Glassdoor research reveals the factors that affect staff retention

Job hopping is becoming the norm, but it does still leave employers in a tight spot; recent research shows the total cost of the first year of employment is often double the staff member’s annual salary. Glassdoor has studied more than 5000 transitions on CVs from its database and believes it has found the factors that can predict staff retention.

The analysis, titled Why Do Workers Quit? found that company culture plays a big part in staff retention. Employers with better overall ratings, greater career opportunities and a welcoming culture are more likely to see employees stay in order to move up the ladder rather than looking elsewhere. Glassdoor features company ratings from staff members and found that improving this statistic by one star raised the odds of retaining workers by 4%.

Surprisingly, the areas of company culture that had no effect on turnover were work-life balance, senior leadership and compensation and benefits.

Pay is also a key factor; the research showed that a 10% increase in base pay made employees 1.5% more likely to stay with the company when searching for their next role, even after considering aspects such as job title, industry, company size and location.

Finally, the study found that job title stagnation hurts retention rates. For every additional 10 months an employee maintains the same title, they’re 1% more likely to leave the company when they’re ready to move on.