Why Your Retention Problem Starts Long Before the Resignation Letter
When it’s no longer just a "tough" year for retention and it’s become a trend we can’t ignore.
One of the topics I get asked the most about is retention and what it takes to keep talented people from leaving their jobs. “Pay them more” is usually what I hear people say and while yes, teaching salaries are often lower than they should be—and making more money can absolutely improve satisfaction—those gains tend to be short-lived. Research, including work by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, shows that salary increases lead to greater happiness only up to a certain point (around $75,000–$90,000 per year), after which the effect plateaus.¹
Across the country, I hear from schools that are grappling with turnover—year after year, they’re losing talented faculty, staff, and leaders. And while the reasons vary, the consequences are the same: instability, loss of institutional knowledge, and a culture that never quite recovers before the next person leaves.
But here’s the thing: most of the damage isn’t done when someone turns in their resignation letter. It’s done long before that—during the weeks, months, or sometimes years they’re considering it, and the ripple effect that consideration has on their colleagues.
At a recent conference on organizational psychology, I caught a session on what researchers call the “black box” of turnover—the murky middle ground between when someone starts thinking about quitting and the day they actually leave.
Here’s what the research showed me:
Intent to leave is contagious. As soon as an employee starts talking about leaving, their coworkers often feel it in adverse ways. Coworkers’ intent to quit negatively affects morale, collaboration, and even innovation—especially in innovation-driven environments like schools.
Innovation suffers when someone’s halfway out the door. Employees who are considering leaving tend to be mentally checked out and less likely to fully engage in new initiatives. This can lead to passive or nominal adoption of programs with minimal implementation of innovations that were intended to be transformational.
Turnover is expensive. On average, it costs as much as 60% (sometimes more, depending on the role) of the departing employee’s salary to replace them. In schools, where relationships are everything, the hidden costs—fractured teams, diminished parent trust, hit-or-miss onboarding—are even higher.
High-quality coworker relationships (CWX) protect against flight risks. Colleagues who feel trusted and supported are more likely to share knowledge, help one another, and stick around. These relational investments lead to increased organizational citizenship behaviors and fewer counterproductive ones.
So what can leaders do?
Listen for signals early. Don’t wait for the exit interview. The early signs—withdrawal from meetings, resistance to new initiatives, or hallway murmurs—are opportunities to engage before it’s too late.
Build a knowledge-sharing culture. The more open your teams are with ideas and feedback, the more likely they are to stay (and help others stay, too).
Start asking better questions—before people leave. Most schools don’t get useful exit interview data because it comes too late. By then, the trust is already eroded and the context is lost. Instead, schools should be conducting routine pulse surveys or anonymous culture questionnaires to surface early indicators of disengagement and intent to quit.
What to ask:
“How likely are you to be working at this school in two years?”
“What factors would make you consider leaving?”
“What’s keeping you here right now?”
How to protect trust and anonymity:
Use a third-party survey provider to administer and analyze the data
Aggregate results by group size (never share data from groups smaller than 5)
Set clear expectations: survey results are for improvement, not punishment
Close the loop by sharing themes—not names—and taking action
The goal isn't to catch someone in the act of leaving. It's to understand what people need in order to stay—and to show that you’re listening before it's too late.
The bottom line: your most important retention strategy might not be your salary scale. It might be how your people treat each other—and how early you start listening when something shifts.
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