Why Do People Quit Their Jobs?

Part of my expertise in human resources and business performance, I realized that many people are quitting their job for totally different reasons not related to any financial aspects. Even though and inspire of many articles that are talking about the same topic, I decided to conduct personalized survey for the region that I'm based currently (at the time) which is United Arab Emirates (UAE) to understand what are the reasons making people quit their job. At the end of 2017, I decided to conduct Employees' Turnover Survey to have better understanding behind the real reasons behind this issue. I targeted thousands of employees whom are based in UAE  from different jobs, functions, industries and locations. 

By end of this blog, you will have an idea of the main reasons why people quit their job and that was total shock to me considering the region is well-known of its job security and competitive packages comparing to other regions. But before heading to the results, here are the questions that I asked in the survey.

Question (1): Why did you quit your previous job? The survey shows 19% of employees left their previous job of their managers. This reflects how management style and leadership behaviors play passive role in determine employees' retention. Everyone knows that HR department is not the only ultimate solutions or problem solver specially when it comes to internal and technical issues. The first and final decision is with the line managers due to the direct interaction with the employees.

Question (2): What will make you stay at your current employers? This answer is quite surprising because people were not looking for financial aspects as priority, however; they are looking to be more engaged and feel they part of the organization success. The result shows that 30% of employees are looking to get engaged within the organization as they want to feel they play better role in the organization's transformation and success. However, they are not able to get engaged due to several results that are connected from the results of the 1st question. 

Question (3): How long you willing to stay at your current organization? Several statistics showed that average length of services (LOS) of every employee is about 3 to 5 years and any organization with average LOS is less than 3 years, it triggers a sign of huge negative culture that the organization adopt. The results in this survey show about 66% of employees are willing to stay more than 3 years if certain positive practices are adapted within the culture. The 66% is the total for more than 3 years however, the survey’s answer is segregated into 6 answers (less than a year, 3-5 years, 5-7 years, 7-10 years and over 10 years).

Question (4): What are you planning to earn in the next 3 years of your stay at your current employer? What I loved in this answer was only 24% of people were looking for financial aspects and that is not final because it could change to lower ratio if certain motivational aspects are considered. Therefore, people are willing to stay for the next 3 years at your department or organization if they were able to have career opportunities, get development and empowered or able to contribute positively towards the organization’s success.

This report was based on an input from people that are based and working in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on my review, I noticed that there are not big differences between the results I got from the survey I conducted and the outcomes from international surveys such as Galp and other survey agencies. It is all about human nature and behavior but overall it seems this issue has been there for a while and it will continue if we did not take any corrective actions.

There are no one medicine that will cure every illness and a medicine for same illness will not cure everyone. The suit can be tailored from the same material to everyone but cannot be at the same size of everyone. That’s mean, there is no one solution will everyone and no every successful solution will fit you. Proper consultation and project management has to be conducted separately for each other organization to ensure it meets the objectives and expectations.

If you are looking for further consultation, support and collaborations; feel free to contact me. In case if you are looking to have full view of survey report, you can have downloadable soft copy for just USD 49.99 by click the below Buy Now button or visit our Employee’s Turnover Survey page. Hope these details had giving you an idea of what is really going on within your organization and it’s the time to start thinking of solutions.

What Do You Think?