Why do employees leave? What motivates good employees to stay?

John Hausknecht, assistant professor in human resource studies at the ILR School, and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at Harrah's Entertainment tried to find out by surveying 2,500 hospitality hourly, salaried and managerial employees after they left their jobs.

Among their findings, which have implications for human resources professionals:

• Incompetent, incompatible or insensitive supervisors were the fourth leading cause of job departures by high performers, but were the most important cause of job departures by low performers;
• High performers leave for other jobs if they are not rewarded well for their work, do not have adequate advancement opportunities or are not using their skills; and
• Low performers leave jobs because of incompatible work hours, heavy workloads and absenteeism policies.

The findings, said Hausknecht, "offer new ideas about retaining the people who bring the most to your organization."

Employers can begin developing a strategy to retain high performers, Hausknecht said, by:

• Performing exit interviews/questionnaires to help identify why people quit;
• Publicizing/restructuring career ladders to motivate employees seeking advancement.

The 2007 report, "Why High and Low Performers Leave and What They Find Elsewhere: Job Performance Effects on Employment Transitions," can be read at http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cahrswp/466/.