Why people really leave
Step 1 / 2·Exit interviews almost always produce the safe answer
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Learning objectives — after this module you will:
- Understand why exit interviews produce poor data
- Identify the levers a manager genuinely controls
- Separate company-level causes from manager-level causes
Exit interviews almost always produce the safe answer
Know why this data cannot drive decisions.
Someone on their way out has three reasons not to be candid: they need a reference, they might come back one day, and every industry is smaller than it looks. So 'I found a better development opportunity' is the safest answer available, and the most used.
The consequence: an organisation relying on exit interviews almost always concludes 'it's pay' or 'it's development' — the two things a line manager controls least. That is why so many retention programmes focus on pay while the attrition rate does not move.
Pay is rarely the cause, but often the final straw
Someone happy with their work and their manager does not usually go looking. Once they have started looking for other reasons, an offer 15% higher becomes the trigger for the decision — and the reason given on the way out.