What is employee retention?

Employee retention measures how effectively a company keeps its employees from leaving. High retention means employees are satisfied with their work, pay, and career growth, so they stay longer. Low retention indicates employees are leaving more frequently, which can be costly and disruptive due to the need for constant hiring and training.

In Planday, you can track your employee retention rate over time and compare it to industry averages to determine whether your business is on track or needs improvements.

How to check employee retention in Planday?

Go to People > Employees > Employee retention to see and compare your employee retention rate.

By default, you’ll see the average employee tenure across all departments at the start and end of the previous month. You can keep this selection or choose a custom period from the Date range selector to look at past months.

Compare tenure for a specific Department or time Period against the organisation’s average.
View a graph that tracks changes in your retention rate over time.
Use Filters to exclude specific employee groups or types from the data. To export, click Export data to download an Excel file.

How are these numbers calculated?

Retention rate = (Active employees at the end of a period ÷ employees at the start) × 100

View or export deactivated employees

Deactivated employees: View a list of deactivated employees with their department and deactivation date, and export the data as an Excel file. This helps you quickly see who was deactivated and when, giving you insight into how you were invoiced for the number of employees.
Employee retention: This is a list of retention rates displaying data for each department as well as for the entire organisation. This list also includes the number of employees at the beginning and end of the period for each department. You have the option to export this list as an Excel file.

Tips for creating a better work environment

Watch our webinar on Planning ahead for happier teams

Survey your employees for feedback. Ask about small changes to improve their work environment and larger changes that could make a big difference.
Publish schedules in advance—ideally a month ahead—so employees can plan their lives around work.
Use schedule templates to create consistent work patterns for your employees.
Apply Working time rules to ensure staff have enough rest between shifts and regularly get weekend days off.
Respect employee availability by scheduling them when they prefer to work and honouring their time off. See Contracted availability functionality or ask employees to fill in their availability wishes.
Create growth plans that provide coaching and training, helping employees advance and avoid feeling stuck.

For more tips on improving retention, visit TheSingleBiggestShift.com and check out the research report.

How to track employee retention in Planday