What Does Low Tenure Say About Your Company?

What is job tenure?

Job tenure represents the duration an employee has continuously worked for the same employer or held the same job position. Typically measured in a period of time over years or months, it serves as a key indicator of an individual's work history and dedication to a specific role or organisation. Job tenure is often classified into various categories:

1. Short-term tenure: Employees with short job tenure have worked in a particular role or organisation for a relatively brief period, typically less than one year. Short-term tenure may indicate a lack of stability or a series of temporary or contract positions.

2. Medium-term tenure: Medium-term job tenure typically spans several years, usually between one and five years. Employees with medium-term tenure have shown a degree of commitment to their roles or employers, and their experience may be seen as more substantial than those with short-term tenure.

3. Long-term tenure: Long-term job tenure refers to employees who have remained with the same employer or in the same role for an extended period, often exceeding five years. Long-term employees are usually considered loyal, experienced, and highly committed to their organisations.

Long-term tenure is becoming more of a rarity, with the average tenure in one role being four years (the economic news release) with people moving for various reasons; however, the tenure varies depending on what role and industry people work in. The highest employee turnovers are reportedly in technology, retail, and media.

So, what does it say about your company when you have a high turnover rate?

A hire and fire organisation?

You don't support employees?

Are your culture and internal opportunities not good?

Technology now makes information about internal organisational affairs much easier to obtain, with anonymous platforms such as Glassdoor making issues transparent to the public – including those considering joining your organisation. Platforms such as LinkedIn also show the average tenure of employees within the company, so there is nowhere to hide.

If you have a high turnover, people will know about it.

High turnover can often be industry-specific, with higher turnover being more closely linked to sales positions and target-driven environments.

What can high turnover say about your company?

You are not passionate about internal development

People automatically assume you have issues when turnover is high – and they are correct to think so. According to indeed.com, the top reasons people move and seek new roles are career advancement and compensation/benefits. According to research, people find better career development when they move companies, gaining an average of 11% salary increase compared to only 2% if they stay in a position.

Over half of the workers would consider a new opportunity to earn more money.

If you are passionate about internal development, then learning and development strategies are something you should take action on. Monthly reviews, bonuses, and promotions are all things that should be available to your employees to prevent them from looking for new positions in other companies.

Running competitor salary reviews and benchmarking against industry standards is also highly important.

Your employees are unhappy

If people leave your company, you automatically think they are unhappy – and it's the same for outsiders. High employee turnover = employee unhappiness. It may not be the case, but with reviews of your company so readily available on places like Glass Door, it's challenging to hide employee unhappiness if the only thoughts you have are from dissatisfied ex-employees.

Encourage current employees to write reviews about your workplace to attract new talent. If people aren't happy within your company, you must address their issues and work towards employee engagement and satisfaction.

Conduct regular reviews and anonymous surveys to collect data. These surveys can offer insight into what people think about your company and their work environment. They will also inform you about what you need to change and improve. If you don't ask, you will never know.

You are not an exciting company

As a tech company, everything you do should be exciting and innovative. You should be constantly evolving, growing and attracting new talent. A high turnover of employees could mean that people don't think your company is interesting enough to work for. If you offer exciting products, prospects, and opportunities to employees, make sure people and your current employees know about it, or there is no reason they should stay with you.

If you're unable to be excited with your products and services, make your workplace an exciting place to be. Team events, feedback, and collaboration keep the environment and company culture energetic and exciting.

Low tenure isn't always bad – great companies such as Google have a meagre retention rate (average of 1.1 years); however, they offer all the benefits, perks and company attraction to all their employees. You may be a well-established company, but the people within it might prefer a risky start-up that offers a more challenging environment.

Tenure comes down to the right hire, which takes time, planning and action (including finding the right recruitment partner). If you need assistance finding the right talent for your business, get in touch!