Why Employees Quit: The Four Drivers of Job Moves in 2024 | Ethan Bernstein & Michael Horn

An estimated 1 billion people switch jobs every year, and the war for talent continues. Leaders and HR teams keep using the same hiring strategies as the average employee tenure decreases year after year. Companies aren’t addressing the root issue: employees crave meaningful work, supportive colleagues, and growth opportunities. Unless companies transform their approach to employee satisfaction, they’ll keep losing their best people—something Ethan Bernstein and Michael Horn believe we can prevent.

Ethan and Michael are co-authors of Job Moves, a book that uses the Jobs to Be Done theory to approach job selection as hiring a role to fulfill personal and professional goals, encouraging a more holistic perspective on career choices.

In this episode, Dart, Ethan, and Michael discuss:
- Major pushes and pulls driving job changes
- Jobs to Be Done theory applied to work and career transitions
- 4 Quests of job changes: why employees leave their jobs
- Progress vs. progression at work
- Experiences vs. features in job selection
- 9 activities that companies can do to ensure strong employee fit
- How to prototype and test potential career changes
- And other topics…

Ethan Bernstein and Michael Horn are co-authors of Job Moves, a book that uses the Jobs to Be Done theory to approach job selection as hiring a role to fulfill personal and professional goals, encouraging a more holistic perspective on career choices.

Ethan Bernstein is the Edward W. Conard Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He specializes in the Organizational Behavior unit and focuses his research on the dynamics of workplace transparency, how organizational design impacts performance, and managing human capital. His work has been published in various academic journals and covered by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg, among others.

Michael Horn is an influential author, speaker, and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the co-founder and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a non-profit think tank. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and NBC.

Resources mentioned:
“Why Employees Quit,” by Ethan Bernstein, Michael Horn, & Bob Moesta: https://hbr.org/2024/11/why-employees-quit
Job Moves, by Ethan Bernstein, Michael Horn, and Bob Moesta: https://www.amazon.com/Job-Moves-Making-Progress-Career/dp/0063283581
Choosing College, by Michael Horn: https://www.amazon.com/Choosing-College-Learning-Decisions-Throughout/dp/1119570115

Connect with Ethan & Michael:
www.jobmoves.com
Ethan’s Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jt4uBuUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
Ethan’s email - e@hbs.edu
www.michaelbhorn.com
Michael’s Substack: https://michaelbhorn.substack.com/ 

Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.