In a recent Nectar survey on employee recognition, we learned that 71% of employees would be less likely to leave their organization if they were recognized more frequently. If you've been following the world of work, turnover and layoffs have been making frequent headlines (depending on the industry you're in.)
Nectar recently surveyed 1,000 employees in the United States to uncover some new statistics on employee turnover and retention.
Do you have combatting turnover on your mind for 2024? Tools like Nectar can help you increase recognition, which makes your team more excited about the work they do every day (and less likely to leave.) Request a demo to see how we can help your team celebrate more wins and keep more people every year.
Companies of all sizes have struggled with employee turnover and retention for the last few years. Employees aren’t as loyal to their employers, and job hopping to increase salary/job responsibilities is common. Nearly half of our survey respondents shared that they plan to look for work in the next three months.
In a world where your team is perpetually open to new opportunities, companies must do what they can to mitigate this. It's not about forcing team members who want to leave to stay; it's about creating an environment where top performers want to stay long-term.
Of those who plan to look for work in the next three months:
If you’ve been on LinkedIn in the last few years, you know that layoffs are continually impacting employees across the globe. From small tech startups to large multinational organizations, layoffs have become a new normal.
Nearly 1 in 3 employees we surveyed shared that their companies have experienced a layoff in the last three months.
These are the types of employees experiencing the most layoffs:
Feeling secure in your position in a company is essential. Maslow's hierarchy of needs posits that safety and security are the foundational things humans need to reach self-actualization or to live with meaning and purpose. Humans believe that safety and security come from many places, such as health, employment, family, and property. When employees feel secure in all these facets of life, it becomes easier to accomplish more.
Unfortunately, the current world of work doesn’t leave much room for feeling secure at work. Around 1 in 3 employees surveyed worry about their job security in their current role.
Because of all the layoffs we've experienced in the last few years, it's no wonder many employees are worried about their job security. When team members leave so abruptly, it can lead to survivor's guilt and a deeper worry about security.
A whopping 65% of employees who experienced recent layoffs worry about job security in their current roles. In contrast, only 24% of employees who haven’t experienced recent layoffs feel worried.
Layoffs often have consequences far beyond the employees you decide to let go. Damages to your employer brand and the self-esteem of current employees are risks you'll be taking on during the process.
When employees worry about their job security, they don't always stick around to see if things will even out. Eventually, many of these employees start looking for better, more stable opportunities. Of the people worried about job security, 71% plan to look for new work in the next three months.
Zooming out, certain industries are dealing with more job insecurity than others. As we've found, insecurity at work bleeds into other spaces, such as looking for other opportunities. Across the board, job insecurity is a stressor that makes employees look for other opportunities. Understanding which industries are most impacted can help employers make better staffing and employee retention decisions.
At the height of the pandemic, nearly 22% of jobs included some amount of teleworking. While this has died down significantly in the last few years, companies are still dealing with the pull of in-office vs. remote work. But what are employees expecting? What moves the needle most when it comes to the work arrangements employees expect in 2024?
Schedule flexibility reigns supreme as the work arrangement of most importance to employees right now. Whether you have an option for team members to work remotely or go into an office, employees need flexibility and work/life balance to make things work.
While a traditional 9-5 schedule works for some employees, others have outside influences that require a less stringent schedule so they can fit work around their lives. For example:
No matter why your employees need flexible work arrangements, it’s important to consider how you can provide them with the experience. How can you help your team show up with their best foot forward through schedule flexibility? Do you need every employee to work traditional hours for your business to succeed?
Surprisingly, 58% of workers shared that remote work was an important work arrangement. While this is nearly 6 in 10 employees, there is still a big chunk of workers who don't need the option to work remotely to enjoy work.
If you want your remote workers to continue having a great work experience, our piece on how to improve the digital employee experience is a great read.
The work arrangement with the least support is working in the office. An in-office work arrangement seemed to be most important for men, workers of companies with 501-1,000 employees, and 35 to 44-year-olds.
When it comes to working in the office, companies must realize that some employees feel more comfortable in an office environment than others.
After the pandemic slowed down and employees began to see the return to office mandates, there were several important stories about the impact of microaggressions on the return to office mandates from newspapers like the Washington Post and the LA Times. Working from home gives some employees a reprieve from dealing with issues like coworkers touching their hair or overhearing insensitive comments.
There are other benefits to remote work, too, like reducing emissions from commuters and saving hours that could be better spent with family and friends.
Employee burnout is an issue that reverberates through companies. When workers feel burnt out, they have difficulty focusing and providing their best work. Unfortunately, many employees are dealing with the stress of burnout right now, leading to some big issues at work.
For the employees experiencing burnout:
Burnout is not a state that people can live in forever. A bit of stress is fine and can be a great kickstart to getting things done. Burnout is a deeper experience that companies must build systems to avoid if they want to keep their best people.
If you had to leave and find a new job today, would you be confident about the experience? Nearly 7 in 10 survey respondents feel they could quickly secure new work.
Here are the employees who are the most confident in their ability to find new work:
Have you ever felt a sense of dread on Sunday as you realized that the weekend has escaped you once again? Unfortunately, this is a feeling that some employees are used to. Many employees tend to work for the weekend, and once those two days are up, they feel a significant sense of anxiety as they prepare for the week ahead.
Of the 1,000 employees we surveyed, 39% were currently experiencing the Sunday Scaries at work.
Here are the employees dealing with the Sunday Scaries the most:
If you’ve worked in HR, you know how crucial it is to nail the employee onboarding experience. Starting a new job can be scary, and there's so much information to absorb.
The best employee onboarding experiences make new team members feel welcome by building community and making it easy for employees to excel in their new roles. Employees also expect that the dreams they were sold during recruiting will be kept once they join full-time.
You are not exempt from employee turnover during the onboarding process. In fact, 29% of our survey respondents shared they quit a job within 90 days of starting.
Would your employees stay at your company if they didn’t need to make a living? For some employees, the first thing they’d do after winning a lump sum of cash is quit their job to do something they are passionate about.
43% of the employees we surveyed would leave their jobs if they didn't need the money. This is a pretty universal number based on gender and age. Unfortunately, many employees across the country would leave if money wasn't needed.
In the past, it wasn't uncommon for employees to stay with one or two organizations until retirement. Our recent data on the tenure of employees shows that this isn't the case in 2024.
Nearly half of the employees we surveyed had been with their current employer for five years or less. The highest concentration of workers had been with their jobs for just two years (11%.)
Most employees we surveyed were accounted for by the time we got to 6-10 years. 24% of the workers we surveyed had worked at their company for that long.
Next, a chunk of the employees we surveyed had worked at their company for 11-20 years. 18% of workers fell into this category.
Finally, there were a few outliers who had been with their company for 21+ years, where 11% of workers fell.
Having a close friend at work can make a world of difference. We spend many hours at work and want to feel connected to others. A recent Nectar survey found that 76.13% of employees have a close friend at work. But how does that relationship impact employee tenure?
It turns out not as much as you’d think. Only 17% of the employees we surveyed shared that they are more likely to quit when a close friend does. In the world of employee retention, though, even 17% of your workforce feeling that way can lead to a loss of top talent and knowledge. Even small amounts of employee attrition can create chaos at work.
Employees want to work for a company with a mission and core values. Taken one step further, employers have to believe in the mission/values companies share.
Nectar can be a great resource for companies wanting to keep their mission and core values front and center. As employees log into Nectar, they'll see a widget with your company's mission statement and core values. Every shoutout sent in your company's Nectar account needs a core value attached.
Let’s dig into the numbers to see how tools like Nectar can impact on employee retention:
Your company’s mission statement is an essential piece of the puzzle for employees. A good mission statement gives your team something to rally behind, and it makes workers feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.
While mission statements might seem like a small sentence your company can skip, it sets the tone for how employees interact with your business.
For 39% of the workers we surveyed, believing in the mission was very important.
Creating company core values your organization can live by has many positive benefits. Core values define which behaviors you look for in a candidate, team member, and leader.
Companies that define and live by their values create a workplace where employees know precisely what kind of person they need to be to succeed. Defining your core values also helps employees determine if your workplace aligns with their work expectations.
For 43% of the employees we surveyed, believing in the company's core values was very important.
Lastly, let's examine the relationship that employees have with their managers and peers. These relationships are vital because they have a deep impact on an employee's experience. According to data from Gallup, managers are responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Employees spend a lot of time with their peers, so it makes sense that employees need to have a good relationship with them.
Most of the employees we surveyed felt they had a positive relationship with their manager. 40% rated the relationship excellent, while the other 40% said they had a good relationship with their manager. On the more negative side, 14% of employees had a neutral relationship with their managers and 6% had a negative relationship.
How does having a positive relationship with your manager impact tenure?
Overall, more employees have a positive relationship with their peers compared to managers. If employees don’t have a positive relationship, 12% would rate their relationship neutral. Just 4% of the employees we surveyed would say they had a negative relationship with their peers.
How does having a positive relationship with your peers impact tenure?
Addressing employee turnover and retention is critical as employers vie to reduce costs and improve profits. Companies should connect with employees to understand what drives them to stay at a company long-term.
When using this data in your organization, consider the following questions:
→What does your current turnover rate look like?
→Are things like layoffs impacting employee security and trust in your organization?
→Does working at your organization cause unnecessary dread for your team members?
→Is your company creating an environment where burnout can take over your workforce?
→Are you investing in the right mission and values to invigorate your team members?
Answering these questions will get you closer to reducing turnover and increasing retention at your company.
While many companies will continue to face challenges with retention, there is a silver lining. There is a lot that companies can do to improve employee trust and help more employees stay on long-term. Increasing recognition is a great place to start. Increased recognition helps people feel more valued and appreciated at work.
Check out how implementing Nectar helped Statista Inc. reduce turnover by 29%. If you’re ready to see how we can help, request a demo, and one of our sales representatives will walk you through how Nectar could work for your organization.
