Push and Pull Factors in Turnover Decisions

Covering Assessment Criterion 3.1 of 5HR02, this video examines the distinction between push and pull factors as a framework for understanding why employees choose to leave an organisation. Push factors — internal drivers such as poor management, inadequate compensation, limited career progression, poor work-life balance, lack of recognition, and organisational instability — are treated as distinct from pull factors, which include external attractors such as competitor compensation packages, employer brand, career advancement opportunities, and geographic considerations. The video situates this framework within voluntary turnover decisions, where employee agency and perception shape departure behaviour.

A notable focus throughout is the relationship between the two categories of factor rather than their individual properties. The video addresses how push factors generate dissatisfaction that increases an employee's receptivity to pull factors they might otherwise disregard, and considers what this dynamic means for designing retention strategies. Specific mechanisms discussed include the role of perceived internal equity in compensation decisions, the compounding effect of multiple dissatisfiers acting together, and the particular vulnerability of high-potential employees to external recruitment approaches when progression appears blocked internally.

The video also covers the practical implications of this framework for people professionals, including the use of exit interviews and engagement surveys to identify which push factors are most active within a workforce. The argument that pull factors cannot realistically be eliminated — but that minimising push factors reduces employee susceptibility to them — runs through this section, connecting the theoretical distinction between avoidable and unavoidable turnover to targeted retention activity. The accelerating influence of flexible working expectations following the COVID-19 pandemic is referenced as a concrete example of how push factors shift over time.