Why Companies Experience High Employee Turnover and How Background Checks in Kenya Can Help Fix It (Part 1 of 3)

By Diana Kwamboka , Background-Checks Quality Assurance Lead at Peleza

How do you feel when you hire and train new staff, only to see them resign after a few months or, worse, abandon you without notice? High employee turnover is frustrating and expensive. As someone who’s spent years helping companies in Kenya and beyond hire better at Peleza, fixing this problem starts long before the resignation letter. It begins with informed hiring and onboarding.

In this first part of our three-part series on high employee turnover, we look into the reasons why companies face high staff turnover, what it costs them, and how better hiring methods (such as thorough background checks and strong onboarding) can help fix it. In Part 1, we look into why employees quit and the large costs of high turnover. Parts 2 and 3 will cover solutions to improve retention, so let’s begin.

4 Key Reasons for High Turnover

Every employee has their own reason for moving on, but some common issues come up across workplaces.

Compensation isn’t everything, but it’s a huge factor.

1. Stalled career growth: Ambitious employees look for opportunities to advance. If they feel stuck or lack training and promotion prospects, they will look elsewhere. When your people don’t see a future with your company, they will move on, and at times faster than you would want them to.
2. Inadequate compensation: Compensation isn’t everything, but still it’s a huge factor. From our background check reports, 64% of exit reports we see cite “seeking better offers” as the reason for leaving. With the rising cost of living in Kenya and beyond, employees will jump ship for better pay and benefits. Ensuring your salaries and benefits are competitive for the market is definitely necessary for retention.
3. Poor management and culture: Deep down, people often “leave managers, not companies.” A micromanaging or unsupportive boss, or a toxic workplace culture, will send good employees away. Lack of recognition, communication breakdowns, or misaligned values all erode loyalty and prompt employees to leave.
4. Burnout and work-life imbalance: Late nights and constant stress are another reason. Employees who are overworked and can’t achieve work-life balance eventually will leave. A study by Stanford University found remote workers were 33% less likely to quit due to burnout, highlighting the value of flexibility.

These four factors are often intertwined. For example, a poor manager may cause burnout, or low pay feels worse in a job, especially if it has no growth. The bottom line is that employees want growth, respect, fair rewards, and balance. If they don’t get these, better offers are only a LinkedIn click away; often, opportunities are literally being recommended in their feeds.

The Steep Business Costs of High Turnover

When an employee leaves, the impact is a dent in the company’s productivity and profits. High turnover carries steep business costs that many leaders underestimate:

• Recruitment and training expenses: Replacing an employee requires advertising the role, interviewing candidates, onboarding the new hire, and training them, all of which take time and money. This can multiply quickly if you have multiple exits, and the costs skyrocket.
• Lost productivity and knowledge: Every time someone walks out the door, they take their know-how with them. Projects get delayed while you seek a replacement. The remaining team often must pick up extra work, stretching them thin and hurting morale. According to SHRM, it takes an average of 42 days to fill an open position. That’s six weeks where productivity can drop, deadlines slip, or customer service suffers due to understaffing.
• Impact on team morale and brand reputation: Constant exits create a ripple effect. When employees see their colleagues leaving, they may start questioning their own future with the company. Externally, high turnover can signal instability in the company and keep away top candidates and even clients.
• Customer and intellectual capital loss: In service industries, employees often manage long-standing customer relationships. Their sudden departure can disrupt that trust and create openings for competitors. Similarly, when technical staff or specialists leave, innovation may slow down as institutional knowledge disappears.

High turnover, if not scrutinized, silently drains resources. You’re constantly putting money into recruitment, training, and overtime for remaining staff instead of investing in matters of growth and innovation. As a visionary company, you have to realize that retention is as important as recruitment. Keeping a stable, experienced team is ultimately far more cost-effective than cycling through new hires every so often.

In Part 2, coming up next week, we’ll examine how poor hiring and onboarding practices can increase this turnover cycle and how background checks in Kenya can help you hire right the first time.

To choose the most efficient background checks for your employees, talk to our background screening expert at Peleza.

Book a meeting or send us an email at bd@peleza.com—we’re ready to help you hire smarter and reduce turnover risk.

Until next time, adios.