Connector - Summer 2021

The Role of Company Culture in Worker Retention

On the list of the biggest concerns affecting business today, right after finding workers, is how to keep them as employees. It’s tough out there, and worker retention is not just a skilled trades problem. According to a September 2020 survey by the Associated General Contractors and Autodesk, more than 80 percent of contractors say it is difficult to find supervisors or project managers. Further exasperating the issue, 75 percent of U.S. employees across all industries do not stay at their jobs for more than five years, reports staffing agency iHire in its 2019 Talent Retention Report. That’s about as long as it takes to recruit, train, and develop a journey-level craftsperson, who then is no longer in your pipeline to develop for manager positions.

To keep workers from leaving, companies must cultivate a culture with a focus on employee engagement. Those that do so achieve 59 percent less turnover, according to Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report.