How to Address the 42% of Employee Turnover That's Avoidable
Work & Teams
When we think of employee turnover, it's easy to blame it on forces outside of an organization's control or the natural ebb and flow of the job market. However, the research tells a different story. According to a Gallup survey, 42% of people who quit their jobs reported that there were things that their manager or organization could have done to keep them.
The Work Institute's 2025 Report on Retention found that 76% of worker exits could be attributed to preventable causes, including career misalignment, work-life balance issues, and ineffective management. These statistics demonstrate that contrary to popular belief, most resignations stem from problems that are well within an employer's control, not unpredictable life events.
When we talk about avoidable turnover, we're referring to resignations that are caused by problems that an organization can influence, such as low job satisfaction or poor career prospects, whereas unavoidable turnover is the result of uncontrollable events, such as health issues or relocation needs.
It's essential to make this distinction because it makes little sense for a company to waste time worrying about unavoidable departures when its time would be better spent focusing on the avoidable ones. After all, most employee exits aren't a foregone conclusion; rather, they're the result of fixable workplace issues.
The cost of ignoring avoidable turnover can be huge. By some estimates, replacing a single worker can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary when recruiting, training, and lost productivity are factored in. Even before they head for the exit, disengaged employees collectively drain an estimated $8.8 trillion in lost productivity per year worldwide.
The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way and that much of this churn is avoidable. Baryons' Flourishing Partner can help organizations reduce avoidable employee turnover and what leaders can do to keep their best people engaged and supported.
Why Workers Leave (and What Leaders Often Miss)
It's easy to come up with any number of plausible reasons that an employee may leave their job. For example, if you ask a CEO why workers quit, they might cite pay or better opportunities elsewhere. As common as this belief is, though, it doesn't tell the whole story, and there are often other issues at play. For example, a major survey found that the top drivers of employee exits are a toxic work culture (32% of resignations), followed by poor leadership (30%) and a bad relationship with their manager (28%). By comparison, “unsatisfactory pay” was only the sixth-most cited reason (~20%).
The bottom line is that many people leave due to their daily work environment and relationships, not because they're looking for a bigger paycheck. What many companies don't want to admit is that one of the biggest factors is management. Gallup has found that 70% of team engagement variation depends on the manager and the factors that they influence daily (like feedback, support, and growth opportunities). For those in leadership roles, this means your best course of action is to focus on the problems that you can control and intervene early when you see red flags, such as burnout or stagnation, instead of waiting until a resignation lands on your desk.
Strategies to Boost Engagement and Retain Your Best People
There are many things that leaders can do to reduce avoidable turnover within their organizations. Here are four of the most effective strategies:
Create a Healthy Culture: Nobody wants to stay in a toxic environment, and as soon as a workplace begins to trend that way, many workers will immediately start plotting their exit strategies. It's vital for leaders to act before the situation even gets to that point. One of the best ways to do so is by setting a tone of respect, trust, and inclusion. According to iHire's 2024 Talent Retention Report, 83% of employees said that a positive work environment was important to them. As a leader, you must make sure your workers feel valued and regularly recognize their contributions.
Support Work-Life Balance: Burnout is one of the quickest paths to employee turnover. Organizations should make it a point to encourage their workers to work reasonable hours and discourage an "always on" culture. The statistics speak for themselves: 68% of employees say that they'd be more likely to stay with an organization longer if they supported a work-life balance. Protecting your team's downtime will go a long way toward boosting loyalty and productivity.
Invest in Career Growth: A lack of opportunities for growth is one of the top reasons that workers quit, with about 25% saying that they'd leave within six months if they didn't get the career development support that they needed. Showing your talent how they can progress in your company makes it more likely that they'll stay with you for the long haul.
Keep Communication Open: Annual reviews shouldn't be the only time that you're checking in with your employees. Instead, you should be having frequent one-on-one conversations about goals and challenges in order to build trust and catch problems early. Workers who have a meaningful chat with their manager each week are four times more likely to be engaged at work. When you communicate with your employees regularly, you have a better chance of hearing their concerns and addressing problems before they decide to exit.
What companies must recognize is that everyone deserves to flourish and a Flourishing Partner to help them meet their goals, feel supported, and perform their best.
Flourishing at Work: A New Ally for Employee Retention
One of the biggest challenges in retaining top talent is that even the most attentive managers can’t be everywhere at once. In fast-paced organizations, subtle signs of disengagement often go unnoticed until it’s too late. This is where a Flourishing Partner can make a measurable difference.
A Flourishing Partner helps bridge the gap between leaders and their people. It supports each employee through reflection, goal design, and guided growth, helping them stay aligned, engaged, and connected to purpose. By combining behavioral insights with compassionate nudges, it creates the space for meaningful progress without adding more meetings or noise.
Flourishing Partners don’t replace managers. They strengthen them. They ensure that everyone, from rising talent to senior leaders, has a steady source of reflection, encouragement, and clarity. They help identify early patterns of burnout, disengagement, or misalignment before they become resignation letters.
For instance, imagine an employee who feels stuck but hasn’t voiced it yet. A Flourishing Partner might notice patterns of fatigue or disconnection and invite a moment of reflection. The employee takes a guided pause, regains clarity, and reconnects with what matters most. The manager, now aware and informed, can start a supportive conversation and co-design new opportunities for growth. The result: a renewed sense of engagement and belonging.
Across an organization, these micro-moments of reflection compound. Teams begin communicating better. Leaders act with more confidence. Employees feel seen and supported. This is what we call Collective Flourishing, the compounding gains that occur when individuals and teams grow together.
Final Thoughts
Most employees don’t leave because they want to start over. They leave because they’ve lost connection to meaning, to growth, to feeling seen. Burnout, silence, and stagnation are all signals that can be heard earlier if we create systems for reflection and care.
Flourishing Partners help make that possible. They give organizations a way to see the unseen, to design what’s next with intention, and to keep their people thriving. Reducing turnover isn’t just about retention, it’s about cultivating workplaces where people and performance grow side by side.
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