Employee Incentives News: How long do employees stay at a job?

Do you ever wonder ‘how long do employees stay at a job?’ With all the mumblings on millennials hinting that the average length of employment is 3 minutes and that the average job tenure is on par with the memory of a forgetful goldfish, would you believe us if we said that Uk employees stay in their jobs for around 4.5 years? 

It sounds too good to be true for employers who don’t want people who look for the minimum amount of time to stay at a job before popping off – and it could be a great turn for the economy too.

New research from global recruiters, BPS World, suggests employees are far more loyal than businesses expect. The survey of 1000+ employees (details below), working both part time and full time, found that staff usually stay with one employer for an average of 4.5 years, and a third say they usually stay in one role for more than 6 years.

Employees would stay with ‘Dream employers’

BPS World also asked respondents about the longest time they’ve spent with one employer to date, and found that almost half (45%) have worked for one company for ten years or more at a certain point in their career. 43% also said they’d consider staying with their ‘dream’ employer for life.

Simon Conington, MD of BPS World, said of the findings: “Employers will be reassured to see that for the most part, employees are not jumping from job to job in a matter of months as some headlines would suggest. Whilst this is encouraging, it’s important that businesses don’t become complacent; employers that consider employee engagement to be low priority will, without doubt, lose talented staff.”

Why employees stay in roles

When the team tried to ascertain ‘how long do employees stay at a job’ they asked where the candidates had put in their longest serving role with the reasons why they stayed. Employees ranked enjoyment of their job as the number one reason (47%), followed by being treated well and respected by their employer (38%) and being well paid (30%). Employers were asked why they believed their longest standing team members stayed with them, and whilst they were aligned in believing that enjoyment of the job is the biggest driver for staying put, they believed that that progression prospects rank highly; with almost a third (31%) ranking this as a top retention driver. In contrast, just 13% of employees surveyed said progression prospects were the reason why they stayed in their longest serving role. There were other disparities between employers and their staff, with 20% of employers believing that pride in working for the company is the top reason for their employees staying in role, whereas just 11% of the employees themselves rated that as the biggest driver for them remaining in post.

 A mismatch between perception for engagement

Simon Conington concluded, “A certain amount of staff turnover is of course healthy for a business, but losing a highly skilled team member presents obvious challenges.  Employers are rightly appreciating that their staff need to enjoy what they do if they’re going to hang onto them, but there is a slight mismatch in what else they believe is important to their teams, versus what actually retains a talented staff member. It’s vital that they don’t rely on assumptions, and encourage transparency and open conversations with their employees to foster a culture of loyalty and engagement within their business.”

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