While the year winds down and corporations begin hosting their "we made it through another quarter" bashes, employees in the shadows are in the process of springing for fresh résumés. The close of the year is essentially the Super Bowl of job resignation, and leadership? That is either your greatest defense or your greatest cause people to be clearing out their desks.
The truth is, turnover risk doesn’t just happen. It brews, through ignored feedback, burnout disguised as “commitment,” and bosses who think “employee engagement” means sending a GIF in the company Slack. And now that we’re heading into that reflection-heavy season, strong leadership isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between keeping your best people or watching them vanish into LinkedIn’s “open to work” abyss.
Following the Work Institute's 2025 Retention Report, avoidable turnover (things like bad managers, lack of career progression, work-life balance not working) ended up being responsible for approximately 63% of the total job departures in 2024. At the same time, a survey discovered 66% of HR leaders continue to rank retention as their greatest workforce challenge in 2025.
So what does that look like to you? As we inch closer to the close of the year, lots of organisations are suddenly dealing with an increase in risk: individuals looking back on their year, evaluating what comes next, and wondering: "Is this worth it anymore?" And if leadership has been sort of bleh, that answer too frequently is "no".
Because humans don’t leave jobs, they leave managers (yes, I’m being dramatic but it’s true). Management-related issues contributed a significant chunk (about 9.7%) of turnover in 2024.
Here’s what excellent leaders bring to the table in this context:
In brief, leadership is more important than ever when individuals are making the decision "Should I stay or should I go?" at year-end.
Year-end tends to set people to reflect: Did I make the difference I hoped for? Did I develop? Did my manager show up for me? If the answer's "meh," folks begin weighing their options. Add that to market talk, perhaps some fatigue creeping in, and bang, you've got higher turnover risk.
And keep in mind, replacing an employee isn't affordable. Estimates say it costs about 33% of their annual salary to replace an employee, and with wage inflation expected in 2025, that figure could rise. So a modest exodus at year-end can strike both morale and the purse.
If I were you (which I am not, but pretend), I'd tell your leadership team this:
Year-end turnover risk exists and is increasing. It's not about "people leaving," it’s what has led people to want to leave. And leadership? That's where the difference is made. If your staff feel aligned, seen and in what's next, they're much less likely to be heading for the door. So if your leaders are fatigued, overloaded or silent, now's the moment to recharge their attention. Because losing employees at year-end isn't just a January HR nightmare. It's a pre-turn-of-the-page strategic blow.
