Staff turnover significantly influences companies, as it is largely the state and structure of human capital available to a particular company that testifies the competitiveness of modern economies and individual enterprises . For the owners and executives of the SME sector it is particularly important to have data on the factors that influence their subordinates’ decision to remain in the workplace or leave it . This article presents the results of this author’s empirical study conducted in Poland (The Mazovia Province) and in Italy (region of Lombardy) in 2010–2011 . It comprises a presentation of a model that verifies the influence of job satisfaction on the employee’s decision to remain in the workplace . Through applying statistical methods the factors most strongly connected with job satisfaction and their relation to the attitude of remaining in the workplace were identified . This article shows certain regularities and indicates courses of action for Italian and Polish SME executives .