Why do employees leave?

According to a recent Robert Walters survey, lack of career progression is the main reason for professionals leaving a role in all countries surveyed throughout Europe.

Almost 6,700 professionals across Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland were surveyed on a variety of employment related issues including working habits, work/life balance, job satisfaction, motivation and mentoring.

The survey revealed that 44% of professionals across Europe cited lack of career progression as the main reason for leaving a role. Out of the possible reasons, disappointing salary review/bonus ranked last, with only 11% of individuals citing this as the primary reason to leave a job. Ireland mirrored these results with 47% of professionals prepared to move jobs as a result of poor career progression and 13% as a result of poor salary review/bonus.

Suzanne Feeney, Country Manager at Robert Walters Ireland, says: “Contrary to popular belief, salary is not the main factor in retaining staff. If people feel there is little or no progression in their current company, they will look elsewhere in spite of a generous remuneration package.”

Contrary to popular belief, salary is not the main factor in retaining staff.
 

In Ireland, the banking & financial services sector had the highest volume of professionals citing lack of career progression as the main reason for leaving a role at 31%. 21% of Irish professionals indicated that a difficult manager/boss would be the primary cause for leaving a role, while 13% would leave as a result of a disappointing salary review/bonus.

Suzanne Feeney says: “In order to attract and retain top talent, it is essential for organisations to have a defined career path for individuals in order to improve their employer brand and become an employer of choice. As market conditions improve and career opportunities open up, employees will be far less inclined to stay in a role which does not offer clear and measurable progression."

Stay ahead of your competitors when it comes to talent attraction and retention by benchmarking your team's salary against industry standards using the Robert Walters Salary Survey Ireland 2024.