CultureClub XRoundup

Why Your Best People Still Leave

Engagement is not retention. The quiet reasons good employees walk, and what makes the ones who stay stay.

5 min read · 7 people leadersAll employee retention episodesAll episodes and topics

Every quote below is verbatim from a CultureClub X episode we recorded with the named leader. 7 people leaders, recorded 2022 to 2026. Each take links to the full episode it came from and to the speaker’s LinkedIn profile.

Why do employees leave their jobs?

People leave when they stop growing, not when they are underpaid. Across 11.68 million employee responses, growth and development is the single strongest predictor of whether someone recommends their employer, while rewards is the lowest-scoring driver of all 22 and only tenth on impact. The seven people leaders below saw the same pattern from inside their organisations.

Employee retention is driven less by perks and pay than by growth, autonomy, trust in managers, and a culture leaders actually live. Across CultureClub X, the people leaders we spoke to kept returning to the same uncomfortable truth: employees can be fully engaged and still leave. What holds them is clarity of purpose, real ownership over the work, managers who take the relationship seriously, and values that show up in decisions rather than on the wall. Here is what seven of them said, in their own words.

  1. 1Your best people will leave anyway. Talent is loyal to learning, not to employers.

    Trying to keep people a long time is playing defense. Trying to expect and believe that they won't stay here a long time is playing offense, and optimizing for a shorter tenure.
    Steve CadiganSteve CadiganTalent Hacker and Advisor, Cadigan Talent VenturesS06 E18

  2. 2Engaged employees still quit. Engagement and retention are not the same metric.

    People can love their company, love their coworkers, and have real day-to-day experiences they enjoy, yet they still leave for stronger growth, greater flexibility, better rewards, or deeper alignment with personal values.
    Jeffrey RobinsonJeffrey RobinsonHuman Capital Advisor, Mentone Avenue LLCS06 E13

  3. 3Autonomy is not a perk you grant. It is the baseline adults expect.

    We're adults. We want to feel like we have ownership over our lives, and employers have to embrace that.
    Barbie WinterbottomBarbie WinterbottomCEO, Business of HRS03 E06

  4. 4Being someone's manager is a responsibility, not a title.

    If someone wakes up in the morning and they call you their boss, that is a significant, huge responsibility. You have to take that responsibility seriously, care for that person, understand what's motivating them, give them that sense of autonomy, mastery and purpose, and listen to them.
    Rebecca PriceRebecca PricePartner, Primary Venture PartnersS03 E12

  5. 5A culture you cannot articulate cannot retain anyone.

    If you really wanna be a differentiator, you need to clearly articulate what is your culture? What problem are you aiming to solve? Because that'll really help to articulate what your employee value proposition is.
    Allison SproulAllison SproulDirector of people, ConnectRNS03 E13

  6. 6Values only retain people when senior leaders visibly live them.

    You need to have your senior most leaders really embodying those values and really being a champion and an advocate for it and living up to it. Otherwise, it's just going to fall apart.
    Michelle YuMichelle YuFounder & Principal, Aspire TalentS03 E04

  7. 7Culture is how you make decisions, not what you print on the wall.

    Culture is really, how do you make decisions? How do you treat people? How do you hold your employees accountable to performance? And that's truly the foundation of culture in my eyes.
    Holly DankoHolly DankoChief People Officer, UnisonS03 E09

One thread runs through all seven: people stay where they have room to grow, real ownership over their work, and leaders whose actions match their words. None of that shows up in an annual survey after someone has already decided to leave. It surfaces in a continuous listening practice that catches the signal while there is still time to act.

Questions people ask about employee retention

Can an engaged employee still leave?
Yes, and it is common. Engagement measures how someone feels about work today. Retention depends on whether they can picture a future there. Several CultureClub X guests reported losing high scorers who had no visible next step.
Does higher pay improve retention?
Less than most leaders assume. In CultureMonkey's benchmark of 11.68 million responses, rewards scores lowest of all 22 drivers and ranks only tenth of fourteen as a predictor of eNPS. It is a dissatisfier when wrong, not a retention lever when right.
What is the strongest driver of employee retention?
Growth and development, the strongest of the fourteen drivers measurable across enough segments to rank reliably. It also scores 7.91, below the 8.05 average, so it is the driver organisations serve worst relative to its influence.
How much influence does a manager have on retention?
Substantial. Guests on the show consistently traced retention outcomes to the direct manager, and our benchmark puts leadership second of fourteen as a predictor of eNPS.
Should we expect people to stay long term?
Several guests argue no. Tenure has fallen for twenty years and Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn's first CHRO, makes the case for optimising for a shorter, higher-value stay rather than trying to lock people in.

The other roundups

Same panel, same benchmark data, different question.

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See all roundups

Turn these conversations into action

See how CultureMonkey helps people leaders act on this, or explore the deep dive on employee retention best practices.