7 Interesting Employee Retention Statistics

Many com­pa­nies focus on attract­ing top tal­ent. How­ev­er, too few have strate­gies for retain­ing those employ­ees once they join the team. It’s true — employ­ee reten­tion is no easy feat, and it requires a deep under­stand­ing of what peo­ple need to feel hap­py and engaged at work.

How can com­pa­nies keep their employ­ees tru­ly engaged? It starts by under­stand­ing what employ­ees want and what’s going on in the work­force at large. 

7 Employee Retention Stats

Employees are putting their hands together and raising them high in the air.

Source

Here are sev­en employ­ee reten­tion sta­tis­tics that give insight into cur­rent trends and what employ­ers need to do to keep their peo­ple long-term:

1. 25% of People Voluntarily Left Their Job in 2021.

Com­pa­nies across the coun­try are expe­ri­enc­ing his­toric loss­es. A stag­ger­ing 25% of work­ers vol­un­tar­i­ly left their jobs this year, mean­ing a quar­ter of all employ­ees resigned to find bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties, bet­ter ben­e­fits, or bet­ter work environments.

With an over­all turnover rate of 57.3% — vol­un­tary and invol­un­tary — and a record 10.1 mil­lion open jobs report­ed in June 2021, it’s appar­ent that many orga­ni­za­tions are at risk of los­ing employees.

The job mar­ket is over­flow­ing with open­ings. Since the pandemic’s peak, peo­ple are less will­ing to endure what they con­sid­er unfair or sub­stan­dard work­ing con­di­tions. As a result, only the most com­pet­i­tive orga­ni­za­tions are going to be able to sur­vive this his­toric employ­ee exo­dus many have called The Great Res­ig­na­tion.

2. 50% of Employee Turnover is Due to Stress and Burnout.

Image2

Source

There’s no deny­ing that the last year and a half have been incred­i­bly stress­ful for many peo­ple. Burnout rates are sky­rock­et­ing, and peo­ple are leav­ing their stress­ful jobs in record numbers. 

If employ­ers want to keep their team, they have to focus on cre­at­ing a pos­i­tive work envi­ron­ment that reduces over­all stress and burnout. They can do this by offer­ing more flex­i­bil­i­ty and per­son­al­ized ben­e­fits pro­grams.

3. 40% of employees plan to resign based on how their employers handled the pandemic.

40% of employ­ees have left their jobs or still plan to resign based on how their employ­ers addressed or con­tin­ue to address the pandemic.

In the height of the pan­dem­ic, some peo­ple were forced to go vir­tu­al, often work­ing odd hours while bal­anc­ing new tech­nol­o­gy and the strug­gles of work­ing from home. Oth­ers were forced to face the pan­dem­ic head-on. In both cas­es, the employ­ees relied on their employ­ers for infor­ma­tion, sup­port, and understanding.

Some com­pa­nies showed ample appre­ci­a­tion and earned loy­al­ty from their teams dur­ing this peri­od, and oth­ers made their peo­ple feel insignif­i­cant and forgotten. 

The les­son here is sim­ple: peo­ple resign when they don’t feel rec­og­nized, val­ued or cared for. To prove they care, lead­ers should begin by offer­ing things like increased flex­i­bil­i­ty, indi­vid­u­al­ized recog­ni­tion, more time off, and per­son­al­ized lifestyle ben­e­fits.

4. 70% of employees favor companies that offer learning and career development opportunities.

Two people are in a meeting, one is standing up and teaching the other about the customer journey. The person standing has on a multi-colored, patterned top and jeans. The person sitting down has a purple sweater on.

Source

Most employ­ees look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand their knowl­edge or ele­vate their career, as 70% of employ­ees are will­ing to leave their cur­rent employ­ers and accept offers from orga­ni­za­tions that offer learn­ing and devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. This illus­trates how impor­tant career devel­op­ment is to employ­ee retention. 

No one wants to be trapped in one role for the rest of their life. As a result, employ­ees are pri­or­i­tiz­ing jobs with upward mobil­i­ty. If orga­ni­za­tions want to attract and retain high-qual­i­ty employ­ees, they must offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for advance­ment and career development.

5. 78% of millennials seek a healthy work-life balance.


78% of mil­len­ni­als report that they would be more loy­al to an employ­er if they offered flex­i­ble work options, and 70% said they have left or would leave a job if it lacked flexibility.

Most employ­ees look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to expand their knowl­edge or ele­vate their career, as 70% of employ­ees are will­ing to leave their cur­rent employ­ers and accept offers from orga­ni­za­tions that offer learn­ing and devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. This illus­trates how impor­tant career devel­op­ment is to employ­ee retention. 

No one wants to be trapped in one role for the rest of their life. As a result, employ­ees are pri­or­i­tiz­ing jobs with upward mobil­i­ty. If orga­ni­za­tions want to attract and retain high-qual­i­ty employ­ees, they must offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for advance­ment and career development.

5. 78% of millennials seek a healthy work-life balance.


78% of mil­len­ni­als report that they would be more loy­al to an employ­er if they offered flex­i­ble work options, and 70% said they have left or would leave a job if it lacked flexibility.

Two people are in a meeting, standing up and shaking hands. One person is wearing a white button-down and black dress pants. The other person is wearing a black dress with a white dress shirt underneath.

Source

Almost three-quar­ters of all employ­ees are will­ing to stay with their employ­ers based sole­ly on their ben­e­fits pro­gram — but only if those pro­grams are com­pre­hen­sive and have a gen­uine impact on their every­day lives.

Com­pa­nies are com­posed of peo­ple from all walks of life, so pri­or­i­ties, val­ues, and back­grounds dif­fer from per­son to per­son. Two employ­ees may not want the same ben­e­fits, so orga­ni­za­tions should embrace a ben­e­fits pro­gram that gives employ­ees the pow­er to choose.

Offer­ing cus­tomiz­able ben­e­fits allows orga­ni­za­tions to per­son­al­ize their ben­e­fits pro­gram, so they can ditch the one-size-fits-all mod­el, elim­i­nat­ing guess­work and inspir­ing com­pa­ny loyalty.

7. Employees are 2X as likely to leave if they don’t feel recognized.

Employ­ees want their com­pa­ny to rec­og­nize their hard work and com­mit­ment. When employ­ees feel rec­og­nized, they’re more like­ly to stick around and much hap­pi­er over­all. In fact, when employ­ees don’t feel rec­og­nized, they’re twice as like­ly to find a new job.

Recog­ni­tion doesn’t have to be chal­leng­ing, either. For exam­ple, a sim­ple thank you” from a super­vi­sor can go a long way towards mak­ing an employ­ee feel seen and rec­og­nized for their effort. Yet, despite that, at least 24% of employ­ees feel like their work went unrec­og­nized in the last two weeks.

Employ­ee recog­ni­tion needs to be a part of the day-to-day for com­pa­nies. Fre­quent feed­back, cus­tomized gifts, or points towards lifestyle ben­e­fits are effec­tive ways to show appre­ci­a­tion and recognition.

Employee Retention Data Takeaways

Ulti­mate­ly, com­pa­nies need to be com­pas­sion­ate and hyper-aware of how their employ­ees are feel­ing to retain them. They must con­sid­er their employ­ees’ emo­tion­al, phys­i­cal, and men­tal well-being.

The best way to accom­plish that is to offer things like flex­i­bil­i­ty, reg­u­lar recog­ni­tion, and com­pre­hen­sive ben­e­fits. Fringe can help com­pa­nies achieve these things with its cus­tomized lifestyle ben­e­fits platform.

Talk to our team to get start­ed today!