When a company loses an employee, HR has terms like "Voluntary" and "Involuntary" to explain what happened.

While this may help account for company-wide turnover rates, these terms do nothing to explain why an employee leaves. 

Many employees choose their place of work according to more feelings-oriented thinking, and turnover-aversion methods that don't acknowledge this will miss the mark.

There are four main causes of employee turnover.

1. "I didn't know..." – Employees often learn things on the job that might have kept them from taking a position in the first place.
2. Lack of communication – Many times, employees have great opportunities within their current company, which could be discovered through transparent conversation with a trusted manager.
3. "I need a change" – As above, many new opportunities may often be available, without an employee having to get a new job elsewhere.
4. Emotional reasons – Many times a company will try to keep an employee by focusing on the numbers: compensation and benefits and time spent on the job.

Read full article at The News & Observer.