17 Employee Retention Statistics That Are Required Knowledge in 2024
Losing a top-performing employee isn’t just a big hit to the company’s morale,— it’s expensive, too.
Finding, onboarding, and training a replacement employee can cost anywhere from 30-400% of what you were paying the person who left. That’s why so much of your role as an HR professional is about helping people do their best work at your organization while making them feel like there’s a bright future ahead of them.
To do that, you need data. Luckily, we’ve got it. Here’s a treasure trove of stats on employee retention in 2024. From sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Gallup, the Pew Research Center, and Joblist, these facts will have you contemplating why people leave jobs, what they value at work, and how you can entice them to stay.
Employee Turnover Statistics
Quit rates decreased from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023.
Fewer people quit their jobs at the end of 2023 (2.2%) than at the end of 2022 (2.7%). Those few percentage points represent nearly a million people.
The average employee tenure was 4.1 years in 2022.
Despite countless advice columns and coaches claiming that employees should switch jobs every few years to maximize their income, most employees stay an average of four years with their employer.
Job openings decreased by 20% between 2022 and 2023.
There were a lot of career changes during those early pandemic years, but it seems like that’s slowed down as the job market tightens.
Half of your employees are ready to quit if the right job presents itself.
Despite a tighter job market and longer average tenures, half of your employees are already prepared to move on.
And 57% think now is a good time to move on.
A little over half of your employees are optimists, believing that the job market is ripe with opportunities for transition.
So is “the Great Resignation” still happening?
In short, no. While there are a lot of employees at your organization who believe that their perfect job is out there somewhere, the numbers show that few are actually capitalizing on this perceived opportunity. That means you can work with them to turn their current job into their perfect job.
Why Employees Leave
Only 27% of employees call their employer a great place to work.
Despite employees not quitting their jobs nearly as much over the past year, not many say they’re working for a stellar employer.
63% of employees who left a job in 2021 quit because their pay was too low.
It’s probably not surprising that, in a market with record inflation, most people who quit a job go looking for higher salaries.
63% of employees left because there was no opportunity for advancement.
Because salaries usually go hand-in-hand with career advancement, top performers who leave often seek it elsewhere.
57% of employees leave because they feel disrespected.
HR professionals often wish they could get in front of every conflict and solve it before it happens. That’s because the worst ones, if not resolved, can lead to people leaving.
Only about a third of employees leave because of the amount of hours they worked.
It’s definitely reassuring to know that most people who leave their jobs don’t leave because they’re overworked.
What Employees Value
63% are looking for better work-life balance.
Even if job seekers often want more money and better opportunities when transitioning to a new job, few of them are willing to take a work-life balance hit for them. In fact, the majority of them say it’s more important than a higher salary.
More than half of employees just want to do what they do best.
When looking for a new job, one of the most important things for these employees is getting the opportunity to do their best work.
More than half of employees want better job stability.
Unsurprisingly, a job market rife with layoffs has people worrying about their own job stability. That means few job seekers go for high-risk, volatile jobs, no matter the upside.
Only 30% of job seekers in Q1 2023 were looking for hybrid or remote work.
2020 might have been the year where tech CEOs were stumbling over each other to declare that remote work was the future, but the vast majority of people still prefer working in person. Bonus stat: More Gen Z job seekers want to work in person (78%) than any other generation.
Almost half of job seekers want a company’s mission to align with their values.
While it’s important to iron out and communicate your company’s mission, know that more than half of your employees don’t need that mission to match their values to keep working with you. Likely, if you offer other benefits they’re looking for, like stability or work-life balance, that could be enough to keep many of your best people.
69% of job seekers want a typical five-day workweek.
The four-day workweek may have been a popular trend for the last few years, but it doesn’t seem like it’s a must for most people.
How To Take Control Over Employee Retention in 2024
So turnover is down, employee tenure is up, and most people want good salaries, stable jobs, and the opportunity to do their best work. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an opportunity for HR professionals to make their workplace the best place to work around.
If you’re facing any level of turnover, it’s important to identify the root cause. That can be done through exit surveys, honest conversations with people on the way out, and interviews with their colleagues. Encourage a culture of transparency and trust, and you’re likely to get the real answers that’ll help you make the best possible changes.
But if you really want to keep your top performers around, you need to start this process before they leave. How? Continuous feedback loops, employee net promoter scores, manager effectiveness surveys, and other tools can help you get the right kind of feedback from your workforce at every stage of their growth with the organization. This takes time, work, the right tools, and a lot of trust, but it’s more than worth it.
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