In today's business world, retaining top talent is crucial to a company's success. Yet understanding the levers of employee retention is often complex. This article explores the top ten retention drivers. By adopting a proactive approach, organizations can not only retain their key employees, but also create an environment where everyone can flourish and contribute fully to the collective success.

Here are the main reasons for measuring employee retention:

1. Identification of areas for improvement and proactivity: Understanding the reasons why employees leave enables us to anticipate problems and remedy them before they become serious.
2. Effective strategy and program development: Based on tangible data, it's possible to improve employee satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Assessing and improving employee satisfaction: By targeting areas of weakness, corrective action can be taken to improve the employee experience.
4. Proactive problem-solving: By acting before problems lead to departures, team cohesion and productivity can be preserved.
5. Creating an effective employee retention strategy: Based on factual data, measures can be put in place to encourage loyalty and long-term commitment.
6. Saving financial and human resources: By reducing the costs associated with recruiting and training new employees, the company can invest more in developing its existing talent.

Common measures of employee retention

There are several key indicators you can use to measure employee retention:

• Employee retention rate = (Total no. of employees - Total no. of employees who have left/ Total no. of employees) 100: Indicates the proportion of employees who remain with the company over a given period. A rate of over 90% is generally considered good.
• Retention rate by category:Analyze retention by department, manager, age group, gender, performance level, etc.
• Voluntary and involuntary turnover Measures the number of employees who leave the company voluntarily or are made redundant.
• Employee satisfaction rate:Indicates the level of employee satisfaction with their work and environment.
• Average length of employment:Indicates the average length of time employees stay with the company.
• Employee turnover: Measures the financial costs associated with employee departures.
• Commitment scores: Assess employees' intention to stay with the company.
• Job satisfaction: Measures the degree to which employees are satisfied with their work.
• Escape risk: Identify employees likely to leave the company.

According to a Harvard Business Review study, the cost of replacing an employee can represent up to 90% of his or her annual salary. This means that the more employees a company loses, the more it will have to invest in recruiting and training new employees. Measuring employee retention is an essential process for any company wishing to improve its working environment, reduce costs and increase performance. By tracking key indicators and taking corrective action, you can build employee loyalty and a high-performance, sustainable team.

Talenteo can help you improve the employee experience. If you'd like to see a demo, click here.