9 Employee Retention Statistics That Will Make You Sit Up and Pay Attention

Retention in the workplace is in a predicament — the revolving door is circulating faster, and the organizations struggling with this are on the lookout for a solution.

They want to keep employees long after they’ve been hired and maintain high levels of productivity, but to do so, they need to examine some of the causes of poor retention.

Insights into the state of retention today

Let’s look at some statistics to keep in mind as you look to solve your retention concerns.

Some 73 percent of organizations revamp their onboarding to improve their employee retention. It’s not the only reason companies update onboarding, but it’s an important one that should clue you into how important retention is at most companies. This is the time in which new hires connect with the company, so improving the correlation between their work and the organizational values will help boost employee longevity.
One third of new hires quit their job after about six (6) months. During the early stages of your employees’ careers, it’s critical to outline milestones for your new hires to accomplish. Without these goals to help attentively cultivate new employees, it’s easy for them to become under-challenged or overwhelmed. Both situations create an unnecessarily heavy burden on your recruiters and your employees.
Referred employees have a 45 percent retention rate after two years. As it turns out, most referred employees are more likely to stay in their new role. That 45 percent number is much lower than the average employee sourced from, say, a job board (80 percent), possibly because they’re working with people they already know in a position they’re more likely to functionally fit. Your referral program is invaluable to the success and tenure of your new employees, and like your onboarding process, reassess it as needed to improve retention.
Nearly four out of five (78 percent) of business leaders rank employee retention as important or urgent. With the cost of employee turnover and the benefits of having retaining well-trained employees versed in company policies and procedures, making sure new hires don’t leave for avoidable reasons is one of leaders’ top concerns, and should be one of yours, too.
Remote workers are 50 percent less likely to quit Employees who telecommute to work are typically more satisfied with their jobs, so it makes sense they’d be less likely to quit – they’re able to work at their own pace, in an environment they’re comfortable in. This makes remote work options a powerful way for companies to retain employees.
One third (33 percent) of employees knew whether they would stay with their company long-term after their first week. Only one-third of employees … that’s a pretty small number in terms of retention. Your company’s first impression is incredibly important. You simply can’t afford to let your new employees figure out their place in your company; you need to engage them early and often with a specific strategy and goal in mind.
Some 35 percent of employees will start looking for a job if they don’t receive a pay raise in the next 12 months. They may not be some of the most loyal employees, but you can expect to see some possible retention problems if the company can’t provide the team with raises. No matter how long your employees have been with your company, they expect a raise every year. But if you’ve onboarded new hires well, created a connection between their role in the company and the overall values, this might not be as much of a problem as you’d expect.
One third (33 percent) of leaders at companies with 100 plus employees are currently looking for jobs. Even those in senior leadership roles aren’t immune to leaving. Don’t let your leadership fall prey to feeling undervalued at your organization; give them the reassurance they need to stay. Otherwise, they’ll likely head for greener pastures.
32 percent of employers say they expect employees to job-hop. With the increasing number of employees who stay at a company no longer than three years, some companies have begun making it part of their hiring plan. It’s smart to keep trends like this in mind when building a hiring plan, but it’s also smart to figure out their root cause, and see if your company can’t do something to stop job-hopping from happening in the first place.

These statistics don’t paint a pretty picture about the state of employee retention. The good news is that you can use these statistics as a way to develop new strategies to retain employees for the long haul, and hopefully develop a new hiring process along the way.