In our organization, we’ve been conducting exit interviews for about two years. When departing employees are asked why they’re leaving, fully three quarters state that they’ve been offered more money elsewhere. But I know that our pay is competitive within our sector. What gives?

What indeed? First, congratulations for doing the exit interviews. They can be a rich source of information. I see that you are also summarizing the results as a way of identifying trends – trends like the one you refer to. Too often the documentation from exit interviews is just filed away and never looked at again.

Broadly speaking, when employees resign to join a different organization, they do so for one of two reasons: they are either pushed or pulled. People who are pulled are moving to what they believe will be a better employment experience, while those who are pushed are removing themselves from a situation that is not to their liking.

Pushing and pulling: Why people change jobs

Leaving for more money is an example of a pull. And it certainly can be true that the offer of higher pay can be the main reason why people leave. Our reader’s experience of three-quarters of voluntarily terminations does, however, seem very high.

Most employees who resign are anxious not to burn bridges on the way out. They feel that the grass will be greener in their new workplace, but there’s no guarantee of that; the fact is, they’re taking a risk by moving to an employer that they know only a little bit about. So it’s only human nature to look for a “safe” answer to the question of why they’re leaving.

Which is “safer,” saying you’re being pulled or saying you’re being pushed? That’s easy; it’s safer to say that you’re being pulled. Saying that you’re leaving for more money is safe. Saying that you’re running from a bad manager, an unethical company, a workplace that rewards all the wrong things, incompetent people, or the client from hell, pretty much guarantees that your bridges will be in ashes.

People don’t usually resign on a whim. It takes a fairly strong pull or push to get people to decide to change employers. After all, moving from one workplace to another is stressful. It’s stressful to adapt to all the changes that changing jobs entails. There’s a new route to and from work, maybe taking transit instead of driving, or a carpool for the first time, it may take longer to get to and from the workplace, there are new coworkers, a new boss, new customers – you get the idea. People don’t normally take all that on unless they see a good reason to do so.

So, unless we’re talking about entry level, it takes a sizeable pay increase to entice most people to change employers. How sizeable? Here’s a really unscientific measure. Many years ago some behavioural scientists conducted an experiment on human perception of change. In a workplace they experimented with the lighting levels, slowly increasing and decreasing them. They wanted to find how much the lighting level would have to change before every person in the room agreed that the change had occurred.

How big of a pull is needed?

It turned out that a 15% change one way or the other was needed before everybody noticed the change. Let’s apply this to pay increases. I’m going to suggest, again unscientifically, that for most people, it would take the offer of at least a 15% pay increase for them to leave and go through all the stressful adaptations that I’ve mentioned.

Suppose you were offered a 10% pay increase to move to a different employer? What would you say? (I know that there are other considerations, but please just play along.) I’m betting that you wouldn’t make the move just to get a 10% increase in pay. If your salary today is $60,000 per year, an additional 10% brings it to $66,000. How much would your life change as a result of the increase? It probably wouldn’t change at all.

If, on the other hand, the offer was a 15% increase, you might look at the opportunity differently. That would mean a salary of $69,000. That’s almost $70,000. How do you feel about changing jobs now? Try this little exercise with your salary plus 10%, then plus 15%. See if you feel different about the two results.

Oh, and how likely is it that three-quarters of your employees could get a 15% pay hike with another employer in your market?

So if you’re having an experience with exit interviews similar to our reader’s, first subscribe to a salary survey to make sure that your pay grid has kept up with the market. Then, in subsequent exit interviews, try probing for additional information when employees tell you that they’re leaving for more money. You may be rewarded with information that wouldn’t have otherwise come out.

To submit a question for a future column, or to comment on a previous one, please contact editor@charityvillage.com. No identifying information will appear in this column. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Tim directly.

Tim Rutledge, Ph.D., is a veteran human resources consultant and publisher of Mattanie Press. You can contact him at tim_rutledge@sympatico.ca or visit www.gettingengaged.ca.

Disclaimer: Advice and recommendations are based on limited information provided and should be used as a guideline only. Neither the author nor CharityVillage.com make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information provided in whole or in part within this article.

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