Redundancies, whether voluntary or involuntary, can’t always be avoided, but businesses can control the level of resignations. According to Bamboo HR the top three reasons for resignations are due to looking for a higher salary, poor line management and lack of growth opportunities. High resignation rates should be looked at on a strategic level, as they could be a sign of a toxic culture, poor work-life balance and lack of communication. Exit interviews can be helpful in collecting this information to inform leadership of changes that need to be made.

Reasons for quitting can vary across industries and generations. As stated in a recent article on Forbes, the main reason for Gen Z’s quitting is due to burnout. Hostile cultures, excessive workloads and long hours, significantly contribute to psychological distress and discontent among Gen Z workers. Burnout isn’t a new thing, but Gen Z are leading the way with their zero tolerance stance.

‘Revenge Quitting’ is also a hot topic for 2025, which is when an employee quits their job abruptly and intentionally, as a way to get back at their manager or employer - usually for reasons such as a feeling undervalued or feeling unfairly treated. One of the most likely to revenge-quit are remote workers (20%) due to being forced to go back into the office.

The costs can be significant if they decide not to return to a business. The financial cost will include managers and HR’s time sourcing new freelancers, advertising costs and potential recruitment agency costs. There are also operational and reputational costs attached to this, so it’s important to onboard, communicate with and offboard freelancers in the same way as you would employees. You want them to be set up for success and leave on good terms for when you might need to work together again.

Putting the reasons for leaving aside for a moment, a high turnover can present several challenges to a business; increased financial cost being top of the list. For a mid level role, it can cost around 30% of a person’s salary to replace them, and for a Lead/Director level it’s closer to 80%. This means, if a manager is on a salary of £70,000 it will cost roughly £28,000 to replace them.

Financial cost

• Recruitment costs - advertising on job boards, using a recruitment agency and

• interviewing time for HR/Managers

• Onboarding & Training - costs of materials and sessions, mentoring time from

• managers to bring the new starter up to speed

• Lost productivity from the individual for the 1-3 months during their notice period

• Potential legal costs or settlement costs if it’s not a straight forward resignation

• In addition to financial cost, the business will see a range of indirect costs associated with a high turnover

Employees can take valuable business knowledge with them when they leave, whether it’s about certain processes or client relationships. 

This loss can disrupt workflows and slow down processes.

Remaining employees might feel sad at the loss of colleagues, or more often that not, feel overburdened with the extra workload in the interim of hiring someone new. Lower team morale leads to reduced productivity.

Hiring new people takes time away from a manager’s day job, as they will be consumed with looking through applications, conducting interviews and onboarding a new person. This can be counteractive for the business as it createsdisrupted workflows and delayed delivery.

High turnover is viewed in a negative light, so clients or partners might start to make assumptions that a business that has a high turnover has a poor work environment and might not want to be associated with them. This perception can lead to challenges in recruitment and potential loss of business opportunities.

As we can see, it’s beneficial to businesses to keep turnover at a healthy rate (around 10%). If an employee is wanting a pay rise, it’s a lot cheaper to give them a 10% uplift than to spend 40% trying to replace them.

There’s a number of ways businesses can help prevent a high turnover;

• Carry out regular engagement surveys and encourage open and honest feedback

• Foster a positive working environment

• Promote a healthy work-life balance

• Offer a competitive salary and benefits package, as well as flexible working options

• Carry out career reviews and create a clear progression plan for individuals

• Give managers the right training and support