Three quarters of UK CEOs have cited personal issues – such as stress – as the main reason their employees leave the company, according to new research.
Pay was cited at 34 percent and job dissatisfaction 19 percent by respondents to the study, which was commissioned by Skillsoft.
The research also found a lack of opportunities came near the bottom of the list – just seven percent of CEOs cited this as a key reason employees leave.
This type of research really throws into light the assumptions made about employee motivations. Many companies believe employee decisions over moving jobs are based on opportunities i.e. if the job has become a ‘dead-end’ then they’ll move on.
There’s a constant need for HR to decipher the reasons for employees leaving and make sure that policies are in place to handle grievances. These reasons shift rapidly – the economic downturn and the associated financial difficulties have caused some employees to give a greater priority to financial security over ‘softer’ benefits, such as gym memberships.
A detailed analysis of the research can be found in the latest Skillsoft whitepaper entitled ‘CEO perspectives on people: leadership, recruitment and skills’ which can be downloaded here.
The UK study, conducted by Opinion Matters on behalf of Skillsoft, surveyed 503 CEOs of businesses with more than 250 employees, across 13 business sectors.
One Response
Assumptions Abound
You are indeed correct that the research "throws into light the assumptions made by employee motivation" as your article appears to compund this, a massive point that the research states is as follows:
"The prevalence of “personal issues” across all size groups could simply mean that CEOs didn’t know why someone had left."
Perhaps Skillsoft and HRZone should commission research to highlight the exact reasons for leaving cited in exit interviews from the same companies then we wil have no need to rely on assumptions.