This article is about the hidden, elusive motivations that cause capable employees to start questioning their decision to join your company, start thinking of leaving, eventually disengage, and finally, leave.

The true root causes of voluntary employee turnover are hiding in plain sight. If we really think about it, we already know what they are: lack of recognition (including low pay), unfulfilling jobs, limited career advancement, poor management practices, untrustworthy leadership, and dysfunctional work cultures. So, in what way are these root causes hidden, and from whom? Surveys tell us they are hidden from the very people who need to be most aware of them - the line managers who are charged with engaging and keeping valued employees in every organization. The vast majority of line managers, in fact, believe that most employees leave because they are ‘‘pulled’’ away by better offers. Of course most do leave for better offers, but it is simplistic and superficial to accept ‘‘pull factors’’ as root causes. What these managers fail to perceive is that ‘‘push factors,’’ mostly within their own power, are the initial stimuli - the first causes - that open the door to the ‘‘pull’’ of outside opportunities. The important question that remains unasked in so many exit interviews is not ‘‘Why are you leaving?’’ but ‘‘Why are you not staying?’’