How to Reduce Employee Turnover: 12 Proven Strategies

Introduction

Most companies treat turnover like weather. It happens, you cope, you backfill the role, you move on.

But a lot of it isn't unavoidable. In Gallup's research on voluntary turnover, 52% of employees who left by choice said their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving. And 51% said that in the three months before they left, neither their manager nor any other leader spoke with them about their job satisfaction or future with the organization.

Read that again. More than half of people who left never had a real conversation about whether they should stay.

That means a large share of turnover is a visibility problem. You can't fix what you don't see, and most organizations don't see it coming.

This guide covers 12 strategies to reduce employee turnover, based on research from Gallup, Pew Research Center, MIT Sloan Management Review, and others. Each one comes with what to do and what the evidence says. At the end, there's a 90-day plan to get started.

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What Employee Turnover Really Costs

Before the fixes, the price tag.

Gallup estimates that replacing an individual employee can cost from one-half to two times their annual salary. Gallup's own example: a 100-person organization with an average salary of $50,000 could face turnover and replacement costs of roughly $660,000 to $2.6 million a year. Gallup puts the total for U.S. businesses at about $1 trillion annually.

Those are estimates, and your number will depend on role and industry. But they show why even a small drop in turnover can pay for a lot of retention work.

And it's not a small, rare event. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 38.0 million people quit their jobs in the U.S. in 2025, 60.6% of all separations. Quits ran at an annual average rate of 2.0% of employment, which is a monthly average rate, so it adds up over a year.

Engagement is also weak. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report found that just 20% of employees worldwide were engaged in 2025, the lowest since 2020.

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Why Do Employees Actually Leave?

Fixing turnover starts with knowing the causes. The research points in a few directions, and they're not always consistent, so it's worth looking at both.

What employees say when asked. In a Pew Research Center survey of 965 U.S. workers who quit a job in 2021, 63% said low pay was a reason, 63% said no opportunities for advancement, and 57% said feeling disrespected at work. Other reasons included a lack of flexibility over hours (45%) and poor benefits (43%).

What predicts who actually leaves. In an MIT Sloan Management Review analysis of 34 million employee profiles and 1.4 million Glassdoor reviews, researchers found that toxic corporate culture was 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting attrition relative to industry benchmarks. Compensation ranked 16th among the topics they tested. Other top predictors included job insecurity, failure to recognize performance, and workers feeling disrespected.

How to read both. Pay matters. It's the most common reason people give when asked, and underpaying people will drive them out. But the MIT data suggests pay alone doesn't predict who leaves, because respect, culture, and recognition carry much more weight. Fix pay and the rest.

For a deeper look at the causes, see our guide on why employees leave.

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12 Strategies to Reduce Employee Turnover

Strategy 1: Measure Turnover Properly

You can't improve what you only vaguely track. Start by calculating your rate.

Basic turnover rate formula: Number of employees who left during a period ÷ average number of employees in that period × 100.

Then break it down. The overall number hides the story. Look at:

• Voluntary vs. involuntary. Voluntary turnover (people who chose to go) is the one you can influence most.
• By team and manager. One manager with a pattern of departures tells you where to look.
• By tenure. If people leave in the first year, think onboarding and hiring. If they leave after four years, think career growth.
• By performance. Losing low performers can be healthy. Losing top performers is the problem.

Compare your numbers against your own trend first, then against an industry benchmark. The BLS publishes Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS) data by industry.

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Strategy 2: Find Out Why People Leave (Before They Do)

Exit interviews are useful but late. People are polite on the way out, and you can't act on feedback from someone who's gone.

Gallup recommends analyzing exit data and building a stronger employee experience strategy, but the biggest lesson from its research is simpler: ask people earlier. If 51% of leavers had no retention-related conversation in their final three months, the fix starts well before the exit interview.

Use three sources together:

1. Exit interviews, for patterns across leavers.
2. Engagement or pulse surveys, for the whole workforce.
3. Stay interviews, for individuals (see next strategy).

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Strategy 3: Run Stay Interviews

A stay interview is a one-on-one conversation where a manager asks a current employee what keeps them here and what might make them leave.

Richard Finnegan, author of The Power of Stay Interviews for Engagement and Retention (SHRM), suggests five core questions:

1. What do you look forward to each day when you commute to work?
2. What are you learning here, and what do you want to learn?
3. Why do you stay here?
4. When is the last time you thought about leaving us, and what prompted it?
5. What can I do to make your job better for you?

His guidance: listen about 80% of the time, use follow-up questions to dig deeper, and write down key points.

Important: Only do this if you're prepared to act on what you hear. Asking and then doing nothing is worse than not asking. Also note that SHRM's guidance describes how to run stay interviews but doesn't cite hard data proving they cut turnover, so treat them as a sensible practice, not a guaranteed fix.

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Strategy 4: Train and Hold Managers Accountable

This is the single biggest lever on the list.

Gallup's research reports that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. That's the engagement figure, not turnover directly, but engagement is strongly tied to who stays.

Gallup's turnover research is blunt about the fix: train managers to have frequent, meaningful conversations with employees about what frustrates them, what their goals are, and where they want to go.

What to do:

• Train managers on the basics. Feedback, coaching, one-on-ones, recognition.
• Measure them on people outcomes, not just output. Include team engagement and retention in manager reviews.
• Look at the data. If one team has a pattern of departures, talk to that manager early.
• Support new managers. Many are promoted for technical skills and never taught to manage.

Gallup's 2026 report found that manager engagement fell to 22% in 2025, down five points in a year. Managers are under strain too, so support them rather than only demanding more.

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Strategy 5: Have Regular Career Conversations

People leave when they can't see where they're going.

Pew found that no opportunities for advancement was a reason for 63% of people who quit in 2021. Among those who found a new job, 53% said they now had more opportunities for advancement.

What to do:

• Hold a career conversation at least twice a year, separate from performance reviews.
• Ask what they want to learn, not just where they want to be promoted. Not everyone wants a bigger title.
• Create paths that aren't only promotions. Lateral moves, specialist tracks, and project leadership count.
• Follow up. Write down what you agreed and check in on it.

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Strategy 6: Invest in Learning and Development

Learning is a retention tool, not just a perk.

LinkedIn's Workplace Learning research has been widely reported as finding that 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career. That figure comes from a self-reported survey and dates to 2018-2019, so read it as a signal of how much people value development, not a prediction of behavior.

What to do:

• Give a learning budget, even a small one.
• Make time for it. A budget with no time to use it doesn't help.
• Offer mentoring and internal mobility. Moving people across teams keeps talent you'd otherwise lose.
• Connect learning to real opportunities, so new skills lead somewhere.

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Strategy 7: Build a Habit of Recognition

Recognition is one of the most cost-effective retention levers, and one of the most neglected.

Gallup and Workhuman tracked nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024. They found that well-recognized employees were 45% less likely to leave their organization after two years. Yet only 22% of employees said they get the right amount of recognition, unchanged from 2022. (These are survey-based associations, not proof of causation.)

Gallup's guidance is to recognize every employee at least once every seven days, and to make it specific and personal.

What to do:

• Make recognition frequent and specific. See our list of 50+ employee recognition ideas and 100+ appreciation messages.
• Add peer-to-peer recognition, so it doesn't depend on managers alone.
• Ask people how they like to be recognized. Gallup found only 10% of employees have been asked.
• Make it fair. Check who is and isn't being recognized.

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Strategy 8: Pay Fairly and Be Transparent

Don't skip this one. It's the most common reason people give for leaving.

In the Pew survey, 63% of people who quit cited low pay, and 56% of those who found new jobs said they were now paid better.

What to do:

• Benchmark pay against the market, at least yearly, for your hardest-to-replace roles.
• Fix inequities, especially between long-tenured employees and new hires paid more.
• Be transparent about how pay decisions are made. Gallup links unfair treatment, including inconsistently applied compensation, to burnout.
• Remember the limits. MIT's research suggests pay alone isn't the best predictor of attrition. Fair pay stops people leaving over money. It doesn't make them want to stay.

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Strategy 9: Fix Onboarding

First impressions set the tone, and most companies get this wrong.

Gallup reports that only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees.

What to do:

• Plan the first 90 days, not just the first day. Set clear goals for 30, 60, and 90 days.
• Assign a buddy in addition to the manager.
• Check in often early on. New hires decide quickly whether they belong.
• Recognize early wins. A thank-you in week three matters.

If you see turnover concentrated in the first year, this is where to start.

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Strategy 10: Prevent Burnout

Burnout is a retention problem hiding as a wellness problem.

Gallup's survey of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found that burned-out employees were 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job. The five main causes it identified were:

1. Unfair treatment at work
2. Unmanageable workload
3. Lack of role clarity
4. Lack of communication and support from a manager
5. Unreasonable time pressure

Notice how much of that list is about how someone is managed, not how hard they work.

What to do:

• Check workloads regularly. Ask, don't assume.
• Clarify roles and priorities, so people aren't guessing.
• Set realistic deadlines.
• Make sure people take time off.
• Recognize hard work. Gallup and Workhuman found that employees who strongly agree recognition is an important part of their culture were half as likely to experience frequent burnout.

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Strategy 11: Offer Real Flexibility

Flexibility is increasingly a baseline, and removing it is risky.

Gallup's 2022 survey of 7,762 U.S. workers found that 54% of employees working exclusively from home said they would likely look for another job if their employer stopped offering remote options, along with 38% of hybrid workers. Pew's data also shows 45% of people who quit cited a lack of flexibility over when they work.

What to do:

• Be clear about your policy, and explain the reasoning.
• Offer flexibility where the job allows it, including hours, not just location.
• Think about roles that can't work remotely. Offer scheduling input, shift swaps, or other flexibility that fits.
• Don't change policies abruptly. Sudden reversals are what trigger exits.

Keep in mind that those numbers are from 2022 and measure stated intent. Check what your own employees say.

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Strategy 12: Build a Respectful, Inclusive Culture

Culture showed up as the strongest predictor in the MIT analysis, so it deserves real attention.

The MIT Sloan researchers found that toxic culture was 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting attrition. Disrespect, failure to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and unethical behavior were among the factors. Pew found 57% of people who quit cited feeling disrespected.

What to do:

• Define what respectful behavior looks like, and enforce it with leaders first.
• Act on complaints quickly. Tolerating one toxic high performer can drive out several good people.
• Make recognition inclusive. Gallup's authentic-recognition research found that people who receive it were seven times as likely to say they're treated with respect at work.
• Listen to different groups. Look at turnover and engagement data by demographic to spot gaps.

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Which Strategies Should You Start With?

You don't need all 12 at once. Pick based on your data.

If you see...	Start with...
Turnover concentrated under one manager	Strategy 4 (managers)
People leaving in the first year	Strategy 9 (onboarding) and 3 (stay interviews)
Top performers leaving after 2-4 years	Strategies 5 and 6 (career conversations, learning)
Exit interviews mention "not appreciated"	Strategy 7 (recognition)
Exit interviews mention pay	Strategy 8 (pay), then check culture
Exhausted, overworked teams	Strategy 10 (burnout)
Departures after policy changes	Strategy 11 (flexibility)
You don't know why people leave	Strategies 1, 2, and 3 (measure, ask)

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Common Mistakes When Trying to Reduce Turnover

Relying on pay alone. Raising salaries can stop some departures, but the MIT data suggests it doesn't address the culture and management issues that drive attrition.

Counting on exit interviews. They're useful for patterns, but too late for the person who's left.

Ignoring managers. If managers are driving people out, perks and programs won't compensate.

Launching one-off programs. A single wellness week or one engagement survey won't change anything. Retention comes from habits.

Asking for feedback and doing nothing. This erodes trust faster than not asking.

Treating all turnover as bad. Some departures are healthy. Focus on regretted turnover: the people you wish had stayed.

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A 90-Day Plan to Reduce Turnover

Days 1-30: Diagnose

• Calculate your voluntary turnover rate and break it down by team, tenure, and performance.
• Review the last 12 months of exit interviews for patterns.
• Identify your top 10 to 20 people you'd most hate to lose.
• Start a weekly recognition habit with your team (see our recognition ideas).

Days 31-60: Listen

• Hold stay interviews with the people you identified. Use the five questions above.
• Run a short pulse survey on workload, recognition, and career growth.
• Hold career conversations with each direct report.

Days 61-90: Act

• Pick the top three issues from your listening and set one action for each.
• Tell people what you heard and what you're doing about it.
• Start manager training or coaching where the data points to it.
• Set a quarterly review of turnover and engagement data.

Then repeat. Retention is a continuous practice.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you reduce employee turnover?

Find out why people leave, then act on the biggest causes. The research points to manager quality, career growth, recognition, fair pay, manageable workloads, flexibility, and respectful culture. Gallup found that 52% of employees who left voluntarily said their manager or organization could have prevented it.

What is the main cause of employee turnover?

It depends on the organization, but common causes include low pay, lack of advancement, and feeling disrespected. In Pew's survey, 63% of quitters cited low pay and 63% cited no opportunities for advancement. MIT's analysis found toxic culture was the strongest predictor of attrition.

How much does employee turnover cost?

Gallup estimates one-half to two times the employee's annual salary to replace them.

How do you calculate employee turnover rate?

Divide the number of employees who left in a period by the average number of employees in that period, then multiply by 100.

What is a stay interview?

A one-on-one conversation where a manager asks a current employee why they stay and what might make them leave. See the five suggested questions from SHRM.

Does employee recognition reduce turnover?

Gallup and Workhuman found that well-recognized employees were 45% less likely to leave within two years. This is an association from survey data, not proof of causation.

Does remote work help retention?

It can. Gallup found that 54% of fully remote workers and 38% of hybrid workers said they would likely look for another job if their employer stopped offering remote options.

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The Bottom Line

Turnover isn't weather. A big share of it is preventable, and most of the causes are things you can influence: how people are managed, whether they see a future, whether they're recognized, whether they're paid fairly, and whether they feel respected.

You don't have to fix everything. Start by finding out why your people leave, pick the biggest cause, and take one real action. Then keep going.

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Make Recognition Part of Your Retention Strategy

Recognition is one of the easiest strategies on this list to start and one of the hardest to sustain. It only works if it's frequent, specific, and fair.

KaBoon makes recognition easy and visible for teams of any size. Peer-to-peer recognition, manager appreciation, and values-driven awards all live in one place, so appreciation becomes part of how your team works instead of something you have to remember.

Try KaBoon free for 30 days →

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Sources

1. Gallup. This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion. March 2019.
2. Gallup. State of the Global Workplace 2026.
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, annual 2025 results. March 13, 2026.
4. Pew Research Center. Majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 cite low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected. March 2022. (Survey Feb. 7-13, 2022.)
5. Sull, D., Sull, C., & Zweig, B. Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation. MIT Sloan Management Review, January 2022.
6. Gallup. Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement. (From the State of the American Manager, 2015.)
7. Finnegan, R. How to Conduct Stay Interviews: 5 Key Questions. SHRM, 2023.
8. Gallup. Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right. September 2024.
9. Gallup. The Importance of Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact. Updated January 2024.
10. Gallup. How to Bridge the Generational Gap in Recognition. August 2022.
11. Gallup. Is Your Employee Recognition Really Authentic?. July 2023.
12. Gallup. Employee Burnout, Part 1: The 5 Main Causes. July 2018. (Nearly 7,500 full-time employees.)
13. Gallup. Why the Onboarding Experience Is Key for Retention. 2018.
14. Gallup. The Future of Hybrid Work: 5 Key Questions Answered With Data. March 2022. (7,762 U.S. employees.)
15. Workhuman and Gallup. Research Finds Recognition at Work Bolsters Engagement and Shields Employees from Burnout. September 2023.
16. CNBC. LinkedIn: 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer for this reason. February 2019. (Reporting on LinkedIn Workplace Learning research.)