What's driving employees out the door?

McLean & Company has released two new reports, the New Hire Survey Benchmark Report 2024 and the Exit Survey Benchmark Report 2024, to help HR leaders understand talent acquisition and retention trends.  

With talent acquisition and retention as top priorities, these reports provide insights to assist organizations in managing the employee lifecycle, which is essential for long-term success. 

Will Howard, director of HR Research and Advisory Services at McLean & Company, emphasized the growing importance of data in planning and decision-making.  

“While HR continues to prepare organizations for an unpredictable future, data will play an increasingly necessary role in effective planning and decision-making,” Howard said.  

He explained that HR must guide organizational leaders with data-driven strategies for long-term success. He noted that talent acquisition and retention remain challenging for many industries. 

By understanding the factors influencing new hires and employee exits, organizations can address gaps and make improvements within their systems. 

Both reports highlight how various environmental factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Great Resignation, return-to-office policies, labour demand, unstable market conditions, and the cost-of-living crisis, influenced hiring and turnover from 2021 to 2023. 

Career opportunities emerged as a key driver for both hiring and turnover. Career advancement remained the top reason for employees leaving organizations, while career opportunities were the most common reason candidates accepted new roles. 

In the New Hire Survey Benchmark Report 2024, McLean & Company evaluates four key categories of the new hire experience: 

• Acclimatization – This section examines how well the organization and managers prepared new hires for their roles. Survey participants responded to statements like "My manager effectively communicated how my role fits the mission and vision of the organization." 

• Training and development – New hires assessed their training and the organization's support for their development. Respondents rated statements such as "The training provided was effective in transitioning me into my role." 

• Defining performance expectations – The report looks at how clearly new hires understood performance expectations and feedback from their managers. 

• Candidate experience – hiring – New hires shared their experiences during the hiring process, including how informed they felt throughout the process. 

The Exit Survey Benchmark Report 2024 breaks down six key factors influencing employees' decisions to leave their organizations: 

• Personal factors – Non-work-related reasons for leaving, such as retirement or returning to school. 

• Job factors – Aspects related to career opportunities, job satisfaction, and relationships with co-workers. 

• Compensation factors – Pay and benefits, including paid time off, that influenced the decision to leave. 

• Organizational factors – Factors such as the company’s culture, senior leadership, and future potential. 

• Manager factors – Employees' perceptions of their managers' effectiveness in leading and providing feedback. 

• Working condition factors – Conditions in the workplace, including physical safety and work scheduling, that impacted employee decisions. 

Both reports provide benchmark scores and detailed insights for each category. The reports use McLean & Company's proprietary New Hire Survey and Exit Survey databases, with data collected from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2023. Most employees and organizations surveyed are based in North America.