Want to know why most employees leave your business?

Want to know why most employees leave your business?

You might assume it’s because they were overlooked for promotion, felt their salary was too low, didn’t receive the bonus they expected, or perhaps because they’re not enjoying the workload, fed up with travel, or tired of office politics.

All valid reasons but in truth, many of these frustrations share a common underlying driver: poor communication.

At Kingsley Recruitment and in my candidate-conversations every day, the feedback is clear: “I just don’t know what’s going on anymore.” Whether it’s uncertainty about progression, a lack of clarity on pay reviews, or mixed messages about company direction it all comes down to how information is (or isn’t) shared.

Key statistics you should take note of

Here are some telling data-points to illustrate just how powerful communication is in retaining talent:

• Around 61% of employees have considered leaving their job because of poor internal communication. sparrowconnected.com+1
• In the same research, 33% of employees say poor communication is a major factor in their decision to leave; a further 30% say it’s a minor factor. Staffbase+1
• Organisations whose employees rate internal communication as “excellent” show that 76% of those employees say they are very likely to stay. Whereas where communication is rated “poor”, only 20% say they’re very likely to stay. Staffbase+1
• One study found that 41% of organisations see higher employee turnover as a result of ineffective communication. axioshq.com
• Poor or unclear communication is blamed for 44% of companies’ project failures. hrvisionevent.com
• Beyond retention alone – effective communication also improves productivity significantly: teams that communicate well can increase productivity by up to 20–25%. AIScreen+1
• And of course, the cost of turnover is far from trivial: one estimate puts replacement cost at up to 200% of a leader’s salary, and 40-80% for other employees. Gallup.com+1

So what does this mean in practice?

• Salary, bonus, travel, bureaucracy: Yes, these all matter. But when your people don’t understand where they stand, what the business direction is, or why decisions are being made, they interpret those frustrations through that lack of clarity.
• Transparency isn’t about sharing everything: It’s more about sharing enough so that employees aren’t left to speculate or assume the worst. When people fill in the gaps themselves, it often leads to disengagement, misalignment and ultimately departure.
• Once someone resigns, you’re already on the back foot: When the dialogue has broken down, counter-offers or ‘fix-it’ attempts often arrive too late — the deeper issue was a breakdown in trust or understanding, not just the surface trigger.
• Regular, clear communication matters: Frequency and quality both matter. Research shows that employees receiving regular (daily or weekly) communications are much more likely to understand the company’s goals, feel aligned and intend to stay. hr-brew.com+1
• Managers matter a lot: Many employees rely on their line manager for clarity. If managers are not equipped as communicators, you leave a big gap in employee experience. Sociabble+1

What you can do now

• Audit your internal communications: Are your team members clear about what, why, and how for major company decisions?
• Increase transparency where you can: It may not be feasible to share board-level detail, but you can share direction, context, ‘what to expect’, ‘what’s next’, and ‘what it means for you’.
• Strengthen manager communication skills: A lot of the ‘last-mile’ communication happens via line managers — ensure they’re supported, briefed and comfortable communicating meaningfully.
• Set a cadence: Short, consistent updates beat irregular, ad-hoc ones. Let employees feel “in the loop” rather than “out of the loop”.
• Listen & loop-back: Communication isn’t just top-down. Ensure your teams have avenues to ask questions, voice concerns and understand what the organisation is doing about them.

Your recruitment partner angle

At Kingsley, we speak with candidates every week who are not leaving simply because there’s a better salary elsewhere they’re leaving because they feel out of the conversation, undervalued, or left guessing.

When an employer builds a habit of open, consistent communication it becomes a strong retention lever. When communication breaks down, everything else (salary, bonus, benefits, travel-policy) becomes far less effective in holding someone.

So before you assume someone’s left for “more money” or “a new challenge”, ask yourself: Have we really been communicating as well as we think?