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Why do your best MSP people leave despite good margins?
MSP staff stay or leave on three axes: learning, earning and yearning. Anyone steering on tickets, hours and margin without attention to development, pay and belonging loses talent to competitors who do make that explicit.
MSP Late Night · 6 August 2026
What really ties people to an MSP organisation?
At smaller MSPs, people choose the founder and the mission, not the company logo. Pay is a basic condition, not the deciding factor. Psychological safety and culture are not an HR task but a leadership responsibility, and the guard rails have to be put in place by the board, not filled in by individuals themselves.
What do learning, earning and yearning mean?
People look for room to develop, to earn decently and to belong somewhere. If one of the three is missing they leave, even when the atmosphere is fine.
Who is responsible for psychological safety?
You do not put psychological safety in an HR box. Board, founder and colleagues are all up, and the company puts in place the guard rails within which jokes, limits and behaviour are clear.
How do you say goodbye properly?
A farewell is not only for the person leaving, but also for those who stay. A team needs a moment to let a colleague go, including people you had trouble with.
Why would you let people leave in an unpleasant way? It gets around and it only produces grief.
Frequently asked questions
Why is atmosphere not the main reason MSP staff stay?
Atmosphere is decisive for part of the team, but not for everyone. Younger staff value progression, learning and earning more than the colleagues around them. The older guard sees colleagues as friends at work and values continuity. Steering on atmosphere alone is too narrow and mainly works for one segment of the organisation.
How do you stop culture becoming the blind spot in an MSP acquisition?
Culture is both the main reason acquisitions fail and the main reason they succeed, but gets little attention in due diligence. Financial and commercial analysis dominate, while staff only speak late in the process. Anyone taking culture seriously informs the team early, involves representatives in a deal team and lets the buyer speak to more than one employee before the letter of intent is signed.
What is the difference between diversity and inclusion within an MSP?
Diversity means being invited to the party, inclusion means also being asked to dance. Attracting female talent is one task, keeping it on board another. Without clear agreements on behaviour, communication and what is and is not acceptable, talent flows out again quickly. In the Dutch IT sector a large share of women leave the sector early.
Do employee satisfaction surveys work at a smaller MSP?
They work when the outcome can be something you did not already know. Short quarterly sets of seven to ten questions produce more than long lists that are never followed up. The value sits in the signal, not in the score. If nothing is done with the outcome, the survey damages trust more than it produces.
How do you communicate a sale or acquisition to your MSP staff?
Waiting until the signature is in place is the most common approach and at the same time the worst. Announcing early that a strategic partner is being sought in order to grow gives calm and room for dialogue. Talk about opportunities and the next step, not about selling shares and leaving. Between first contact and signature there is on average three to six months, ample time for open communication.