Not all employee turnover is within your control. Chronic illness, family moves, and entrepreneurial endeavors are a few reasons you can’t stop. But some turnover is entirely foreseeable and totally preventable. In a job market where workers are quitting their jobs in record numbers, it’s critical to keep your top performers from jumping ship.

5 Types of Turnover You Can Prevent (And How)

1.      Underpaid High Performers

High performers are likely to quit if they feel they are underpaid relative to the job market, or if they are not adequately compensated for their achievements.

How to prevent it

Regularly benchmark your positions to the market. Depending on your jobs and talent market, you may want to re-evaluate this every six months to a year to ensure competitive pay for your field and geographic region. Be sure to set aside a budget for market-based adjustments.

Reward exceptional performance with appropriate compensation and salary increases. It’s not motivating, and can be downright demoralizing, when every employee gets a 3 percent raise regardless of performance. (This is a major pitfall for budgets that account for an exact 3 percent increase per employee—it means one employee must get less than 3 percent for another employee to get more. So be sure to budget adequate money for increases.) Set clear goals and expectations of what it means to meet and exceed performance, so that employees are in control of their achievements and their raises.

2.      Inappropriate Pay Disparity

Ill will breeds when two people hold the same (or similar) jobs, but one of them is paid a lot more. This can happen when one employee has been with the company for a long time, or when one employee negotiates a higher initial salary.

How to prevent it

Salary ranges: set them and stick to them when you hire a new employee.

Investigate existing disparities for the same job. Does a legitimate reason explain the variance, such as performance or tenure? Are the employees actually performing different duties? Is one more senior than the other? If no reasonable explanation exists for disparity between employees performing the same job, see what you can do to close the pay gap ASAP.

3.      Talent Hoarding

Inter-department transfers are a great way for companies to make the best use of their top talent and to engage high performers in different areas of the business. But managers may hoard talent when they have to compete against other departments for budget, resources, or recognition. Why should they enable their top performers to leave when they may not be able to hire a strong replacement? When upward mobility is discouraged or disallowed, high performers will look for a company that will embrace their natural drive to achieve and promote.

How to prevent it

Watch for warning signs in your management team. Are managers under-rating top employees? Limiting their high-visibility work assignments? Restricting development opportunities?

Reward managers for their ability to cultivate talent that stays within the company.

Get transparent and creative with promotional opportunities. Give all employees access to internal postings, and allow them to apply for their best fits. Minimize restrictions to transfer, and facilitate conversations between the releasing and receiving managers.

4.      Poor Role Matches

You may have a fabulous employee waiting to shine—they’re just not able to do it in the role they’re in, due to a mismatch in interests or talents.

How to prevent it

Open communication will catch employees who may be silently suffering from a mismatch (others will be more obvious). Actively solicit feedback about what changes employees need to be happy, and then take steps to improve. How can you help an employee who is experiencing challenges? In the case of catastrophic mismatches, find out what the employee would prefer to do. If Bob is paying invoices in Finance and would rather build PR campaigns (and he has the skills to support this), see about developing a transition plan. It’s better to retain promising talent where you can, but it’s best to be honest if your company cannot support the kind of role the employee is looking for.

5.      Burnout

The signs of employee burnout rarely come out of nowhere. Working all hours, skipping vacations, showing up grumpy or negative, missing work, and withdrawing are all possible warnings that an employee is unhappy with their stress levels or workload.

How to prevent it

Foster a culture that encourages work-life balance. This may take time if your culture is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Train leadership to embrace the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of their employees, and to lead by example. Limit work outside of business hours. encourage PTO, and consider flexible or remote work hours. If your company offers an EAP, this may be a useful resource. Also be sure to have an open and honest discussion with struggling employees about how they can feel less stressed or burned out. Do they need to unload some responsibilities? Do they need extra guidance on a project? Find out what they need to run at 100 percent.

In Conclusion

Turnover isn’t going anywhere! But when you can proactively spot it and work to prevent it, you can avoid the exodus of top talent that can threaten your company’s success.