2
We also need to pay attention to trends
around types of workers we will need tofill these roles. Healthcare and technicaloccupations will realize the largest
growth and together account for about
a quarter of all new jobs by 2024. Within
this growth, of the 15 occupations
expected to grow the fastest, 11 ofthem will require education beyond
a high school diploma. 2 Experts havequestioned whether there will beenough educated workers to meet the
tidal wave of demand. 3

Our Labor
Pool isAging and
ShrinkingIn 2014, the average worker was
42, four years older than the
average worker in 1994.
The annual growth rate of theavailable labor force is projected
to slow 17% by 2024. 2

2014-2024 JOB GROWTH PROJECTIONS BY JOB TYPE
9,800,000

New Jobs Projected2014 - 2024

New Service Sector Jobs

3,800,000

New Healthcare &Social Assistance Jobs

workinstitute.com

9,300,000
1,900,000

New Professional &Business Services Jobs

7

Employees are in Control
The escalating competition for workers
and a shrinking talent pool are coming
together, intensifying an employee-incontrol marketplace.

EMPLOYEEIN CONTROLThe need for educated, talented workers is growing fasterthan their availability as increasing job growth, decreasing
unemployment, a shrinking pool of talent and increasing
quit rates all come together. With fewer qualified workers tofill growing jobs, employees will have even more choice inwhere they want work, clearly giving the employee power inthe marketplace. With this power shift, companies will have to
be more competitive in their talent acquisition, management
and retention strategies to become a preferred employer andsustain and grow their business.

ShrinkingTalent Pool

ts

os
C
r

ur
T
r

ve
o
n

ye
o
l

p

Em

Unemployment
Total Separations
Job Openings
Quits Rate

8

Escalating
Competition
for workers

Turnover Costs Breakdown10

Employer Costs will Increase with
Rising Turnover

DIRECT COSTS
Separation Costs
•
•
•
•
•

The total cost of employee turnover for businesses ishigh, even by conservative estimates, as it can take a tollon company profits and organizational performance.
Employers are at risk of increased turnover costs in a job
market where employees have the power.

Exit Processing
Administrative Time
Separation/Benefit Pay
Vacation/Sick Pay
Unemployment Tax

Replacement Costs••••

Turnover encompasses employees who are leaving their job, whether it be a
voluntary decision made by the employee or involuntary based on a choice madeby the company. Regardless of the type of turnover, when an employee leaves, thecompany incurs direct costs through financial expenses and indirect costs throughdecreased organizational performance and lost institutional knowledge.

•

Communication of Vacancy
Pre-Employment Administration
Selection Interviews
Testing, Background Checks& Exams
Relocation Expense

Training Costs

Although most agree turnover is costly, there is not an agreed-upon standard
for determining the cost of turnover. Some studies have calculated the direct
cost of turnover by adding up costs across separation, replacement and training
activities, while others consider percentages or multiples of the employee’s salaryin calculating the direct cost of turnover. Estimates have ranged from $4,000 per
employee to 1.5 times the employee’s salary. 4,5 Even the lowest cost estimate
amounts to significant direct costs for an organization. Combining industry
estimates with census data, Work Institute uses an estimate of 33% of a worker’s
annual salary to calculate the cost of turnover. When applied to the median U.S.
worker’s salary of $45,000, we arrive at an average cost of turnover per employee of$15,000.

•
•
•
•
•

Orientation
Formal Training
Materials
EquipmentOn-the-job Instruction

Lost Productivity••••

The indirect costs of turnover are sometimes referred to as “productivity costs” thatcome from lost institutional knowledge, the time lag it takes to find a replacement
and the time it takes for that new worker to become fully productive. 6 One study
found a significant link between turnover and organizational performance, which
was stronger for voluntary turnover, where companies with higher voluntary
turnover were more likely to have lower organization performance. 7••

Performance Differences
Lost Business
Lost Institutional Knowledge
Decreased Survivor Productivity& Morale
Risk of Legal Action, Labor Strikes
Damage to Company Reputation

INDIRECT COSTS

Total Cost of Voluntary
Turnover in the U.S. is$536 Billion

Estimating Average
Turnover Cost
Meta-Analysis found conservative turnovercost for $8 per hour employee 8= $5,506

In 2016, BLS reported 35,746,000 voluntary
separations (Quits), which would amount to $536
billion in costs to employers. This follows a cost of
turnover estimate of $15,000 per employee.

Annual Salary of $8 per hour employee= $16,640

Turnover cost per employee: $5,506 / $16,640= 33%

Median U.S. worker salary= $45,000

workinstitute.com

9

Average cost of turnover per employee:
33% of $45,000= $15,000

9GETTING TO THE REAL REASONSEMPLOYEES LEAVE
We interviewed 240,000 former employees since2010, then captured and analyzed the data toreveal the real reasons why employees left theirjobs. We applied a methodology to specificallyprobe for the real reasons employees leave
their jobs.
Clearly turnover is a huge cost to organizations, andit’s a problem many are trying to solve. Researchers
and academics have published countless studies
and theories on the causes of turnover, showingthat things like job satisfaction, organizational
commitment and job searching are most predictive.11
Previous research has largely revealed relationships
and correlations. This is the first definitive,
comprehensive study documenting the mostimportant root causes of turnover.
The fact is that to learn the real reasons for leaving,
we must ask employees in a way that will bring out
the truth. Research shows that 63% of the answers
will change by having a third party ask about reasonsfor leaving after the employee has departed.12
Checkboxes and rating scales alone can be easily
misinterpreted and provide limited information
about how to act on the data. It is critical to ask
general, open-ended questions and probe for more

10

information so the employees open up with theissues that matter most and are not influenced
by choices on a list. Following this impartial,
qualitative-first approach to measurement is thebest way to capture the real reasons.13
Over the past 17 years and over half amillion interviews, Work Institute hasdeveloped a best-practice methodology to
ask and capture the most important reasons
employees leave their jobs. Our specialized
researchers conduct exit interviews andcategorize the results, which are analyzed
into 65 distinct reasons for leaving that fall
into 10 high-level reason categories. This
classification system accounts for 98.5% of
all the reasons employees have told us andallows us to quantify deep insights accurately
and efficiently in large volume.

workinstitute.com

10 Leaving
Reasons for• Career Development:
Opportunities for growth,achievement and security• Work Environment:

Physical and cultural surroundings• Management Behavior:

240,000

Employee
Exit Interviews

65 Leaving
Reasons for

Positive and productive relationships• Job Characteristics:

Ownership and enjoyment inmanageable work

• Compensation & Benefits:
Total rewards promised and received• Work-life Balance:

TEN

Categories
of Reasonsfor Leaving

Travel and scheduling preferences• Well-being:

Physical, emotional andfamily-related issues• Relocation• Retirement• Involuntary

workinstitute.com

98.5

%

of Reasons
Employees Told Us
They Leave

11

The Truth About
the Reasons
Employees
Leave
TRUTH #1:

Nearly All Companies
are Unique
The truth is that almost allcompanies are unique in the top
reasons that employees leave.
Companies cannot dependon market data and industry
benchmarks to develop effective
employee retention strategies fortheir unique organizations.

12

Chances ofYour Company
Having theMost Common
Turnover
Profile Are
Less Than8%

workinstitute.com

Across the organizations, 86% of companies
had Career Development reasons show
up in their top 3 reasons for leaving, whilereasons related to Work-life Balance,
Management Behavior and Compensation& Benefits were among the top 3 reasons forleaving for only 30-40% of the companies.

90%

Over half of the 73 turnover profiles wefound were completely unique to a single
company, meaning the odds of yourcompany having a completely uniqueprofile shared by no other company is alittle better than a coin flip.

80%

70%

Out of 73
Turnover
Profiles Only
7.9% ofCompanies
Sharedthe Most
CommonProfileReasons for leaving remain vastly unique acrosscompanies, even within the same industry.
Reasons for Leaving
Career Development
Job Characteristics
Well-Being
Work-Life Balance
Work Environment
Management Behavior
Relocation
Compensation & Benefits
Involuntary
Retirement

Company B

100%

Company A

60%

50%

40%

PERCENT OF COMPANIESAcross 173 companies in 2016, we lookedat all possible combinations of the top
3 reasons employees cited for leaving(in any order) to find the most common
turnover profiles. The research revealed
that only 7.6% of companies shared
the most common turnover profile.
This clearly demonstrates that companies
are incredibly diverse in the reasons
employees leave, emphasizing the needto understand reasons for leaving in yourcompany’s unique workforce and context.

30%

20%

10%

0%
73 70

65

60

55

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

1

TURNOVER PROFILES

workinstitute.com

13

TRUTH #2:

Most Turnover is Preventable
Trends reveal that the more preventable reasons
why employees are leaving their jobs are on the rise
and reflects the employee marketplace.
Macro trends from Bureau of Labor Statistics
cannot tell us why employees are leaving or how
businesses can prevent it. We have analyzed
over 240,000 exit and employee interviews since2010 which provides insightful data to tell us
why employees are leaving their jobs and why
employees are staying in their jobs to help further
explain top-level economic trends.

life Balance and Well-being, to the less employercontrollable reasons for leaving, including
Relocation, Retirement, and Involuntary, over 75%
of the reasons employees leave could have been
prevented by the employer. The more controllable
reasons have risen 6% over the past 7 years. This
makes sense considering the economic datasuggesting that employees have more job options
and can be more selective.

Comparing the more preventable reasons forleaving, including Career Development, Work
Environment, Management Behavior, Job
Characteristics, Compensation & Benefits, Work-

More
Preventable
VersusLess
Preventable
Turnover
2015

2016

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2010

2011

2012

2013

More Preventable

2014

2015

2016

Less Preventablee

14

workinstitute.com

MorePreventablevs. Less
Preventable
Reasons for
Leaving

More Preventable
Reasons for LeavingLess Preventable
Reasons for Leaving

Reasons related to modifiableconditions of the Company,
Leadership, Team and Job.

Reasons that are more strongly
driven by uncontrollable factors.

• Career Development• Job Characteristics• Well-being• Compensation & Benefits• Work Environment• Management Behavior• Work-life Balance• Involuntary Turnover• Retirement• Relocation

When we compare involuntary turnover to voluntary turnover trends from the past 7
years (excluding retirement and relocation), we see the same trend identified by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. Voluntary departures have grown 6 percentage points overthe past 7 years relative to involuntary reasons for leaving. While the relative decline
in involuntary reasons may be due in part to fewer layoffs in a thriving economy, there
is a danger that in the context of such high demand for workers, companies are morelenient in enforcing policies around conduct and holding employees accountable for
their performance.

Voluntary
Reasons for
Turnover are
Increasing
Relative to
Involuntary
Reasons

100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
2010

2011

2012
Involuntary

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2013

2014

2015

2016

Voluntary

15

TRUTH #3:

Career Development Is The Top
Reason Employees Leave
So what are the real reasons people leave?
One in 5 employees are leaving because career growth, achievement andsecurity. Interviews with over 34,000 former employees from 2016 reveal thefollowing “most important” reasons for leaving:
1. Career Development (22%)
2. Work-Life Balance (12%)
3. Management Behavior (11%)
4. Compensation and Benefits (9%)
5. Well-being (9%)
6. Retirement (8%)
7. Involuntary (8%)
8. Relocation (8%)
9. Job Characteristics (7%)
10. Work Environment (6%)
Career Development was the most popular category of reasons employees left
their jobs. This accounts for 22% of what employees said were the “most important”
reasons. It is also important to note that although there are common themes acrossthis substantial group of employees, there are still differences across companies - 14%of organizations do not have Career Development in their employees’ top 3 reasonsfor leaving. Career Development includes more specific reasons around opportunities
for growth, achievement and security, which indicates that these are priorities for theworkforce and are worth leaving a job. Work-Life Balance (12%) was the second mostcommonly cited category of reasons, reflecting travel and scheduling preferencesthat were not met. Management Behavior (11%) reasons were also common, which
resulted from a negative employee-manager dynamic.

16

workinstitute.com

Top Reasons for Leaving in 2016
INVOLUNTARY
8%CAREERDEVELOPMENT
22%RETIREMENT
8%RELOCATION
8%

n
ve

ta b

le

ve

nt

able

Le ss

Pr
e

WORK-LIFE
BALANCE
12%

M ore

Pr

e

WORK
ENVIRONMENT
6%JOB
CHARACTERISTICS
7%

MANAGEMENTBEHAVIOR
11%
WELL-BEING
9%workinstitute.com

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
9%17

TRUTH #3 (CONTINUED):

Career Development Is The Top
Reason Employees Leave
Career Development reasons have been on the rise in the past 3-7 years
more than any other reason.
Management Behavior reasons have steadily risen relative to the otherreasons.
Compensation and Benefits reasons had risen coming out of therecession in 2008, but declined in just the past 3 years while Job
Characteristics and Work Environment rose.
Well-being reasons for leaving have been on a strong and steadydecline since 2010.

Trends in More Preventable Reasons for Leaving-2.55%-1.2%

1 Well Being

1-.4%-1.05%

2
3-.35%-.1% 6
7

3 Compensation & Benefits

2%
1.1%

4
5

2 Work-Life Balance

.9%

.35%

4 Job Characteristics
5 Management Behavior

1.9%

.7%

6 Work Environment
3.1%

7 Year Trend (Since 2010)			

18

4.15%

7 Career Development

3 Year Trend (Since 2014)

workinstitute.com

Reasons Within Career Development
TYPE OF WORKGROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

Employee expectations may not havematched what the type of work
actually involved, where perhaps
the educational system or hiring
processes did not provide a
realistic view of the job.

Employees often left because
they wanted to learn, growand be challenged in theirwork, and another
employer offered better
opportunities to do that.
TYPE OF WORK
33%

• “I started to realizethat hospital nursing
was not for me. The
work setting was
really lonely since I
worked in the ICU
department.”• “I left to take a
GROWTH &DEVELOPMENT
21%

position elsewherethat offered me
more growth
opportunities.”

GENERAL CAREER 2%

JOB SECURITY
7%SCHOOL18%

ADVANCEMENTOPPORTUNITIES9%PROMOTION
10%SCHOOLADVANCEMENTOPPORTUNITIESWorkers take a position
where there is a clear pathto promotion. We hear fromfrustrated employees whohaven’t been given the feedback
they need to successfully
advance and feel they havereached a “dead end”.

• “ I left because of the lack ofgrowth opportunities. I felt I
had gone as far as possible,
but I would rather not haveleft.”

workinstitute.com

PROMOTION
Employees receive an offer tostep into a higher-level role.
Often, employees had applied
for promotions at their previous
employer unsuccessfully before
making the decision to leave.

• “ I left for a supervisory position
with another company thatoffered advancement.”

Some employees only planned
to work for a set timeframe
before returning to school,
and in other cases, their work
experience caused them torethink their career path andinvest further in their education.
The departure itself creates costfor the organization, but thecompany misses an opportunity
to retain an employee whoseskills and value will be
increasing.

• “ I started back to school andneeded the time for mystudies.”

19

TRUTH #4:

First Year Employees are
The Highest Risk for Turnover
The reasons for leaving are very valuable tounderstand for first year employees. Employees
within their first year of employment in
a company show a greater likelihood ofleaving than any other segment and tend tohave different reasons than other employee
segments.

First Year
Employees
Leave forDifferent
Reasons than
Other Employees
Reasons

Difference

Job Characteristics
5%

The length of time an employee has been with a company is important to consider
when looking at turnover. In this study, about a third of all turnover occurred within
the first year of employment in a company.

Work-Life Balance

Employees who leave within their first year could cost companies more thanemployees who have been with a company longer before leaving. It may takeemployees up to 3 to 6 months on the job before they have added enough value
to offset the cost of their hiring, onboarding and compensation and benefits. Whenemployees leave within their first year of employment, employers may never realize
a positive return on those hires.

Well-Being

Of the more controllable reasons for leaving, those who quit within the first year
were more likely to cite Job Characteristics, Well-being and Work-life Balance reasons
than those who quit after the first year. Companies should listen to their workers toensure appropriate preferences are met and expectations are set beginning withrecruitment and throughout the onboarding process into the job itself.

5%4%Career Development
4%Work Environment
2%Compensation & Benefits

10+ years

14%

5-10 years

First Year

34%

12%

3-5 years

12%

2-3 years

10%20

1-2 years

18%

Turnover by
Length ofTime with theCompany is
Important toConsider when
Evaluating
Turnover1%
Management Behavior
0%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20% 25%

Within First Year
After First Yearworkinstitute.com

TRUTH #5:

Common Stereotypes about
Departing Employees are Myths
Simple demographic segmentation ignores the realreasons that employees leave, most of which are contrary
to common stereotypes.
As we try to uncover the real reasons
employees leave their jobs, it may be
tempting to focus efforts on characteristicsof the employee first to try to “select” andhire people who are more likely to stay.
Focusing on employee characteristics
related to turnover is ultimately shortsighted. It follows a mentality that thetype of employee is the problem and not
the job, team, manager or organization.
The economy has shifted to an employeein-control marketplace, and we seethat many workers are leaving forpreventable reasons, such as careerdevelopment. Companies would be
wise to diagnose and change theaspects of their workplace causing any
talented employee to leave.
Digging into our data, we see a numberof demographic trends that go against
popular thinking and some of thecommon stereotypes and reinforce theneed to measure perceptions withineach unique workforce.

Stereotype #1: Women leave jobs for different reasons than men. When we takea closer look at gender in the context of life stage, we find that the reasons why men
and women leave are most different for workers in their 20’s and become almost equalamong employees in their 40’s and 50’s.
Stereotype #2: Different generations require different workforce strategies.
Research on generational differences has received a lot of attention in the media,
though our data show there is much more variation and meaningful difference
within generations than between them. In other words, assuming employees within
generations require the same strategy could lead to wasted effort or ineffective
initiatives. Ultimately, employees have unique points of view across the age andgeneration spectrum, and generational stereotypes have limited usefulness and risk
misguiding retention efforts.15
Stereotype #3: Millennials are the “entitled” generation. Counter to the stereotype
that Millennials are needier of their managers and have a higher sense of entitlement,
Millennials cited proportionally lower reasons for leaving in Job Characteristics andManagement Behavior categories than other generations. In fact, Millennials andGenXers are almost identical in the distribution of their reasons for leaving. This goesagainst the stereotypes that Millennials are so different from other groups in theirattitudes and expectations. Their stage in life and career may have more to do withreasons for leaving (e.g., going back to school) than a sense of entitlement.
Clearly, solving turnover across a workforce will require a strategy that accounts
for multiple reasons as different types of people appear to have different needs,
preferences and priorities across life stages.

workinstitute.com

Exit
Interviews
are not justdisgruntled
employees.
63%

37%

After departure,63%

of employees rated theiremployer as very good or
excellent.

66%

34%

After departure,66%

of employees rated
their supervisor as very
good or excellent.
21

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE REASONSEMPLOYEES STAY
TRUTH #6:

Turnover is Predictable and Preventable
It is critical to interview current employees to understand the real reasons
they stay with a company to more powerfully predict the intent to stay andmore accurately build strategies that increase retention andprevent turnover.
We have already established that companies are unique in theirculture, history, workplace conditions and the preferences,
expectations and intents of their workers. Looking at reasonsfor leaving among those who exit tells only half of the storyneeded to drive a comprehensive retention strategy. Stay
Interviews and other research among those currently employedallow you to assess current-state turnover risk and analytically
identify the strongest predictors of intention to stay.
Employee perceptions around 4 key drivers - Organization,
Manager, Team and Job – become the conditions that create asense of engagement and commitment within the workforce
and ultimately lead to the outcomes of retention, performanceand well-being.
KEY DRIVERSEMPLOYEE OUTCOMES

Organization
ManagerTeam
Job

Retention

Engagement &Commitment

Performance

Following the same robust qualitative-quantitative
methodology applied to Exit Interviews, it is critical to let
employees define the workplace conditions that drive their
engagement and commitment to the company. This is very
different from typical models of Employee Engagement
and Retention, which impose a specific list of workplace
conditions that employees must rate. Ratings on the 4 key
drivers provide a starting point for probing deeper into the“why”, bringing to light the real, most important workplaceissues according to the employees themselves.
Stay Interview and Engagement Study data can bestatistically analyzed to gain additional insights for retention
strategies. Predictive models can be built to determine if
higher ratings and certain groups of reasons are associatedwith intentions to stay longer with a company. Data indicatethat ratings of key drivers are indeed predictive of intent tostay, most strongly for those who give an “excellent” rating.

Well-Being

Organization and Manager Retention Drivers• ORGANIZATION RATING: Those who rate their employer • MANAGER RATING: Those who rate their manager as
as fair or poor are 9.7 times more likely to look for a job
within 12 months than those who rate their employer as
excellent. Those who rate their employer as good or very
good are 2.8 times more likely to look for a job within 12
months than those who rate their employer as excellent.

22

fair or poor are 7.6 times more likely to look for a job
within 12 months than those who rate their manager as
excellent. Those who rate their manager as good or very
good are 2.3 times more likely to look for a job within 12
months than those who rate their manager as excellent.

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TRUTH #7:

Reasons for Staying are Not the Same
as Reasons for Leaving
It is equally important to understand the reasons people stay as it is tounderstand why they leave, and these reasons aren’t always the same.

The idea of looking at reasons for leavingand staying follows the thought thatthe workplace conditions that cause
job satisfaction are different from theconditions that cause dissatisfaction.16
Factors related to the work itself thatbring a sense of fulfillment have beenfound to drive satisfaction and retention
when they are high. Factors from the job
context, like pay and manager, lead todissatisfaction and turnover when they
are missing.16 To optimize retention, youhave to understand and address bothsatisfying and dissatisfying factors.
With data from Stay Interviews of
employees still with their organization,
we are able to capture and categorize
the specific reasons employees intend
to stay for a given length of time. For
example, employees who only plan tostay for 3 months cite different reasons
than those planning on staying for 1
year. To find the real reasons for staying,
we studied the most important reasons
given by employees who said they plan
to stay for “a long time”.

Characteristics, or Work Environment.
Interviews from those who had exited
showed Job Characteristics and Work
Environment as lower ranking reasonsfor leaving (6th and 7th on the list).
On the other hand, Work-life Balanceand Management Behavior ranked
2nd and 3rd in the average reasonsfor leaving, but aren’t as important to
how employees foresee staying with acompany. This is in line with researchthat says reasons for satisfaction are
different from reasons for dissatisfaction.
Although these are average findings
from many companies combined, itemphasizes that the need to understandcurrent employees is equally importantas understanding those who exited.
Looking at just one of these pieces of
information would have only told part ofthe story.

Top Reasonsfor Staying
in 2016
1. Career Development 				(27%)
2. Job Characteristics 				(26%)
3. Work Environment 				(17%)
4. Compensation
		 & Benefits		(12%)
5. Work-life Balance		(9%)
6. Management Behavior 				(4%)
7. Retirement
		(4%)The most common reasons for staying
were Career Development, Job

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23

TRUTH #8:

Ratings and Benchmarks
Don’t Tell the Whole Story
Employee survey ratings,
scores and externalbenchmarks are popular
yet flawed methods for
identifying the specificactions that will cause
improvements to retention,
whereas following a ratingsreasons approach basedon internal standards will
yield the most accurate,actionable information.

Many vendors and consultants will recommend a ratings-based engagement
or satisfaction survey to diagnose and act upon the reasons for retention andturnover, but there are serious flaws with traditional approaches that will leadto wasted expense, investments in the wrong workplace changes, or worse, noaction at all.

FLAW #1: Pre-selected Rating Topics:
Traditional methods risk missing
the real issues because they force
employees to rate topics that have beenpredetermined, usually based uponassumptions and not hard evidence. 18

Solution: Consider the details in
employee perceptions and suggestions
for improvements.

Solution: Ask employees to elaborate
on broad concepts without prompting
them and capture the range of issues
and reasons in a quantifiable way.
FLAW #2: Lack of Actionability:
Providing ratings and scores alone willtell you how levels compare to one
another and over time, but used alone,ratings leave a lot to interpretation anddo not provide actionable insights. 19

Benchmark Against
Your Own Unique Goals,
Standards and History,
Not Someone Else’s

The Business Decision Chain: A flaw in the data leads to a break in the chain
reaction leading up to good business decisions that are most likely to drive
outcomes. 17

Poor Quality, Biased,
Not Actionable

DATA

Inaccurate

BUSINESSDECISIONSFLAW #3: Correlation does not equal
Causation: Just because a score iscorrelated to a business outcome does
not mean that it causes or drives thatbusiness outcome. 20
Solution: Ask people directly about
what is causing their behavior orplanned behavior in a way they will behonest and overshare, whether it bean employee who has already left thecompany or someone who is planningon leaving soon.

YOUR
COMPANY IS
HERE

Poor

BUSINESSOUTCOMESFLAW #4: Keeping up with theJoneses: External or competitive
benchmarks let you know little morethan whether you are better, worse or
the same than others in your industry.
This tells you nothing about what you
need to do in order to gain market shareand sustain a competitive advantage. 21
Solution: Focus on internal benchmarksthat seek to discover where bestpractices are happening within abusiness so they can be reapplied inways that work for that unique culture,context and workforce.

WHAT DOES THISMEAN TO YOURORGANIZATION?

TRUTH #9:

Asking Employees Less
will Tell You More
Asking “Why” Is 2x More Powerful than Ratings Alone
Capturing and categorizing the reasons “why” an employee
gave their rating gives us 2.3 times more information about
the differences in plans to stay with the company than ratings
alone. Using statistical models, we can show how valuable
different sources of information can be based on how muchthey help predict the outcome of interest. In this case, we
predicted employee’s intention to stay with the company.

voice to the model, which were able to explain 18% of intent tostay. Lastly, we entered variables created from the reasons that
employees gave for their intent to stay, which explained 42% of
intent to stay. The reasons provided by employees give a huge
boost in valuable information (and prediction capability) aboveand beyond how the employees rated aspects of their work on
a rating scale.

First, we looked at age and gender, which explained 0% of
intentions to stay. This means that there were no statisticaldifferences between men and women or across the age
spectrum, which contradicts potential stereotypes orassumptions that these groups are so different. Next, we added
numeric ratings of employer, supervisor, support, growth and

The additional information gained from probing on the single
question “why?” in an exit interview can generate insights
around up to 65 distinct reasons for leaving with emphasison the most important ones. To get similar insights with a
traditional survey approach, employees would have to select orrate 65 questions in a survey or drop-down menu.

50%

42%

Explaining
Intent to Stay

40%

Asking “Why” provides morethan 2X the information of
ratings alone

30%

2X

Demographics +Ratings +Reasons

18%

20%

Demographics +Ratings

10%

0%

0%

Demographics

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25

TRUTH #10:

Small Investments in Retention
Yield a High Return
Small investments in employee retention cansignificantly impact the direct costs of employee
turnover. Retaining a small percentage of the workforce
can result in significant savings for companies.
To show what a significant impact a small investment in retention can have,consider the impact of improving ratings across the following scenarios.*• Improving the place to work (company ratings)• For every 100 employees who move their company ratings from fair or•poor to excellent, 37 fewer employees would leave in the next year
amounting to $555,000 in savings.
For every 100 employees who move their company ratings from goodor very good to excellent, 26 fewer employees would leave in the next
year amounting to $390,000 in savings.

• Looking deeper into the top reason for leaving, improving growth and 		development opportunities• For every 100 employees who move their growth and development•

ratings from fair or poor to excellent, 21 fewer employees would leavein the next year amounting to $315,000 in savings.
For every 100 employees who move their growth and development
ratings from good or very good to excellent, 14 fewer employees
would leave in the next year amounting to $210,000 in savings.

*Assumes a causal relationship between ratings and turnover and a conservative
estimate of turnover cost at $15,000 per employee.

Being able to contain turnover costs is
not only a competitive advantage, it
is now necessary in today’s employee
marketplace to retain profits.

26

Return on
Investment
in
Retention
Assuming themedian U.S.
worker,$100,000
investment
in retention
will pay foritself if it
prevents 7
employees
fromleaving who
otherwise
would have.

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TAKE ACTION TO IMPROVEEMPLOYEE RETENTION
Employees have the power andorganizations must make strategic, wellinformed efforts to create a workplace thatis preferred by employees in order to retain
employees and maintain profits amidst themounting risk of rising turnover costs.
Create the Conditions of a Preferred Employer
It’s clear from job trends that we have entered a time where jobs
are abundant and employees are in control, not the employers.
That means employees can be more selective in where theychoose to work, and companies must compete to become thekind of place top talent wants go and stay for a long time. Whilehiring and selection is important, oftentimes organizations place
more emphasis on finding the people who fit the workplaceas opposed to shaping the workplace to fit the best people.
Each part of the employment process, from hiring and training
to leadership development, requires a greater emphasis
on becoming a preferred employer. Remember, employee
perceptions form at the moment they begin to interact withthe company to the moment they leave and all throughout theemployee lifecycle.
Show the Financial Impact of TurnoverBusinesses must be competitive in delivering goods andservices to the market, and so the role of the organization tocontain human capital costs becomes equally important as
managing other expenses and driving topline business growth.
Unfortunately, the costs associated with human capital can be
indirect and hard to quantify. Human Resources is often maderesponsible for managing retention, but does not always have a“seat at the table” when strategic business decisions are being
made. Moreover, they do not always receive the funding required
to properly invest in strategic human resource management.
Those advocating for such funding and resources must makea sound business case by establishing the cost of the problem,
proving that you have an accurate understanding of the root
causes through high quality data, and arguing for investments
in solutions that have been proven to address those root causes.
Tracking changes in the business outcomes over time builds thestrongest case for continued focus on such initiatives.
workinstitute.com

Ask the Right Way In Your Organization
To improve employee engagement and retention, a company
must take action. In order to know which actions to take, acompany must make decisions on the truth as employees
perceive it. There are many influences that might cause an
employee to avoid telling the truth in an interview, meeting or
survey. They want to land the job or promotion. They don’t want
to disappoint their manager. They want to avoid rocking the boator burning a bridge. If an organization can’t get to the bottomof what employees are really thinking, how will they ever knowwhat changes are needed to really move the needle? The levelof insights presented in this report was only possible through aunique mixed methodology that captures the true preferences,
expectations and intents of employees. This is done in a trusted,
open-ended way to not bias or restrict what we might hearfrom workers in conjunction with quantitative ratings, which arecommonly used in most surveying efforts. The reason we haveto do this with a mixed methodology is because we don’t cometo the table knowing all the answers. We must give employees avoice, not simply a ratings box to check.
Understand and Act According to the Data
Solutions should always be developed with the unique context
of each client in mind. While it is always exciting and evenenticing to hear about a new approach or solution that has beensuccessful elsewhere, you need to ask yourself these criticalquestions:• What trustworthy data do I have on the root causes of turnoverin my company?
• Can the solution be customized to meet our unique
combination of needs, or is it one-size-fits all?
• What evidence exists to suggest this solution will successfullychange business outcomes given our unique culture, context
and workforce?
Because we always advocate for acting on specific resultsfrom the data and not some off-the-shelf product, Work
Institute works with clients to develop strategies and custom
solutions that address the top reasons for leaving and staying.
Career Development reasons for leaving were most common.
Companies should consider career achievement systems to allow
for advancement within roles, job crafting to shape the "typeof work" that will retain employees, and vocation seminars toconnect skills, passion and goals to the workplace.

27

ABOUT WORK INSTITUTEWork Institute is a leading authority in workforce intelligence,
utilizing evidence-based research methods to capture theemployee voice and deliver deep insights that uncover “thewhy” behind employee thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
to confidently build and implement successful workplacetransformation strategies. Work Institute helps companies that
seek to purposefully improve engagement, performance andretention to deliver key business outcomes and increasingly
become a better place to work.
Work Institute provides employee research, consulting andleadership development education programs to organizationsof all sizes, including many Fortune 500 clients, across multiple
industries and internationally.

How we help businesses become increasingly
better places to work:
ASK with Voice of Employee ResearchDiscover the real reasons behind employee attitudes and behaviors.
Our methodology is unique and powerful, delivering more than twice the information
than survey ratings alone. We use a qualitative and quantitative methodology,
with optimal timing, to deliver actionable insights around the real reasons behind
employee attitudes and behaviors, at a large scale.
• Recruitment Studies• Onboarding Studies• Employee Engagement Studies• Stay Interviews• Exit Interviews• Pulse Interviews• Vulnerability Studies• Custom Research

UNDERSTAND with Analytics
Draw connections and deeper insights as a foundation for strategy.
PLAN with Strategy Development
Develop a strategy and implementation plan to improve employee outcomes andbusiness results.
IMPLEMENT with Data-Driven Programs & Changes
Manage the plan and organizational changes to improve employee outcomes andbusiness results.
EVALUATE with Measurement & Analytics
Track progress by measuring key employee outcomes and business results.

Call Work Institute to schedule a free workforce evaluation.

1-888-750-9008
28

workinstitute.com

ANALYTIC METHODOLOGY & LIMITATIONS
Analytic Methods
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Data (Page 6)
Data was taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). All levels and rates for Unemployment, Job
Openings, Total Separations and Quits included all non-farm industries across the total United States from 2000 to 2016.
Work Institute Historic Exit Interview Database (Pages 14-15, 18)
Data from 242,453 exit interviews conducted between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2016 were analyzed. All reason descriptions werecoded into one of 10 categories of reasons for leaving to look at year-over-year trends. More preventable reasons for leaving and voluntaryreasons for leaving included the sum of exit interviews citing the following reason categories as most important: Career Development, Job
Characteristics, Well-being, Compensation & Benefits, Work Environment, Management Behavior and Work-life Balance. Less preventable reasons
included the sum of interviews citing the following reason categories as most important: Involuntary, Retirement and Relocation. Involuntaryreasons for leaving included only exit interviews citing the Involuntary category as most important.
Work Institute 2016 Exit Interview Database (Pages 12-13, 16-17, 19-21)
Data from 34,870 exit interviews conducted by phone and web between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016 containing data from 173
companies were analyzed. Respondents were asked why they left and were prompted to provide multiple reasons for leaving. Then they
indicated which reason was most important, which was the variable used for analyses. Detailed reason descriptions were coded into 65 reasonsfor leaving plus an “other” category that accounted for 1.5% of interviews. The sample was 62% female, were 40.6 years old (SD = 13.76) on
average and had average tenure of 5 years (SD = 8.23). Turnover profiles of companies were determined according to a ranking of the 10
categories of most important reasons for leaving for each company. Profiles for each company were assigned based on the most prevalent 3
reason categories for each company in any order. Top reasons for leaving in 2016 were based on most important reasons given across all exit
interviews conducted in 2016, and analysis excluded the 1.5% of cases falling in the “Other” category.
Work Institute 2016 Incumbent Database (pages 22-23, 25-26)
Data from 14,059 Stay Interviews and other incumbent employee research studies conducted by phone and web between January 1, 2016
and December 31, 2016 were analyzed. Respondents were asked to rate their intended length of stay with their current employer, prompted
to provide multiple reasons for their rating and then indicated which reason was most important, which was the variable used for analyses.
Respondents were also asked to provide ratings on a 1-5 Likert scale of their satisfaction with organization, manager, opportunities for growthand development, perceptions of support and decisional involvement, all of which were followed with open-ended prompts to provide multiple
reasons and identify the most important reason. Organization and manager retention drivers were based on odds ratios of the likelihood of
employees intending to leave within 12 months across rating levels of organization and manager. Reasons for staying were determined based ona rank ordering of the most important reasons given by those responding they intend to stay for “A long time”. The ratings and reasons analysis
included a hierarchical linear regression model predicting ratings of intention to stay. We first entered just demographics of age and genderalone. Then we added quantitative ratings of the employer, supervisor, opportunities for growth, decisional involvement and perceived support,
which explained 18% of the variance in intent to stay and was statistically significant (F (7) = 23.9, p < .01). This was a statistically significant
boost. Lastly, we coded the qualitative data employees provided when asked why they gave their intent to stay rating and entered each reason
category as a dummy variable to the model, which explained 42% of the variance in intent to stay representing a 2.3 fold increase from justratings and demographics alone (F (17) = 32.7, p < .01). Scenarios of return on investments were computed based on the odds ratios fromorganization and manager retention drivers with the average cost of turnover at $15,000 per employee assuming that a change in ratings would
cause a change in turnover.
Limitations
Aside from BLS data, the data presented in this report are self-report from employees and accordingly is subject to potential error in terms ofperceptions, awareness of the true causes for their behavior and other biases, though we have made all attempts to mitigate potential bias
through our methodology. Work Institute data may also be subject to self-selection bias based on the selection of companies who chose
providing us data; however, the large sample size and large number of companies lend confidence in the results, and the variance in reasons forleaving across companies suggests that companies in the database were not homogenous. Lastly, while statistical analyses in the present reportwere correlational in nature, the questions asked of interviewees were directly causal in nature (e.g., “why?”).

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29

References
1.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey”. https://www.bls.gov/jlt/

2.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Employment Projections: 2014-24 Summary”. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm

3.

Gillespie, Patrick. “Unskilled workers.” CNN Money. 2015. http://money.cnn.com/2015/08/07/news/economy/us-economy-jobskills-gap/

4.

Society for Human Resource Management. “Average cost-per-hire for companies is $4,129, SHRM Survey Finds.” 2016.
https://www.shrm.org/about-shrm/press-room/press-releases/pages/human-capital-benchmarking-report.aspx

5.

Johnson, Arlene A. "The business case for work-family programs." Journal of Accountancy 180.2 (1995): 53.
http://search.proquest.com/openview/3a27cb3f4b0e64e3c4caed6ebf094b71/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41065

6.

Cascio, Wayne F. Costing human resources. Vol. 21. Boston, MA: South-Western Educational Publishing, 1991.

7.

Park, Tae-Youn, and Jason D. Shaw. "Turnover rates and organizational performance: a meta-analysis." Journal of Applied
Psychology 98.2 (2013): 268-309.

8.

Professional Advantage. “Turnover Costs”. 2015. http://professionaladvantageinc.com/turnover-costs/

9.

United States Census Bureau. “Selected characteristics of people 15 years and over, by total money income, work experience,
race, Hispanic origin, and sex.” 2015. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-pinc/pinc01.html

10. Cascio, Wayne, and John Boudreau. Investing in people: Financial impact of human resource initiatives. Ft Press, 2010.
11. Griffeth, Rodger W., Peter W. Hom, and Stefan Gaertner. "A meta-analysis of antecedents and correlates of employee turnover:Update, moderator tests, and research implications for the next millennium." Journal of Management 26.3 (2000): 463-488.
12. Campion, Michael A. "Meaning and measurement of turnover: Comparison of alternative measures and recommendations forresearch." Journal of Applied Psychology 76.2 (1991): 199.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.466.3728&rep=rep1&type=pdf
13. Creswell, J. W. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage Publications, 2013.
14. Wells, S. J. “Diving In”. (2005). HR Magazine. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0305wells.aspx
15. Heritage, Brody, Lauren J. Breen, and Lynne D. Roberts. "In‐groups, Out‐groups, and Their Contrasting Perceptions of Values
among Generational Cohorts of Australians." Australian Psychologist 51.3 (2016): 246-255.
16. Herzberg, Frederick I. Work and the nature of man. 1966.
17. Shankaranarayanan, Ganesan, and Yu Cai. "Supporting data quality management in decision-making." Decision Support
Systems 42.1 (2006): 302-317.
18. Sandelowski, Margarete. "Focus on research methods combining qualitative and quantitative sampling, data collection, andanalysis techniques." Research in nursing & health 23.3 (2000): 246-255.
19. Dykes, B. “Actionable Insights: The Missing Link Between Data and Business Value.” Forbes 2016.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentdykes/2016/04/26/actionable-insights-the-missing-link-between-data-and-businessvalue/#47d7af0b51e5
20. Bertrand, M., & Mullainathan, S. "Do people mean what they say? Implications for subjective survey data." MIT Economics
Working Paper No. 01-04 2001.
21. O'dell, Carla, and C. Jackson Grayson. "If only we knew what we know: Identification and transfer of internal bestpractices." California management review 40.3 (1998): 154-174.

	
  

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workinstitute.com	
  About the Authors
Dr. Lindsay Sears is AVP of Research and Analytics for Work Institute.
As AVP of Research and Analytics for Work Institute, Dr. Sears works with organizations
to reduce turnover, improve performance and drive higher levels of engagement intheir workforce. She is advancing the science of employee engagement, performanceand retention by uncovering insights through research and analytics and testing
innovative approaches in Work Institute’s research methodologies and solutions.
Prior to joining Work Institute, Dr. Sears spent several years consulting to Human
Resource and Organizational Development groups and served as Executive Directorof Advanced Data Sciences at Healthways where she led an interdisciplinary teamof scientists in advanced research, analytics and development of tools to improve
employee well-being.
LINDSAY SEARS, PH.D.
Work Institute AVP of Research and Analytics

She has published several book chapters and research articles on the topics
of retention, health care, measurement, well-being, stress and organizational
performance. Dr. Sears is also a highly-regarded speaker on the topics oforganizational development, well-being and retention. She received her Ph.D. in
Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Clemson University, a Masters of
Science in Applied Psychology from Portland State University and Bachelor of Arts in
Psychology from Rhodes College.

DANNY NELMSWork Institute – President
As President at Work Institute, co-author of The Why Factor:
Winning With Workforce Intelligence, and a highly sought
after public speaker, Danny Nelms is an agent of change, athought leader, and an expert in helping companies forge
new directions to optimize their human capital and improvebusiness results.
Nelms’ background and 25 years of experience have given him
the ability to influence corporate culture and human capital
initiatives in areas including organizational improvement
and effectiveness, leadership development, performance
expectation, talent acquisition, executive coaching, succession
planning, and mergers and acquisitions.

His proven track record in successfully managing teams
in both human resources and corporate services, as wellas his successes in aligning organizational strategies toachieve business objectives, have made him a popular
choice on the speaking circuit. His insight into human capitaldynamics of an organization based on sound data-driven
research uniquely positions Nelms to provide valuable
recommendations for the challenges that organizations faceand allows him to provide companies with the tools theyneed to successfully achieve the desired employee outcomes
and business results.

THOMAS F. MAHAN, PH.D.
Work Institute – Advisor
Dr. Thomas F. Mahan is the founder, owner and chairman ofWork Institute. Prior to starting Work Institute in 2001, Tom was
Senior Vice President with the Saratoga Institute/Spherion, a
Director of Organization Development with Cigna/Equicor, anda Field Executive with Prentice-Hall. As time allowed, Dr. Mahan
was also a professor at Vanderbilt University.
Tom is mostly known for his workforce research and conference
speaking with national and international organizations. An
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Organization Behavior Scientist and Management Behavior
Counselor, Dr. Mahan has worked with managers andemployers to create environments wherein employees canrealize their occupational purpose, while concurrently reducing
targeted and wasteful human capital expenses. As a writer,
Tom co-authored “The Why Factor: Winning with Workforce
Intelligence.”313351 Aspen Grove Drive, Suite 300
Franklin, TN 37067
615-777-6400
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