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Hiring Wisdom: Tipping Points When Employees Stay – or When They Go

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Oct 17, 2011

Are you pushing your great employees away or is someone else taking them?

A study by University of  Washington professor Dr. Thomas Lee found there is a negative or internal precipitating event or turning point in 66 percent of all employee turnover. This means there is a positive or external tipping point in 34 percent of all voluntary terminations.

Examples of internal negative events are:

  • My manager was stealing and I could not work for him.
  • I was passed over for promotion.
  • I was promised the company would pay for a course they asked me to take and then they refused to reimburse me.
  • I got tired of doing the work of two employees who the boss let get away with sitting around.
  • I needed to leave to pick up my 7-year old who got sick at school and was written up for leaving even though I told my supervisor the situation.

Examples of positive tipping points:

  • I was offered $5,500 a year more.
  • The job was closer to where I live.
  • The new job offers tuition reimbursement.
  • I have the ability to work at home if necessary, or at least one day a week.

This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog.