High Satisfaction and High Turnover Collide in Texas as Satisfaction Scores Mask Trust Erosion
Key Points
In high-opportunity labor markets like Texas, steady satisfaction scores can hide disengagement, as employees quietly evaluate trust, leadership clarity, and whether effort still pays off.
Elizabeth Jenswold, a Senior Human Resources and Organization Development Consultant at The Human Resources Consortium, explains that flat satisfaction often signals scrutiny, not comfort, when employees have strong external options.
Leaders reduce quit risk by restoring trust through clear decision ownership, realistic career conversations, tighter priorities, and direct, small-group listening instead of relying on survey averages.
In a high-opportunity labor market like Texas, flat satisfaction scores are rarely about gratitude. They are about friction
Elizabeth Jenswold
Senior HR Consultant
The Human Resources Consortium
New BambooHR data reveals a striking pattern in high-opportunity states like Texas, where employees report relatively strong satisfaction scores alongside some of the nation’s highest quit rates. In these markets, stable top-quartile scores are not a signal of contentment but of scrutiny, as employees actively assess leadership credibility, direction, and trust. The risk for employers is mistaking steady satisfaction for full engagement.
We spoke with Elizabeth Jenswold, a Senior Human Resources and Organization Development Consultant at The Human Resources Consortium, an HR advisory firm that supports organizations on leadership, workforce, and organizational effectiveness. Drawing on her global experience in executive HR roles at Fortune 100 companies, including CBRE and JPMorgan Chase, Jenswold notes that Texas’s high satisfaction scores may not tell the full story about how employees are experiencing work today.
“In a high-opportunity labor market like Texas, flat satisfaction scores are rarely about gratitude. They are about friction,” says Jenswold. A flat satisfaction score in a strong, high-opportunity market tends to signal a pause rather than contentment, she explains. When external options exist, employees shift their focus inward and begin evaluating the quality of their day-to-day experience. Do they trust their company? Do they believe in their manager? This kind of disengagement often goes unnoticed in satisfaction surveys, only surfacing later through higher quit rates.
Checked in, but not all in: Even if satisfaction scores remain steady, uncertainty around technology and AI is prompting employees to withdraw discretionary effort quietly. In a high-opportunity state like Texas, that uncertainty tends to produce watchfulness rather than immediate exits. As Jenswold puts it, “Employees aren’t complaining, but they’re also not giving their full effort. They’re quietly holding on.”
The breaking point: Quietly holding on has limits. Jenswold says the tipping point is relational, triggered when leadership loses clarity and trust erodes. In cultures that value directness, prolonged uncertainty can make employees feel like they are spinning their wheels. “When employees feel misled and priorities keep shifting, that’s when it becomes the breaking point.”
Jenswold emphasizes a practical operating toolkit: clear decision ownership, disciplined workload prioritization, and fewer, better-sequenced initiatives with explicit trade-offs. Just as important is career realism, replacing broad promises with honest conversations about skills, growth, and timelines. Together, these actions give employees confidence that effort leads somewhere, which is essential for sustaining engagement. When senior teams operate collectively rather than in silos, priorities become clearer and trust travels faster through the organization. That clarity helps prevent the confusion that often drives disengagement and turnover.
The huddle is real: Jenswold advises leaders to use survey data as a starting point, not a substitute. She encourages executives to lead small, in-person conversations rather than delegate to HR, arguing that localized listening surfaces nuance and trust gaps that broad surveys often miss. “Nothing replaces small, in-person conversations around what really matters. Leaders should focus on conversations by function or site, not national or statewide averages.”
Data provides a useful starting point for understanding workforce sentiment, particularly in high-opportunity markets like Texas. But it’s not the conclusion. Strong satisfaction scores are better treated as a prompt to pause and listen, not a signal to celebrate, before a flat line quietly turns downward.
In a market defined by choice, the rules of engagement are changing. “Engagement isn’t about keeping people in place,” Jenswold concludes. “It’s about giving them a reason to invest.”
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TL;DR
In high-opportunity labor markets like Texas, steady satisfaction scores can hide disengagement, as employees quietly evaluate trust, leadership clarity, and whether effort still pays off.
Elizabeth Jenswold, a Senior Human Resources and Organization Development Consultant at The Human Resources Consortium, explains that flat satisfaction often signals scrutiny, not comfort, when employees have strong external options.
Leaders reduce quit risk by restoring trust through clear decision ownership, realistic career conversations, tighter priorities, and direct, small-group listening instead of relying on survey averages.
Elizabeth Jenswold
The Human Resources Consortium
Senior HR Consultant
Senior HR Consultant
New BambooHR data reveals a striking pattern in high-opportunity states like Texas, where employees report relatively strong satisfaction scores alongside some of the nation’s highest quit rates. In these markets, stable top-quartile scores are not a signal of contentment but of scrutiny, as employees actively assess leadership credibility, direction, and trust. The risk for employers is mistaking steady satisfaction for full engagement.
We spoke with Elizabeth Jenswold, a Senior Human Resources and Organization Development Consultant at The Human Resources Consortium, an HR advisory firm that supports organizations on leadership, workforce, and organizational effectiveness. Drawing on her global experience in executive HR roles at Fortune 100 companies, including CBRE and JPMorgan Chase, Jenswold notes that Texas’s high satisfaction scores may not tell the full story about how employees are experiencing work today.
“In a high-opportunity labor market like Texas, flat satisfaction scores are rarely about gratitude. They are about friction,” says Jenswold. A flat satisfaction score in a strong, high-opportunity market tends to signal a pause rather than contentment, she explains. When external options exist, employees shift their focus inward and begin evaluating the quality of their day-to-day experience. Do they trust their company? Do they believe in their manager? This kind of disengagement often goes unnoticed in satisfaction surveys, only surfacing later through higher quit rates.
Checked in, but not all in: Even if satisfaction scores remain steady, uncertainty around technology and AI is prompting employees to withdraw discretionary effort quietly. In a high-opportunity state like Texas, that uncertainty tends to produce watchfulness rather than immediate exits. As Jenswold puts it, “Employees aren’t complaining, but they’re also not giving their full effort. They’re quietly holding on.”
The breaking point: Quietly holding on has limits. Jenswold says the tipping point is relational, triggered when leadership loses clarity and trust erodes. In cultures that value directness, prolonged uncertainty can make employees feel like they are spinning their wheels. “When employees feel misled and priorities keep shifting, that’s when it becomes the breaking point.”
Jenswold emphasizes a practical operating toolkit: clear decision ownership, disciplined workload prioritization, and fewer, better-sequenced initiatives with explicit trade-offs. Just as important is career realism, replacing broad promises with honest conversations about skills, growth, and timelines. Together, these actions give employees confidence that effort leads somewhere, which is essential for sustaining engagement. When senior teams operate collectively rather than in silos, priorities become clearer and trust travels faster through the organization. That clarity helps prevent the confusion that often drives disengagement and turnover.
The huddle is real: Jenswold advises leaders to use survey data as a starting point, not a substitute. She encourages executives to lead small, in-person conversations rather than delegate to HR, arguing that localized listening surfaces nuance and trust gaps that broad surveys often miss. “Nothing replaces small, in-person conversations around what really matters. Leaders should focus on conversations by function or site, not national or statewide averages.”
Data provides a useful starting point for understanding workforce sentiment, particularly in high-opportunity markets like Texas. But it’s not the conclusion. Strong satisfaction scores are better treated as a prompt to pause and listen, not a signal to celebrate, before a flat line quietly turns downward.
In a market defined by choice, the rules of engagement are changing. “Engagement isn’t about keeping people in place,” Jenswold concludes. “It’s about giving them a reason to invest.”