Why Employees Quit & How to Keep Them (2024)

In September 2020, more than 3 million people quit their job, data from the U.S. Bureau ofLabor Statistics (BLS) shows. For as long as people have been working, managers and businessleaders have tried to figure out the drivers of employee turnover—a way to measure thenumber of employees who leave the organization over a certain time period.

Turnover statistics from employees and active job seekers can help recruiters and HR managersunderstand why people are leaving or how they can attract top talent. They can informinitiatives to reduce turnover—especially among top performers—and make their business aplace people want to work.

50 Top Employee Turnover Statistics

Getting talented people to stay with theorganization requires digging into the reasons why they leave, what it costs thebusiness and what the organization can do to change it. Let’s take a closer look at thenumbers:

General Employee Turnover Statistics

1. What is a good employee turnover rate? On average, every year, a company will experience18%(opens in new tab)turnover in its workforce.
2. A business can expect on average to lose 6%(opens in new tab) ofits staff because of reduction in force or terminating them due to poor performance.This is known as involuntary turnover.
3. While involuntary turnover is useful in developing overall recruiting strategies to makesure the talent pool is large enough to fill open positions, when it comes to retention,it is more important to look at voluntary turnover. On average,companies lose 13%(opens in new tab) oftheir people every year because they choose to leave on their own volition.
4. Drilling further into turnover, a company should examine how many people are leaving keyroles. Annual high performer turnover rate on average is 3%(opens in new tab). Inbest-in-class companies, this number is near zero.
5. On average, people don’t stay in their roles for long. The BLS puts the mediannumber of years that wage and salary workers have been with their current employerat 4.1 years. That hasn’t changed much since 2018. This number is higherfor workers in the public sector, at 6.5 years.
6. But there are important differences in tenure by age range. The mediantenure of workers ages 55 to 64 is 9.9 years, per the BLS. That’s more thantriple(opens in new tab) the tenure ofworkers ages25 to 34, which is just 2.8 years. Amongworkers ages 60 to 64, 54% had been employed for at least 10 years with their currentemployer in January 2020, compared with 10% of those ages 30 to 34.
7. Tenure is influenced by occupation and industry. Workers in managementand professional occupations had a mediantenure of 4.9 years(opens in new tab), withlegal,architecture and engineering roles having thelongest tenure. Those in the service industry, who skew younger, had the lowest mediantenure at 2.9 years. Workers in food service have the lowest median tenure at 1.9 years.
8. The one-year mark is crucial point to examine in reducing turnover. Tentimes as many employees quit at the one-year mark(opens in newtab) compared to five years in.

The Cost of Employee Turnover

9. Decreasing turnover is important for a number of reasons. For one, the cost of replacingan employee is significant. The cost of replacing an individualemployee can range from one-half to two times the employee’s salary(opens in new tab). That meanslosing an employee with an annual salary of $80,000 can cost the organization as much as$160,000.
10. Even modest turnover rates cost the organization a lot of money whenyou consider the entire company. At a 100-person company that provides an average salaryof $50,000, turnover and replacement costs could be as high as $2.6 million a year(opens innewtab).
11. Turnover of high performers is costly, but turnover that is a result of hiringthe wrong person in the first place is expensive as well. Nearlythree-quarters of companies admit to hiring the wrong person for a role, and each badhire costs companies an average of $14,900(opens innewtab). A bad hire can hurt productivity,damage the quality of work and lead to a rushed recruiting process.
12. Some 66%(opens in newtab) ofworkers have accepted a job and realizedit was a bad fit. Half of those people quit in six months or less.

How Culture Affects Turnover

13. Of those who realized that the job they took wasn’t a good fit, almost half(opens in newtab)Of those who realized that the job they took wasn’t a good fit, almost halfblamed toxic work culture.
14. Flight risk due to bad culture is significant for new hires. Forworkers who rejected a job offer or leave within the first 90 days, 28%(opens in newtab) namedculture as the reason for their quickdeparture.
15. Culture is more important to retention for certain groups of employees.Nearly half(opens in newtab) of people with advanced degrees and thosewith children cited culture as very important.
16. Turnover due to culture may have cost organizations as much as $223 billion(opens in newtab) over the past five years.
17. More than three-quarters(opens in newtab) of Americans say their managersets the culture, but 36% say their manager doesn’t understand how to leada team.
18. Concerningly, some 26%(opens in newtab) ofworkers report they dread going into workevery day.
19. Toxic cultures contribute to burnout, which is a key reason forturnover. A full 74%(opens in newtab) ofrespondents to a recent survey reportexperiencing job burnout.
20. Lack of personal time is a key reason for burnout. Some 40%(opens in newtab) ofworkers say they work between eight and 12 hourson a daily basis.

Onboarding & Employee Turnover

21. Onboarding is often the first introduction to the culture of an organization for a newemployee, and small improvements can make a big difference. Organizations with astrong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82%(opens in newtab) andproductivity by more than 70%.
22. It is tough to recover from a bad onboarding experience. One study saidemployees who experience negative new hire onboarding experiences are twice as likely(opens in newtab) to explore new opportunities quickly.
23. A lot of those onboarding problems don’t require a massive overhaul to fix. When it cameto the problems they experienced during onboarding, half(opens in newtab) ofnew hires said IT resolution was too slow and40% said getting a question answered from HR took too long.
24. And small improvements to onboarding can have a lasting impact onretention. A striking 69%(opens in newtab) ofemployees are more likely to stay with thecompany for at least three years after a positive onboarding experience.
25. Better onboarding—and in particular longer onboarding—leads to faster time toproductivity. Employees in companies with longer onboarding programs areproficient at their jobs four months earlier(opens innewtab) than those with shorter onboardingprograms.

Employee Engagement & Employee Turnover

26. The number of engaged employees—those who are highly involved in,enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace—sits at just 36%(opens in newtab).
27. Another 13%(opens in newtab) ofworkers are actively disengagedand the rest (51%) are psychologically unattached to their work andtheir company.
28. Higher employee engagement correlates with lower turnover rates. Incompanies with more than 40% turnover every year, those with higher engagement levelshave 18%(opens in newtab) lowerturnover. That improvement is even moredramatic for companies with less than 40% annual turnover. These companies experience43% less turnover with higher levels of engagement.
29. Leading companies focus on employee experience to increase retention. Ninety-six percentof talent professionals said employee experience was becoming more important(opensin newtab). Some 77% said the primary goalof their focus on employee experience was to increase retention.
30. Employees want to be part of mission- and purpose-led companies.Companies with a purposeful mission had an attrition rate 49%(opens in newtab) lowerthan those who did not.
31. Some three-fourths of workers think it’s important towork for a company that gives to charitable causes and supports the localcommunity. Workers under 40 consider this especially important.

How Managers and Leadership Affect Turnover

32. Who has the biggest influence on employee turnover? Managers accountfor 70%(opens in newtab) ofthe variance when it comes to employee engagementscores. But managers themselves suffer from high levels of burnout and low engagementlevels—that survey showed that the drop in engagement for managers was steepest.
33. More than half(opens in newtab) of employees who voluntarily leave theirroles say their manager or organization had the power to keep them fromleaving their job.
34. And more than 50%(opens in newtab) aren’t asking for very much. They say thatin the three months before they left, neither their manager nor any other leaderspoke with them about their job satisfaction or future with the company.
35. Here’s one reason why there may be a gap: only about one in 10 people possess high talent to manage. Forcompanies that identify and train the right people for managementroles, the payoff is huge. They contribute about 48% more profit to theircompanies than average managers do.

The Importance of Salary, Recognition andEmployee Development on Turnover

36. The No. 1 reason employees leave is lack of growth and development opportunities(opens in new tab), accordingto one report. Twenty-two percent of workers leave for career development, a number thathas increased 170%(opens in newtab) inthe last decade. The type of work, a lack ofopportunity for growth and little opportunity for advancement are all issues that fallunder career development.
37. Some 94%(opens in newtab) ofthose surveyed said they would stay at acompany longer if that company demonstrated a commitment to helping themlearn.
38. Companies with better training have 53%(opens in newtab)lower attrition.
39. Often viewed as the No. 1 reason employees leave, compensation is only part ofthe equation. It ranks fourth(opens in newtab) in reasons why workers depart, behindcareer development, work-life balance and the employee’s manager.
40. Salary and total rewards are still a crucial part of employeeretention. Fewer than half(opens in newtab) (47%) of employees said they would stayat their current job if they didn’t need the money.
41. Recognition also plays a big role in retention. Some 68% of staffers said theirorganization's recognition program positively affects retention.

How Hiring Practices Affect Turnover

42. If a company has problems with all of the above, it will have a really hard time with animportant source of attracting new, talented potential candidates—referrals. Some 71%(opens in newtab) ofpeople use referrals from currentemployees when finding a job.
43. Part of making sure you hire the right person is ensuring recruiting islooking for the right person in the first place. And there’s a disconnect here, with 72%of hiring managers saying they provide clear job descriptions, compared to 36%(opens in newtab) ofcandidates who report they were given clear jobdescriptions.
44. Some 40%(opens in newtab) ofthose surveyed said a recruiter’sconversation skills, closely followed by appearance or personalstyle (37%) have the greatest impact on company image during on-siteinterviews. When a potential employee witnesses rudeness to coworkers, it’s the biggestreason they disqualify a company.
45. This proves that impressions of the workplace matter. On-siteinterviews are the biggest reason that potential applicants drop out of the process,with 15%(opens in newtab)dropping out after that visit.

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See Also

7 Factors Influencing Employee Turnover Intention in 2022Causes and Effects of Employee Turnover [2023]Inventory Turnover Ratio & How to Calculate ItCauses & Effects of High & Low Staff Turnover

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Perks, Benefits and Work-Life Balance andEmployee Turnover

46. Twelve out of 100(opens in newtab)workers quit for betterwork-life balance. It has risen 20% since 2013 as a top reason forturnover. The leading reasons for leaving in this category are scheduling andcommute—the latter of which has seen a remarkable 403% increase in the lastdecade.
47. Health care insurance is the most important benefit for employees,dubbed as an essential by 72%(opens in newtab) ofjob seekers.
48. Snacks and free meals is the most desired “extra” benefit, the topchoice for 50%(opens in newtab) ofrespondents, followed by a casual dress code andcell phone/internet subsidies.
49. Remote work decreases turnover—U.S. companies that support remote workexperience 25% lower turnover. Surprisingly, 23% offull-time employees are willing to take a pay cut ofmore than 10% in order to work from home at least some of the time.
50. Almost half of people won’t return to jobs that don’t offer remote workafter COVID-19, as 80% of full-time workers expect to work from home at least threetimes per week after COVID-19 guidelines are lifted and offices are able to re-open.

Here’s the good news: More than 75% of employees(opens in newtab) who quit could have been retained by theorganization. Any improvements tied to employee engagement, delivering training and careeradvancement opportunities and providing incentives that will motivate and fulfill workerswill help you capitalize on this opportunity and hold onto your most valuable employees.