Take a look at Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workforce report and you’ll find a concerning stat. 52% of employees told Gallup researchers they were watching for or actively seeking a new job.
While the Great Resignation seems to have subsided, talent retention is still a pressing issue — and it can make all the difference to your business. Holding onto your best people, with all their skills and knowledge, means better productivity, customer service, and profitability.
In this quick guide, we explain what talent retention is and why it’s important. We also share what you can do to inspire employee loyalty in 2025 — from a connected workplace culture to the perks that matter most.
Ready to turn retention into a competitive advantage? Let’s get started.
What is talent retention and why is it so important?
Talent retention is your ability to hold onto your employees once you’ve hired them.
If you have an effective talent retention plan, employees stick around for long, stable, and productive careers within your organization.
So why does talent retention matter?
Talent retention is important because replacing employees is expensive. Gallup estimates that replacing a frontline employee costs 40% of their salary. This rises to 80% for employees in technical roles and 200% for leaders and managers.
By improving staff loyalty, you reduce costs associated with recruitment and onboarding. But there are other benefits of employee retention to bear in mind:
- Improved productivity. Your organization is more productive because a high proportion of employees are fully trained and know how to do their jobs.
- An expert workforce. You retain knowledge and skills within the business, which means you achieve your goals faster.
- A positive company culture. Because workers are able to build strong and lasting relationships with co-workers, you raise satisfaction and loyalty.
One final benefit of staff retention is a better customer experience. And that deserves a section all of its own...
The link between employee retention and customer experience
Gartner defines customer experience (CX) as:
“The customer's perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier's employees, systems, channels or products.”
The snappier version? It’s the degree to which interactions with your brand spark joy in customers.
It’s easy to delight customers when employees are informed, happy, and engaged. And it’s very easy to do the opposite if staff are new to the job — or looking for a role elsewhere.
According to PwC research, 46% of customers will abandon a brand if employees aren’t knowledgeable and don’t know how to meet their needs.
Employee retention, employee experience, and customer experience are closely linked. Do right by your employees and they’re more likely to stay working for your company.
They continue to build their knowledge and skills, which means they’re more likely to provide an industry-leading experience for your customers.
Talent retention: why now?
52% of employees say they’re watching for or actively seeking a new job. And turnover rates for frontline industries remain high: 73.8% in hospitality, 56.7% in transportation, and 21.9% in professional and business services.
There’s another, stealthier problem at play too. Glassdoor has revealed that nearly 2 in 3 employees feel stuck in their roles. And Gallup says that we’ve moved beyond the Great Resignation into the Great Detachment, where employees are staying in roles they have little interest in.
In 2025, some employees are quitting. Others are sticking around for lack of a better option. In either case, the business suffers. But a focus on talent retention can help to combat both of these issues.
Talent retention strategies revolve around improving the employee experience. You make your workplace a better, more fulfilling, and more inspiring place to be. So both employee engagement and retention improve.
The first hurdle: identifying talent retention issues
How is your company doing in terms of talent retention?
To truly understand your performance, you need to know — and keep track of — your employee retention rate. You can use this number to set a baseline and establish targets. But while this figure tells you how many employees are leaving your organization, it doesn’t tell you why.
For that, you need to dig deeper. Exit surveys and interviews can reveal trends and problems with the employee experience. They can help you understand why employees are choosing to leave. Some of the most common culprits in 2025 include:
- Work-life balance: a lack of flexibility in the workplace is leading staff — including frontline employees — to look for jobs elsewhere.
- Career progression: lack of career or professional development opportunities is one of the most cited reasons for leaving a job.
- Recognition: when you don’t show regular and authentic appreciation for employee efforts, they become demotivated and more likely to jump ship.
- Workplace culture: a sense of connection and belonging have a big impact on employee satisfaction, so issues with managers and co-workers, or feelings of loneliness can raise employee turnover.
- Salary and benefits: sometimes, it’s simply about the money — it’s difficult to keep employees if competitors are offering better rates of pay.
Convince employees to stay with these 6 talent retention strategies
Staff retention rates not where you’d like them to be? Reduce employee turnover with the help of these practical strategies.
Keep your finger on the pulse
Exit interviews are a useful talent retention tool. But wouldn’t it be better if you could prevent employees from handing in their notice in the first place? To do this, you need to understand the state of employee morale and engagement in your organization at any given moment.
There are some signs a manager may be able to spot. Drop-offs in productivity, refusal to commit to long-term projects, and a lack of enthusiasm are all signs that an employee sees their future elsewhere.
But you can go beyond manager observations to take the pulse of your entire organization. Use employee surveys to gauge sentiment on a range of retention-related topics. For example, job satisfaction, internal communications, benefits packages, and recognition.
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You can then act on any major bugbears to prevent employee experience issues from translating into higher employee turnover.
This feedback process has another talent retention benefit. When you show employees that their input is prompting real change in the workplace they feel heard and valued — and become more invested in your organization.
Help them achieve their goals
According to recent Randstad research, 31% of employees have quit a job because of a lack of career progression opportunities. Employees want to feel that they’re making progress toward their learning and career goals.
Investing time and money in professional development sends a strong signal that you’re supporting your employees over the long term. Build in career development plans, coaching, and one-on-one time as soon as a new member of staff joins your workforce — and sustain these initiatives throughout the entire employee journey.
Emphasizing that you see this as a long-term partnership rather than a transactional exchange of services (“you work, we pay”) lays the foundations for future success.
Offer regular recognition
Retaining employees is easier when they feel valued and appreciated. Workers are five times more likely to stay with your organization for two years or more when there’s a comprehensive recognition program in place.
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All employees — whether they work in the office, at home, or on the frontlines of your organization — should receive regular appreciation for the work they do.
For teams working in the same location, informal recognition is relatively easy. For disparate teams and frontline employees, you have to be more intentional. The right internal communication tools can help.
You can use an employee app or intranet to highlight the hard work and achievements of your employees — and encourage peer-to-peer recognition across digital communication channels, too.
Create a positive workplace culture
Having a work bestie is more important than you might think. Employees who feel a sense of belonging are more likely to stay working for your organization.
Again, this can be tricky when employees aren’t working in the same location. So use an interactive company news feed, online Communities, and instant messaging tools to bring your organization together.
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As well as helping employees to build connections with co-workers, support them to understand and take part in company culture. Make company values and purpose part of your every day.
Managers also have a big role to play. 70% of the variance in team engagement comes down to the manager. So give your leaders the training they need to boost employee engagement and create a culture employees enjoy being part of.
Offer flexibility where possible
Flexibility and work-life balance are a top priority for employees. In fact, it’s the second most important factor for frontline employees when choosing a job.
Flexible working looks different in different organizations. Some employees get to work remotely, work compressed hours, or choose start and finish times.
For frontline employees, this isn’t so easy. But you can support work-life balance for this segment of your workforce by offering expanded paid time off (PTO) policies, a choice of schedules, and easy-access shift swap tools.
Revamp your salary and benefits package
When was the last time you looked at the salary and benefits package you offer? Pay is another big factor in employees deciding to look for another job.
So compare your offering to that of your competitors and consider improving your package if you find you’re falling behind the pack.
But remember that pay isn’t everything. It will take more than a small pay increase to tempt engaged employees to jump ship. According to SHRM, employees may be willing to trade pay for improved work-life balance, flexibility, and workplace culture.
Make life easier for your HR team with talent retention software
An effective talent retention strategy gives you an edge over your competitors. When you build and maintain a skilled and engaged workforce, your business performs better.
To achieve high levels of retention, you need to offer training and development, honor work-life balance, and provide regular recognition. You should also strive to create a company culture based on purpose, connection, and community.
All of the above is made easier when you have the right tech tools at your disposal. Talent retention technology includes solutions like employee engagement, employee communication, and employee experience tools.
The best software is available on desktop and as a mobile-first employee app, so you can tackle talent retention issues across your entire workforce. These solutions provide employees with easy, digital access to:
- Training and career development tools
- Company news, community, and co-worker chat
- Recognition and rewards
- Health and wellbeing resources
They also give HR teams access to tools like employee surveys and analytics. So you get greater insight into the state of employee engagement and talent retention within your business.
You can spot engagement and retention issues before they harm company culture and lead more workers to jump ship — and you can uncover what employees want from your organization.
With this information, you can make meaningful improvements to the employee experience, keeping staff turnover rates low and engagement high.
Blink. And improve talent retention with a mobile-first employee app.
