How to prevent turnover: the conversations managers keep missing

Employee turnover rarely happens overnight. In most cases, people decide to leave and begin planning their exit long before leaders notice.

Voluntary turnover risk is now at its highest point since 2015. Half of all employees are either job hunting or watching for new opportunities, and this number keeps growing. Even though the number of people quitting has steadied since the Great Resignation, partly because of a slower economy and fewer job openings, employees are less committed to their organizations than at any time in the past nine years.

The key issue isn’t just how many people are leaving, but why. In the past year, 42% of employees who quit said their manager or company could have done something to keep them.

This means many of these departures could have been prevented, but the opportunity to act was missed.

The real problem isn’t the resignation. It’s the conversation that never happened

When an employee quits, most leaders are caught off guard. What changed? What went wrong? In reality, much of this turnover could have been prevented well before the resignation letter appeared.

Three out of four people who voluntarily leave their jobs either don’t look for a new job before leaving or find one within three months of starting their search. This shows that most people decide to leave before they even start looking. By the time they update their CV, their mind is usually already made up.

What’s more concerning is that employees rarely tell their managers they’re thinking about leaving. Almost 40% of people who quit never talked to anyone before making their decision. Of those who did, 44% didn’t talk to their direct manager. Employees are more likely to talk to a coworker than to the person who could help them stay.

This points to a bigger issue with management. Leaders often wait for employees to speak up, but the data shows this almost never happens. Employees process the decision alone, resign, and the manager finds out when it's already too late to act.

The lesson is clear. Managers who want to keep people from leaving can’t just respond after it happens. They need to find ways to spot early warning signs because employees usually won’t speak up first.

We recommend you reading:  Why are UK employees quitting in 2026?

What managers failed to ask in the last three months

Gallup interviewed people who had recently quit their jobs to learn about their interactions with their bosses in the three months before they left. The results showed a pattern of missed opportunities. For example, almost half (45%) said no manager or leader spoke with them about their job satisfaction, performance, or future at the company in the last three months.

For those who did have a conversation, the topics were usually basic. Only 29% talked about their future at the company. Just 28% discussed job satisfaction. Only 17% were asked what would keep them, which is likely the most important question a manager can ask someone who might leave.

Consider these two numbers: 42% of people who left say their departure could have been prevented, and 45% say no leader had a proactive conversation with them in their last three months.

That’s a major missed opportunity for organizations to step in. Going three months without a real conversation is far too long. But that’s exactly what the data shows is happening.

About 42% of employees who chose to leave their jobs in the past year say their manager or organization could have done something to keep them.

Gallup

"There’s nothing I can do; it’s a salary issue"

Gallup also asked former employees what might have convinced them to stay. The most common answer was more pay or better benefits, mentioned by 30% of those who felt their resignation could have been avoided.

This isn’t surprising, but salary is also the most common reason managers mention, and it accounts for less than a third of preventable departures. The other 70% is about how people are managed every day, for example:

• 21% wanted more positive interactions with their manager, to be listened to, recognized, and treated as a person instead of just a resource.
• 13% expected the organization to fix ongoing problems.
• 11%  didn’t see real opportunities for career growth.
• 9% needed relief from staffing, workload, or scheduling pressures.

Open-ended responses showed the same pattern. Some people said they would have stayed if their work had been recognized and their pay and title matched those of others in similar roles. Others wanted respect, a manager who cared about their wellbeing, or the freedom to do their job without being micromanaged.

None of these requests is unreasonable. People need recognition, respect, chances to grow, independence, and a manageable workload to stay committed to their jobs. Most of these things are within a manager’s control, not just HR or upper management's.

You can’t prevent retention with another survey or by promising to review salaries later. Retention is built or lost in the daily relationship between managers and their teams.

Three actions that prevent employee turnover

There are three main actions to prevent voluntary turnover, especially among high-talent employees. None of these require complex evaluation programs or expensive retention initiatives. They are just regular conversations that most managers don’t have often enough or clearly enough.

1. Talk about compensation and career progression

As we mentioned, salary can help attract new hires, but it’s not always what keeps people.

What matters more is whether employees feel their pay reflects their value and the future opportunities available to them at the company. Pay accounts for 30% of the actions that could have prevented someone from leaving. Career advancement, mentioned by 11% of former employees, is closely related. Together, these reasons account for nearly two out of five cases in which someone might have stayed.

Managers can’t simply say that pay decisions are out of their hands. Even if they don’t set salaries, they can talk openly about compensation, performance, expectations, and promotion timelines. They can also help employees develop plans that outline which skills to build, what steps to take, and what future they can expect at the company.

When employees know how they can grow, what is expected of them, and how that growth leads to recognition, responsibility, or better pay, they feel more secure about their future at the company.

Remember, people rarely leave companies that help them grow. They leave when they feel stuck.

Don't miss our related content:Top 15 employee benefits in the UK for 2026 (a guide for employers)

2. Strengthen the manager-employee relationship

Another big factor in preventing turnover is the relationship between managers and their teams.

Nearly 30% of actions that could have prevented employee turnover were about manager interactions. Twenty-one percent wanted more positive interactions, better listening, better communication, and more recognition. Another 8% wanted fewer negative experiences, such as rudeness or micromanagement.

This relationship is not built during yearly reviews or formal meetings. It grows through daily interactions, like how questions are asked, how effort is recognized, and how support is offered when someone faces a challenge.

Studies have found that when managers have at least one meaningful conversation each week with their team members, employees are four times more likely to be highly engaged, no matter where they work. The format is not important; it’s more about how often and how intentionally these conversations happen.

Employee-manager conversations don’t need to be long or complicated. Fifteen to thirty minutes is enough if they focus on goals, priorities, recognition for recent work, collaboration, and an employee’s strengths.

Sometimes, a good conversation starts with a simple question: What do you need to do your best work this week?

3. Remove obstacles before they turn into burnout and exhaustion

Almost a quarter of preventable turnover could have been avoided if the organization had addressed staffing, workload, and scheduling issues.

These problems do not appear all at once. They build up over time. Like processes that are not reviewed, workloads that slowly become too much, open positions that others have to cover, and changing priorities that are not explained.

Small issues, if ignored, become a sign that no one cares. If leadership and HR do not act in time, the team gets a clear message: this is not going to change.

That feeling erodes both productivity and trust. People don’t expect perfection, but they do expect someone to notice problems, understand their impact, and take action to fix or at least reduce them. If ignored, that ongoing friction can lead to burnout, exhaustion, dissatisfaction, and overall disengagement.

6 other strategies that can help you prevent your best talent from leaving

These six strategies are about building strong support systems for employees right from the start:

Hire for fit, not just for skill

Preventing turnover starts with the hiring process, even before your team is in place.

You can always teach new skills, but changing someone’s fit with your company culture is much harder. Make sure to have a clear picture of what matters to your new candidates and how they see their ideal workplace to spot this early.

Get onboarding right from day one

Start with powerful retention actions from the moment someone joins, instead of waiting until they consider leaving. Only 12% of employees strongly agree that their company does a good job onboarding new hires. Because of this, many new employees may get a negative impression of the company from day one.

A strong onboarding process helps new employees understand the company’s mission, how their role fits in, what growth opportunities exist, and how they’ll be supported.

Make career growth and development (very) visible

Supporting employees means helping them learn new skills and move forward in the company. When employees feel they have no room to grow, they may look for new opportunities at other companies.

Managers and HR need to work together to build a process in which leaders meet with their teams regularly to discuss career goals and how the company can support them.

Make work-life balance part of the culture

Today, employees look at more than just monetary benefits. They also care about work-life balance and having time to disconnect from work. 

Offering perks like mental health days, flexible work schedules, and tools to support their physical and mental health can make a difference in whether employees decide to stay or leave the company.

Recognise and reward consistently

Recognition should be a regular part of company culture, not just something informal or only for annual reviews. A strong recognition program can cut turnover by about half. This means it is more than a nice gesture; it is also one of the most cost-effective ways to keep employees.

Recognition can take many forms. It might be a personal congratulatory letter from a senior leader or the CEO. It can also be more formal, such as bonuses tied directly to achievements.

The main difference between a program that really keeps people and one that is just for show is consistency. Recognition should happen often and come from different levels in the organization, not just as a single email once a year.

Use data to spot risk before the exit interview

If you track things like turnover signals, salary trends, performance ratings, and participation in development programs over time, you can spot problems early instead of waiting for exit interviews to learn what went wrong.

One way to understand turnover is to look at two main causes: sudden shocks, like a change in leadership, and low job embeddedness, which means weak daily connections to the organization.

Exit interviews usually happen too late to be useful. Employees often aren’t fully honest when leaving, so the five strategies above—hiring, onboarding, visible growth, balance, and recognition—matter more than what comes up in a final interview.

Reduce employee turnover by putting wellbeing first

Wellbeing is now essential for keeping employees, not just a bonus. Our Return on Wellbeing report found that 85% of HR leaders believe wellness programs help retain top talent, and 82% say these programs help employees perform well after they are hired.

Employees agree. Over 70% say they would feel more engaged and satisfied at work if their company focused more on their wellbeing. The same number say it would make them want to stay with their employer longer.

People at all levels of the company feel the same way. About 51% of employees, 66% of managers, and 71% of C-suite leaders say they would think about changing jobs for better wellbeing support. The higher their role, the more likely they are to consider it.

In the UK, 86% of employees say they would consider leaving a company that does not focus on wellbeing, but only 20% strongly feel that wellness is truly part of their company’s culture. This shows there is a clear gap between what employees want and what most companies offer.

Younger employees notice this gap the most. They are more likely to leave if their wellbeing needs are not met. For companies that still treat wellness as an extra, this is becoming a bigger retention problem.

Pay and promotions are no longer enough. More employees now pick jobs based on how well a company supports their wellbeing, including wellness programs, mental health support, and self-care, not just salary increases.

Overall, employees who feel their wellbeing is valued are much more likely to stay. Companies that do not meet these needs make it easier for competitors to attract their talent.