Voluntary Turnover

Definition

When employees leave a company by their own choice, as opposed to being laid off or fired. It's the metric that keeps HR executives up at night because it indicates something they could've controlled.

Example Usage

Our voluntary turnover increased 15% this year, suggesting our retention strategy isn't working.

Origin

HR analytics terminology from the 1990s

Fun Fact

The #1 reason employees voluntarily leave is poor management, not compensation.

Source: SHRM Employee Retention Studies

Related Terms

Beginner

Engagement Score

A numerical rating of employee satisfaction and commitment, derived from surveys that employees fill out while muttering about their workload.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

cohesion

The state of sticking together or working as one unit—what HR desperately hopes team-building exercises will achieve.

👥 Human Resources

Beginner

retain

To keep employees from jumping ship to your competitors by offering just enough compensation, culture, or free snacks to make them stay. In HR circles, retention is the art of convincing talented people that the grass isn't actually greener on the other side. It's also what lawyers do when you pay them a retainer—essentially putting them on standby like a professional fire extinguisher.

👥 Human Resources

Advanced

transfer of learning

The application of skills and knowledge gained in training to actual job performance, measuring whether that expensive workshop actually changed behavior. It's the difference between completing the course and actually using what you learned back at your desk.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

Workload Distribution

The allocation of work tasks across team members—often grossly unequal and never actually addressed despite anonymous survey complaints.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

compensation philosophy

A formal document explaining why your company pays what it does, usually involving phrases like 'market competitive' that somehow justify paying 10% below actual market rates. It's a philosophical treatise on why you deserve less money than you think.

👥 Human Resources

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