I’ve applied for a job with a company who state on their annual review that their employee retention rate is 93%. Means nothing to me – is that good?

Only 7% leave each year?

I should add that it occurs they would be unlikely to put it in their review if it ISN’T good – just wondered if anyone had anything to compare it to. 🙂

Sounds about average – where I work is probably barely 1% a year, and far lower once you rule out retirements. It’s probably worse than a much higher figure as it demonstrates a frustrating failure to show the door to unmotivated, uncooperative, willfully under-performing and incompetent wasters counting down the years to retirement.

*Edit – in my defense, posting during working hours, I’m a receptionist and there’s a limit to what I can do between phone calls, but forums OK 😉

It depends on the industry. 7% churn in sales would be amazing. 7% churn in an academic department would be pretty poor. I guess that it’s good for this industry?

What Tony said ^^^

Where I work now if it goes over 5% (churn, not retention!) we start worrying.

I’ve worked somewhere where it was probably more like 50% and that was perfectly okay and expected.

Yep depends on the industry, I think my old company was pleased if less than 20% (IT consultancy).

It’s an IT service provider, so I guess just pretty average then. Cheers for the input fellers. 🙂

Also depends if there are jobs available if they leave.

I worked for an employer who had a policy of letting go the bottom 4% every year (as determined by year end review). Tough but hard to argue with.

FYI Harvard drops the bottom 10% of it’s 2yr MBA after 1st year. Doesn’t matter how smart you are.

where I work is probably barely 1% a year,

The average employee works there for 100 years?

I was advised that if they show you the office walk away if they are all new or if they all look like they have been there forever. Staff who never leave means it’s coasting and easy going where anyone with a bit of get up and go leaves very quick.

Staff who never leave means it’s coasting and easy going

Or a good company to work for

FYI Harvard drops the bottom 10% of it’s 2yr MBA after 1st year. Doesn’t matter how smart you are.

Really? Crikey do they give you a refund on your first year’s fees as well?

Have a look at retention rates for companies in Germany and Japan. They are really high.

Staff turnover is one of the things that gives UK/US companies the edge in radical innovation, so for example the R&D departments of big technology firms actively want to hire in new people (and if no one is leaving it makes that harder) because bringing in new people brings in new ideas.

Conversely, the big auto manufacturers in Germany and Japan are more focused on process refinement; so it is in their interests to have the same people building a Golf GTI now as they did 30 years ago because they’ve learned everything there is about how to do that really well.

It’s one of the reasons why the US/UK lead the world in bringing new drugs to market but not cars!

eskay – Member
Staff who never leave means it’s coasting and easy going
Or a good company to work for

This used to be the case at my work who were for many years ” the ” place to get a job as a tradesman or process op. People would leave school, become an apprentice and be there till retirement or redundancy came along. Due to all the crap that’s been going on over the past few years including T&C being eroded, changes in working practices and dwindling numbers meaning little or no progression even if you did shine 19 out of the last 20 that have been on the apprenticeship scheme have upped and left for pastures new much to the annoyance of management 🙄

Conversely, the big auto manufacturers in Germany and Japan are more focused on process refinement; so it is in their interests to have the same people building a Golf GTI now as they did 30 years ago because they’ve learned everything there is about how to do that really well.

Can relate to this. A lot of the machinery I work on is 25-40yrs old! It has been upgraded and tweaked over the years and produces way more than originally designed for. As a consequence of demanning at the start of the year I am having to learn how a load more stuff I have never worked on before operates. Can be fun on a night shift!

We’re currently at 8% leave each year but actively looking to increase to 10%.

It’s a good place to work and looks after its people but more new people would mean more new perspectives and, in a fast-changing industry, we need that.

Glassdoor can be useful for the information on companies at least from disgruntled ex-employees

http://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/index.htm

would be mind expandingly brilliant if it was a state secondary school and teacher retention

To put it in perspective

Our first year we started with 16 members of staff from our original team in September, by January 2013 we had lost 4 of them (one of them was a couple with four kids that managed a midnight flit from here) by start next year we had lost one more.

This year we have lost one prematurely (pushed not ran) and will have a staff turnover of 14 members of staff out of 26.

Not great, but not bad for the end of a two year contract.

tonyg2003 – Member
It depends on the industry. 7% churn in sales would be amazing. 7% churn in an academic department would be pretty poor. I guess that it’s good for this industry?

depends if you include RAs and postdocs

I work for an IT services provider and we used to target (and achieve) around 7% turn-over which apparently was much lower than the industry average, think we’ve just climbed into double figures though but that’s following a big acquisition and a fair bit of restructuring.

When I worked in fast food turnover was 30%…a month…