93% of HR professionals say employee retention is a real concern, according to a 2023 LinkedIn survey. That worry is well-founded: more than half of employees planned to look for a new job in 2025, and most were confident they’d find one, meaning they had little reason to stay put if something better came along.
This article covers what’s actually driving people to leave, ten strategies that address the problem earlier, and how to measure whether your efforts are working.
What is employee retention?
Employee retention is an organization’s ability to keep its people over time, usually measured as a rate: the percentage of employees who stay over a given period, calculated annually.
The median employee tenure in the US sits at 4.1 years, according to the Department of Labor. Job loyalty isn’t the default anymore, so organizations have to earn it rather than assume it.
High turnover isn’t the actual problem. It’s a signal pointing to something that happened earlier:
A hiring decision that missed the mark A manager who wasn’t equipped to lead A role that never matched the person filling it A culture that didn’t deliver on what got promised in the interview Why employees
