Survey: Employers Report Frequent First-Year Departures

A significant number of organizations lose as many as a quarter of their new hires within the first year, according to a survey of 2,000 HR and training executives by Novations Group, a global consulting firm based in Boston.

Boston — March 8
A significant number of organizations lose as many as a quarter of their new hires within the first year, according to a survey of 2,000 HR and training executives by Novations Group, a global consulting firm based in Boston.

One-third of employers suffer such a loss, and for an additional 11 percent of companies, first-year departures can approach 50 percent.

With respect to recruitment by your organization, about what percentage of new hires leaves your organization (voluntarily or involuntarily) within the first year of employment?

  • Less than 10 percent: 54 percent
  • Between 10 percent and 25 percent: 33 percent
  • Between 25 percent and 50 percent: 11 percent
  • More than 50 percent: 2 percent

“The incidence of hiring failures is startling, even to experienced selection and assessment professionals,” said Tim Vigue, Novations executive consultant. “Because there’s no reliable baseline data we don’t know for sure if the findings mark a trend or whether first-year departures have been a pressing problem for a long time. But we think they’re a not a new issue.

“It appears that individuals and hiring managers are not sharing enough of the kind of information that would help each side determine if there is a good match. This makes it a lot more difficult for new hires to get up and running in the new job and frequently results in new hires quitting.”

What are the reasons that new hires leave your organization within the first year of employment?

(Please select all that apply.)

  • Unrealistic expectations of the job and organizations: 48 percent
  • Failure to grasp “how things get done” around the organization: 39 percent
  • Poor communications with immediate supervisor: 33 percent
  • Failure to develop a sense of belonging and purpose: 26 percent
  • Inadequate technical skills: 23 percent
  • Not understanding the link between the job and organization goals: 21 percent
  • Failure to connect with key employees: 18 percent
  • Inability to establish trust and credibility quickly: 13 percent
  • Poor people skills: 13 percent

The study underscores the need for the organization to be realistic about what the job entails, Vigue said.

“The employer has the responsibility to be clear and straightforward,” Vigue said. “Not to do so proves to be self-defeating.”

Vigue also observed that not developing a “sense of belonging” ranks high among the reasons for failed hirings.

“One-quarter of our respondents pointed to this real human issue: the need for new hires to bond with co-workers and the direction the company is taking,” Vigue said. “The finding underlines what all HR professionals know, that people stay with an organization only if they feel connected.”

The Novations Group Internet survey of 2,046 senior HR and development executives was completed in December 2006 by Equation Research.