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Why your top performers quit (and how to stop it)
Jul 30, 2024
Kimberly Anderson-Mutch
Senior Content Marketing Manager
A full 30% of top performers leave their roles within a year. Textio’s 2024 Language Bias in Performance Feedback report shows us why.
High performers get the lowest quality feedback of all workers. It’s worst for high-performing women.
Textio’s 2024 data report
Every year, Textio publishes a report on bias in performance feedback. This comprehensive study analyzes over 20,000 performance reviews across more than 250 U.S.-based organizations.
The aim? To uncover what's happening in performance reviews so HR and talent development leaders can better support managers in giving clear, actionable feedback.
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High-quality feedback is a game-changer for both employees and organizations. Employees who receive it are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to stick around.
On the flip side, employees who receive low-quality feedback miss out on growth and compensation opportunities, making them more likely to leave.
Our findings
Textio’s prior research has shown that low-quality feedback makes someone 63% more likely to quit within a year. Women of all races and people of color of all genders consistently get the lowest-quality feedback.
They’re also leaving their organizations at the highest rates. This year’s findings add another layer of complexity.
We discovered that high performers receive the lowest quality feedback of everyone at work. The situation is even worse for high-performing women, who receive 38% more problematic feedback than their peers.
This feedback includes:
- More exaggerations like “You always do good work and never let the team down.”
- More clichés such as “Your work is so strategic, and you never miss a beat.”
- More fixed-mindset comments like “You’re just not good at leading meetings.”
Another troubling find? People are more likely to internalize feedback that reinforces stereotypes.
For instance, 78% of women remember being negatively described as “emotional,” compared to only 23% of non-binary people and 11% of men.
What does this mean?
Feedback quality predicts the likelihood that someone will quit within a year. And guess what? High performers, the group most motivated by constructive feedback, get the lowest quality feedback.
No wonder 30% of high performers quit within their first year.
Read the report for more insights
The findings from Textio’s annual report highlight the dire consequences of low-quality feedback, especially for high performers and underrepresented groups.
Want to make a difference in your organization?
Start by reading the full 2024 Textio report and consider how you can apply its insights to improve your feedback processes.
Your best performers depend on it.
