Employee Retention Strategies: What Leavers Say Would Have Kept Them

Start with the numbers

Two kinds of numbers matter: how many people leave, and what it costs when they do.

On the first, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes monthly turnover figures. In its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey release for July 2026, the quits rate for total nonfarm employment was 1.9 percent (3.1 million quits) and the total separations rate was 3.2 percent. Those are monthly rates for the whole economy. Adding twelve months of a 1.9 percent quits rate gives a rough yearly figure near 23 percent, but treat that as a loose estimate, since monthly rates change and vary widely by industry.

On the second, Gallup estimates that replacing a leader or manager costs about 200% of annual salary, a technical professional about 80% and a frontline employee about 40%. These are survey-based estimates, not exact costs, and your own figure will differ. They are still useful for deciding how much a retention effort is worth.

Your own numbers matter more than national ones. If you are in HR, begin by measuring turnover by team, tenure and manager. Averages hide the pockets where people actually leave.

What leavers say would have kept them

Gallup surveyed 717 U.S. employees who had voluntarily left an employer within the past year and now work elsewhere. The survey ran in November 2023, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. In its report on preventable turnover, Gallup says 42% of these leavers said their manager or organization could have prevented their departure.

Of those who said it was preventable, here is what they said would have kept them:

Two cautions. These are self-reported reasons, given after the fact, and people may rationalize or leave out reasons they find awkward to share. And Gallup is a consulting firm that sells manager and engagement services, so read its framing with that in mind. Still, the pattern is useful: money matters most, but manager behavior, taken together, accounts for nearly as many answers (21% plus 8%, which is 29%).

The silence problem

The same Gallup report found something that has little to do with pay. Among voluntary leavers, 36% did not talk to anyone before deciding to resign. Of those who did discuss leaving, 44% did not talk to their direct supervisor. And 45% said neither a manager nor another leader had proactively discussed their job satisfaction, performance or future in the three months before they left.

Put simply, many employers learned about the problem at the resignation letter. Gallup’s recommendation is for managers to start coaching conversations before employees decide to leave, rather than waiting for employees to raise concerns, and it suggests this could cut preventable turnover nearly in half. That is Gallup’s estimate, not a guarantee, and your results will depend on how well the conversations are done.

Strategies matched to reasons

Pick the two reasons that are most common in your own data. Trying to fix all six at once usually fixes none.

Worked example: price your turnover

This is our own made-up example, using Gallup’s frontline estimate of about 40% of salary. A company has 50 frontline employees, each paid $40,000 a year, and 20% leave voluntarily in a year.

So a retention effort that keeps just two of the ten leavers would be worth about $33,600 a year, which sets an upper limit on what is sensible to spend. The 42% and the 40% come from surveys of other employers, so replace them with your own data as soon as you have it. Count what you really spend on replacing someone: recruiting, interview time, training, lost output while the seat is empty.

A 90-day plan

1. Days 1 to 15: measure. Calculate turnover by team, role, tenure and manager for the past year. List the reasons recorded at exit.
2. Days 16 to 30: choose a focus. Pick the team or group where the cost is highest and the cause is most fixable.
3. Days 31 to 60: talk to people who stayed. Hold short stay interviews with current employees in that group (questions below).
4. Days 45 to 75: fix the top two issues. Choose actions you can finish: a pay adjustment, a clearer career path, a workload fix.
5. Days 60 to 90: set the manager rhythm. Ask every manager in the group to hold a regular career and workload conversation, and to note any risks.
6. Day 90: review. Compare resignations and engagement scores with the baseline. Report what worked and what did not.

Check results again after six and twelve months. Turnover moves slowly, and early gains can fade.

Stay interview questions

A stay interview is a short, private conversation with a current employee about what keeps them and what might push them out. Ask one or two at a time. Listen, write down what you hear, and follow up with action.

• What do you look forward to when you come to work?
• What would make you think about leaving?
• What is one thing that makes your job harder than it needs to be?
• What skill would you like to build in the next year?
• Is there anything you would change about how we work together?
• If you could change one thing about your role, what would it be?

The most important part comes next. If you ask and do nothing, you teach people that speaking up is pointless. Tell them what you will do, what you cannot do and why.

Common mistakes

• Relying on exit interviews alone. They come too late, and reasons given at exit may be softened.
• Offering perks instead of fixing causes. Check what your own leavers cite first.
• Treating pay as the only lever. Money led the Gallup list, but manager and career issues together were large.
• Averaging turnover across the company. The problem usually sits in particular teams or under particular managers.
• Asking and not acting. Stay interviews without follow-through damage trust.
• Overreading a single survey. Gallup’s sample is 717 leavers in one year with a margin of plus or minus 5 points.

Learn more

If you want to build HR skills in this area, online platforms such as Coursera and Udemy list human resource management courses. We may earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you. We are not affiliated with any university. See also our HR management certificate guide.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best employee retention strategies?

The best ones address the reasons your own people give. In Gallup’s leaver survey, the leading answers were compensation and benefits, manager interactions, organizational issues and career advancement.

How much does employee turnover cost?

Gallup estimates about 200% of salary for leaders and managers, about 80% for technical professionals and about 40% for frontline employees. These are estimates, so calculate your own.

How much turnover is preventable?

In Gallup’s survey, 42% of voluntary leavers said their manager or organization could have prevented their departure. Treat that as a signal to investigate, not a precise rate.

What is a stay interview?

A short conversation with a current employee about what keeps them at the company and what might make them leave. It is different from an exit interview, which happens after the decision.

Do exit interviews work?

They can reveal patterns, but they come after the decision, and people may not be fully candid. Use them with stay interviews and data on turnover by team.

Is pay the main reason people leave?

It was the most common answer among preventable leavers in Gallup’s survey, at 30%, but manager interactions and other issues made up most of the rest.

How often should managers hold career conversations?

There is no single right answer. Many organizations ask for at least one a quarter. Gallup found that 45% of leavers had no proactive conversation from a leader in their last three months.

Where do I start in a small company?

Write down who left in the last two years and why, then talk to your current team about what would make them leave. Fix the cheapest, most common issue first.