The Recipe Behind Insanely Low Voluntary Turnover

Many of the articles on our blog address reducing voluntary turnover and the reasons employees choose to leave. There’s a reason we consider ourselves experts on this particular topic: since our founding in 2003, we’ve experienced less than 4% voluntary attrition—with 0% in our first 14 years. The vast majority of employees we’ve hired in 16 years have chosen to stay at Perceptyx.

By definition, voluntary turnover refers to employees who choose to leave an organization for employment elsewhere. Voluntary turnover can be a natural part of business, but it comes at a cost—both in terms of time and knowledge lost, and in the cost to find and onboard a replacement. So looking for ways to retain good talent you’ve already attracted makes good business sense. But if it was easy, insanely low numbers wouldn’t be uncommon. Among other things, it requires listening to employees, incorporating their feedback wherever possible, and being intentional and committed to creating and maintaining an authentic culture that people want to be part of.

In this article, we’ll present a few of the reasons why we’ve been successful in achieving such a low rate of voluntary attrition.

Reducing Voluntary Turnover By Living Our Core Values

We believe our insanely low voluntary turnover rate can be attributed in part to the culture of our organization and adhering to a strong set of core values:

Consistently living these values over the years has manifested in an organization that cares deeply about its customers and employees. We also practice what we preach, listening to our own employees on a regular basis and incorporating what we learn into how we operate. This approach has contributed to a strong culture and rich employee experience, one reason we’ve seen so much loyalty and so little turnover.

Your company’s voluntary turnover rate is connected to the employee experience in your organization. Learn how to improve the experience with our free guide, The Employee Experience Playbook.

Making Our People Our Priority

From the beginning, our belief has been that if we have the right people and treat them the right way, good things will happen. When your priority is treating people as human beings with dignity and respect and you adopt common sense policies, good organizational culture is a natural outcome. (Tweet this!)

We listen regularly through surveys, paying close attention to our survey results. Every department discusses their results and makes immediate action plans for improvement. This feedback directly impacts quarterly and annual OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), transparently demonstrating to employees that they have a voice, and that leaders are listening. From our earliest days, employee feedback has always been a factor in how we run the business; this pattern continues even as we continue to grow more rapidly.

Our policies are designed to truly care for employees and their families, and to reduce stress to enable maximum productivity. We offer unlimited vacation time, pay 100% of employee health benefits, and max out 401K contributions—all from day one of employment, regardless of one’s position. We believe that the most engaged employees will be those who can anticipate achieving their desired measure of success - something that can’t be achieved without first addressing employees’ total wellbeing from the outset. While these benefits all come at a cost, the return is significant in terms of loyalty and retention.

There’s no special sauce or magic formula, but consistently demonstrating to your people that they are a priority is critical. Your actions speak louder than words, so listen to them -- and take the actions to back it up.

Knowing your people is the key to keeping them onboard.

At Perceptyx, we know how to reduce voluntary turnover—because we practice what we preach. We can help your company reduce attrition, increase engagement, and boost productivity using the same tools we’ve used to achieve low voluntary turnover. Get in touch and let us show you how.