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What Is Employee Retention?

Employee retention is how well an organisation keeps the people it wants to keep over time.

An educational definition from the HR glossary. Explore related terms below, or jump into the resource center to go deeper.

Definition

Employee retention is how well an organisation keeps the people it wants to keep over time.

Why it matters

Retaining experienced people preserves knowledge and relationships and reduces hiring load.

Examples

Illustrative example. Keeping [110] of an original [120] employees over a period gives a retention rate of about 92%.

For the practical detail behind this term, follow the related metric, template and resources below.

Free, printable HR resources

Templates, checklists and calculators to put these concepts into practice — free and ungated.

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For informational purposes only. This is an educational, plain-language definition — not legal, tax, financial or compliance advice and not an official definition. Terms and obligations vary by organisation and jurisdiction. Numeric examples are simple, placeholder-based illustrations, not data. Confirm specifics with qualified professionals.
Related concepts

Related glossary terms

Keep exploring the HR vocabulary.

Glossary

Retention Rate

Retention rate is the share of a starting group of employees still employed at the end of a period.

Open Glossary

Employee Turnover

Employee turnover is the movement of people out of an organisation over a period — the rate at which employees leave and need replacing.

Open Glossary

New-Hire Retention

New-hire retention measures how many recent hires are still employed after an early-tenure window.

Open Glossary

Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is how connected, motivated and committed people feel to their work and organisation.

Open
Measure it

Related metrics & calculators

HR metric

Employee Retention Rate

Employee retention rate measures how much of a starting group of employees you keep over a period.

Open Calculators

HR calculators

Quantify the metrics in your browser.

Open Hub

HR metrics hub

How HR measures are defined and read.

Open
Put it into practice

Related templates

Template

Employee Retention Plan Template

Retention rarely improves by accident.

Open
Go deeper

Related resources

The clusters that put this concept into practice.

Lifecycle

Employee lifecycle

The full employee journey, stage by stage.

Open Operations

Employer operations

Run the workforce as a repeatable system.

Open Planning

Workforce planning

Strategy and organizational design.

Open Compliance

HR compliance

Documentation, records, data and policy.

Open Templates

HR templates

Free, printable, placeholder-based templates.

Open Playbooks

HR playbooks

Step-by-step plays for people processes.

Open Technology

HR technology

Automation, analytics and systems.

Open Funnel

Recruitment funnel

Sourcing through to accepted offer.

Open Reporting

HR reporting & dashboards

Turn people data into clear views.

Open AI for HR

AI for HR

Where AI assists HR, responsibly.

Open Resource center

HR resource center

The central map of every cluster.

Open

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is Employee Retention?

Employee retention is how well an organisation keeps the people it wants to keep over time.

Why does Employee Retention matter?

Retaining experienced people preserves knowledge and relationships and reduces hiring load.

How is Employee Retention measured?

It connects to the HR metric linked on this page, where you can find the formula and how to read it. This glossary entry is an educational definition, not a data source.