Gartner Says U.S. Total Annual Employee Turnover Will Likely Jump by Nearly 20% From the Prepandemic Annual Average (2024)

HR Leaders Must Ensure Alignment Between Employees and Leaders and Provide Flexibility to Succeed in Today’s New Talent Landscape

U.S. employee annual voluntary turnover is likely to jump nearly 20% this year, from a prepandemic annual average of 31.9 million employees quitting their jobs to 37.4 million quitting in 2022, according to Gartner, Inc.

“New employee expectations, and the availability of hybrid arrangements, will continue to fuel the rise in attrition,” said Piers Hudson, senior director in the Gartner HR practice. “An individual organization with a turnover rate of 20% before the pandemic could face a turnover rate as high as 24% in 2022 and the years to come. For example, a workforce of 25,000 employees would need to prepare for an additional 1,000 voluntary departures.”

As employees seek to take advantage of new hybrid work arrangements, Gartner research shows they are confronting two issues: misalignment with leaders and achieving the flexibility they desire.

Employees and Leaders’ Hybrid Work Desires are Misaligned

A November 2021 Gartner survey of more than 3,500 employees revealed less than half believe remote working is destigmatized at their organizations, while 70% believe on-site workers are more likely to be promoted and paid more compared to remote workers. This preferential tone employees perceive toward on-site workers is directly at odds with executives’ own working preferences – 94% of executives whose work can be done remotely want to work remotely at least one day per week, and 24% of those executives want to be fully remote.

Yet 68% of employees whose work could be done remotely report that their employers have required them to return to the workplace in some capacity.

To bridge this gap, HR leaders must first support executives and managers in understanding the value of hybrid work for employees at all levels. Second, HR leaders should lead the effort at shifting their organization’s culture to recognize hybrid work as an essential piece of the employee experience.

“If executive leaders continue to push for a workplace return, HR should provide guidelines around how to structure an effective hybrid environment that includes how to balance both synchronous, colocated time for teams at the office and asynchronous work done at home,” said Hudson.

Flexibility Continues to Reign Supreme

The pandemic has caused nearly seven in 10 employees to rethink the role of work in their lives. Many people desire a more flexible schedule – across location, working hours and days worked – that accommodates their personal needs. The November 2021 Gartner survey revealed 52% of employees report that flexible work policies will impact whether they stay at their organizations. In fact, 16% of employees are willing to quit their current job if required to work fully on-site, and 8% said they would quit if required to work even partially on-site.

To attract and retain talent today, organizations must abandon office-centric work design and shift to a human-centric work design where work revolves around what is best for employees — completing work to the highest standard and accommodating their personal lives. Progressive leaders are putting employee well-being at the forefront of their talent management strategies, enacting policies that prevent burnout while enabling employees to flourish both professionally and personally.

“Leaders’ efforts to restore the organization’s ‘normal’ – prepandemic – way of working are clashing with a workforce that has largely normalized working in a hybrid environment,” said Hudson. “Organizations must look forward, not backward, and design a postpandemic employee experience that meets employees’ changing expectations and leverages the advantages of hybrid work.”

Gartner clients can read more in the reports: “U.S. Employers Should Prepare for a High-Turnover Future” and “Employees Are Ready for a Hybrid Future; Are Employers?”

About the Gartner ReimagineHR Conference
The Gartner ReimagineHR Conference is the premier event for CHROs and HR leaders to learn from the latest research and Gartner experts covering talent acquisition, diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, total rewards, talent analytics, and HR technology. Gartner ReimagineHR will be held September 15-16 in London and October 24-26 in Florida. Follow news and updates from these events on Twitter using#GartnerHR.

About the Gartner HR Practice
The Gartner HR practice brings together the best relevant content approaches across Gartner to offer individual decision makers strategic business advice on the mission-critical priorities that cut across the HR function. Additional information is available at http://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/human-resources-leaders. Follow news and updates from the Gartner HR practice on Twitter and LinkedIn using #GartnerHR. Members of the media can find additional information and insights in the Gartner HR Newsroom.

Gartner Says U.S. Total Annual Employee Turnover Will Likely Jump by Nearly 20% From the Prepandemic Annual Average (2024)

FAQs

Is 20% a high turnover rate? ›

Organizations should aim for 10% for an employee turnover rate, but most fall into the range of 12% to 20%. Certain industries report higher employee turnover rates due to the nature of the job.

What is the average employee turnover rate in the US? ›

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average employee turnover rate in 2021 was 47.2%. The turnover rate includes employees who voluntarily quit, layoffs, retirements and discharges.

Is a 10% turnover rate high? ›

According to Gallup, 10% turnover is healthy, but every industry and every organization is different.

Which age demographic has the highest level of turnover? ›

More than half (59 per cent) of respondents view turnover in their organisation as slightly or far too high. The demographic groups report with the highest level of turnover are employees between 18 – 35 years old (37 per cent), and those in entry level roles (20 per cent).

What is the average turnover rate for 2022? ›

U.S. employee annual voluntary turnover is likely to jump nearly 20% this year, from a prepandemic annual average of 31.9 million employees quitting their jobs to 37.4 million quitting in 2022, according to Gartner, Inc.

Is 25% a high turnover rate? ›

As a general rule, employee retention rates of 90 percent or higher are considered good and a company should aim for a turnover rate of 10% or less.

What US turnover is high? ›

Employee turnover rate statistics

Typically, high turnover means 28% of your new employees quit within the first 90 days of their employment. (Again: this presents an enormous cost to companies because they have to constantly repeat a cycle of recruitment, hiring, and training new people.)

What is a normal turnover percentage? ›

What is a good employee turnover rate? On average, every year, a company will experience 18% turnover in its workforce. A business can expect on average to lose 6% of its staff because of reduction in force or terminating them due to poor performance. This is known as involuntary turnover.

Why is turnover so high in 2022? ›

Understand why employees leave

A lack of career development opportunities and room for career growth – 41% Inadequate total compensation – 36% Uncaring and uninspiring leaders – 34% Lack of meaningful work – 31%

Can you have 200% turnover? ›

There you have it: you can absolutely get turnover rates of more than 100%. But remember that turnover numbers can vary substantially month to month. This is particularly important in the case of annualized turnover.

What is the current employee turnover rate? ›

According to our extensive research: As of 2021, the national average annual turnover rate was 57.3%.
...
Employee Turnover Statistics by Industry.
IndustryLeisure and hospitality
201774%
201877%
201979%
2020130%
23 more columns
30 Aug 2022

What is a good turnover ratio? ›

For most industries, the ideal inventory turnover ratio will be between 5 and 10, meaning the company will sell and restock inventory roughly every one to two months. For industries with perishable goods, such as florists and grocers, the ideal ratio will be higher to prevent inventory losses to spoilage.

Which has highest turnover number? ›

Catalase has the highest turnover numbers of all enzymes. One molecule of catalase can convert over 2.8 million molecules of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen per second.

How does age affect employee turnover? ›

When age increases, the rating among voluntary employees decreases. staff turnover of relatively older employees. However, the decrease in assessment is less pronounced in this area than, for example, the atmosphere in the department.

How does age affect turnover? ›

Age diversity improves employee turnover rates, meaning more skilled and experienced employees at your business. Employees age 55 and older also contribute to lower employee turnover and tend to be loyal workers.

How to calculate turnover rate? ›

How to calculate turnover rate? To calculate turnover rate, we divide the number of terminates during a specific period by the number of employees at the beginning of that period. If we start the year with 200 employees, and during the year, 10 people terminate their contract, turnover is 10/200 = 0.05, or 5%.

What is the average tenure of an employee 2022? ›

In January 2022, median employee tenure (the point at which half of all workers had more tenure and half had less tenure) for men held at 4.3 years. For women, median tenure was 3.8 years in January 2022, little changed from the median of 3.9 years in January 2020.

What does a turnover rate of 100% mean? ›

To get the percentage of turnover, you take the number of people who left your company during a period divided by the average headcount for that same period and multiply it by 100. It is possible for your turnover rate to be more than 100%. This means that you replaced your entire workforce during that time period.

Is employee turnover increasing? ›

Because turnover rates are growing at an alarming rate. In the past 10 years alone, the national turnover rate has increased by the astounding rate of over 88%!

Which industry has the highest turnover rate? ›

1. At 60.5%, the retail and wholesale industry has the highest turnover rate. Factors such as unbalanced paychecks, lack of career development, and poor management are among the top reasons why retail and wholesale employees leave their jobs.

Why is employee turnover so high? ›

Many of the top reasons for turnover—poor compensation or work-life balance, little training and scant career advancement opportunities—hinge on the manager, so HR teams need to identify supervisors who flat out lack the competence to manage people and either transition them to new roles or provide support and training ...

What is the average turnover rate by industry? ›

Financial activities: 28.5% Professional and Business services: 64.2% Education and Health services: 37.3% Leisure and Hospitality: 84.9%

Which industry has the highest turnover rate 2022? ›

The largest rises were recorded in: Accommodation and food services (43.4%) Arts and recreation services (42.8%)
...
Of the four industries that showed falls in October 2022, the largest were in:
  • Arts and recreation services (-3.9%)
  • Retail trade (-2.5%)
  • Transport, postal and warehousing (-2.4%)
4 days ago

What is the great resignation 2022? ›

The “Great Resignation” that has seen a record number of workers in the United States voluntarily resign from their jobs continued as close to 4.1 million workers quit in September 2022, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) released by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics ...

What are the 3 types of turnover? ›

You can calculate involuntary turnover, voluntary turnover and total turnover. Example: Say you start off the year with 100 employees.

Why is turnover rate important? ›

Staff turnover is an important way to measure both the effectiveness of the human resources management system and the overall management of an organization or program. It provides a complementary measure to the previous indicator on key positions filled.

What is another word for employee turnover? ›

Definition: Staff attrition refers to the loss of employees through a natural process, such as retirement, resignation, elimination of a position, personal health, or other similar reasons. With attrition, an employer will not fill the vacancy left by the former employee.

Why is turnover ratio calculated? ›

The asset turnover ratio measures the value of a company's sales or revenues relative to the value of its assets. The asset turnover ratio can be used as an indicator of the efficiency with which a company is using its assets to generate revenue.

Is a high turnover ratio good? ›

Higher turnover rates mean increased fund expenses, which can reduce the fund's overall performance. Higher turnover rates can also have negative tax consequences. Funds with higher turnover rates are more likely to incur capital gains taxes, which are then distributed to investors.

What affects employee turnover? ›

The four main causes of turnover are lack of growth and progression, inefficient management, inadequate compensation, and poor workplace culture. These reasons for staff leaving are present at many organizations around the world.

What factors affect turnover rate? ›

7 common causes of high employee turnover
  • Employees are overwhelmed by amount work. ...
  • Lack of recognition. ...
  • Company culture. ...
  • Poor relationship with Manager. ...
  • Lack of flexibility. ...
  • Remuneration and benefits. ...
  • Poor learning and development opportunities.

What happens if turnover rate is high? ›

A high turnover rate negatively affects the company's image. If employees leave due to poor compensation or lack of growth opportunities, it tells potential talent that it is not the best working environment. The image of a satisfied worker is a good way to attract and retain talent.

How does high turnover impact a company? ›

When employee turnover happens, companies may lose employee productivity, be forced to recruit new employees, suffer from lower morale, miss out on sales opportunities, and have to deal with additional expenses that could have been avoided if they had just held onto the employee in the first place.

Why turnover is a problem? ›

Decreased Productivity

When companies experience employee turnover, they need to hire new employees to fill up the position and productivity shortage. However, new employees will need to go through the onboarding process, adjustment period, and training before contributing to the production process.

Why High turnover is good for a company? ›

Improves Talent Potential

Employee turnover can sometimes be an indicator of moving towards success at an organization. When an organization fosters continual growth, there's a give and take.

What is a high rate of turnover? ›

Typically, high turnover means 28% of your new employees quit within the first 90 days of their employment. (Again: this presents an enormous cost to companies because they have to constantly repeat a cycle of recruitment, hiring, and training new people.)

What is a high turnover ratio? ›

For all types of mutual funds, a low turnover ratio is often 20% to 30%. A high turnover ratio is above 50%.

What is a normal rate of turnover? ›

General Employee Turnover Statistics

What is a good employee turnover rate? On average, every year, a company will experience 18% turnover in its workforce. A business can expect on average to lose 6% of its staff because of reduction in force or terminating them due to poor performance.

Why is employee turnover increasing? ›

The four main causes of turnover are lack of growth and progression, inefficient management, inadequate compensation, and poor workplace culture. These reasons for staff leaving are present at many organizations around the world.

What company has the highest employee turnover? ›

A new Payscale report published on Thursday ranked Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company as having the highest turnover rate out of all of the Fortune 500 companies.

What is turnover ratio formula? ›

Inventory Turnover Ratio = Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory.

How do you calculate employee turnover rate? ›

You can get your average number of employees (Avg) by adding your beginning and ending workforce and dividing by two (Avg = [B+E]/2). Now, you should divide the number of employees who left by your average number of employees. Multiply by 100 to get your final turnover percentage ([L/Avg] x 100).

Why do we calculate turnover ratio? ›

The inventory turnover ratio can help businesses make better decisions on pricing, manufacturing, marketing, and purchasing. It is one of the efficiency ratios measuring how effectively a company uses its assets.

What does 100% turnover mean? ›

To get the percentage of turnover, you take the number of people who left your company during a period divided by the average headcount for that same period and multiply it by 100. It is possible for your turnover rate to be more than 100%. This means that you replaced your entire workforce during that time period.

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