You Could Be Struggling With Employee Retention and Not Know It

The economy is on the rise, and the unemployment rate is down below 5.0%. It’s a great time for employees to expand their roles and look for jobs that will engage and excite them . . . and it’s a terrible time for leaders trying to retain their workforce!

When the economy is good, managers feel the brunt of it with rising attrition rates. The Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report found that 78% of today’s business leaders rate employee engagement and retention as one of their top concerns. It’s no surprise. With new job growth comes the ever-present fear that you’re about to lose your top talent to the company down the street.

With this retention fear amongst us, we thought it was time to get down to what really drives employee attrition. We surveyed 400 full-time employees across the United States and uncovered the five key things that really egg them on to think about quitting.

01. Supervisors make or break retention 

Employees with managers that respect their work and ideas are 32% less likely to think about looking for a new job. Between that, transparency, and the ability to communicate expectations, managers play significant roles in an employee’s likelihood to stay or leave their company.

02. Colleagues have a lot of power 

Who you hire has a huge impact on retention. Employees with low levels of peer respect are 10% less likely to stay on board. Adding fuel to the fire: employees who don’t receive peer recognition are 11% less likely to stay put. 

SOURCE: GIPHY

03. Culture matters — a lot 

Think culture is fluffy? Think again. Employees that give their workplace culture low marks are 15% more likely to think about a new job than their counterparts. Thankfully, the report’s findings show that an effort toward sponsored company activities and team building can mitigate this trend.

04. Don’t forget rest and relaxation

It won’t come as a surprise that employees who feel burnt out think about quitting more often. But taking vacation days matters! Employees who are encouraged to take their paid time off are 13% more likely to stick around.

05. Your team wants to grow . . . or they’ll leave

Employees are 10% more likely to stay with their organization if there are professional growth opportunities to be had. And it’s not just young employees but all employees asking for this workplace feature.

The intangible matters! People, culture, and career growth aren’t just buzzwords. They are the very things employees think about when deciding to stay or go.

Company leaders would be wise to heed these findings and start shoring up their defenses against the attrition flood. When you factor in recruitment fees, training, and lost productivity, findings show the cost of losing an employee is 20% of their annual salary . . . more if the employee makes over $50,000 a year. And while you’re reeling from losing a key employee, your competitor gets to reap the benefits. Do you really want that?

Click the button below to download our Employee Retention Report and continue reading.

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