Increasing new hire employee retention is a struggle for many organizations. In addition to enduring steady increases in the cost to hire – which in 2024 alone, grew by 14% – many organizations are now accepting very high turnover rates as the new normal; adapting their businesses and budgets to account for consistently high turnover, particularly with new hires.
Based on People Science’s experience, this does not have to be the case. Over the past two decades, we have assisted many companies across a wide array of positions – including front-line retail workers, customer service personnel, nurses, sales representatives, production workers, engineers, and information technologists – in significantly increasing their new hire retention.
Our new hire retention methodology is straightforward and focused on 3 key areas:
First:
We seek to fully understand the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) offered by the company as an organization, as well as how their EVP relates not only to the particular department, but most importantly, how it applies to the Hiring Manager and the specific position.
The Employee Value Proposition reflects all the nuances and culture-specific qualities related to the position, and the tangible advantages the position brings to the worker. Our experience has demonstrated that ensuring the hiring manager’s understanding and support of the company’s EVP is a necessary cornerstone for new hire retention.
Secondly:
We ensure that the company’s true EVP is fully understood, agreed to, and adopted by the Training and Onboarding teams, and that the related core messages are communicated throughout all the steps related to the offering: starting from the first-day welcoming, and throughout the entire training period. This process is designed to validate to the candidate that (s)he has a made a sound and personally beneficial decision in joining the organization.
Our experience demonstrates that when corporate values match personal values, employees will stay, and will remain engaged with their position. This results not only in increased longevity, but also improved levels of work quality and productivity.
Thirdly:
We align the company’s EVP with all phases of Recruitment to ensure that the organization is properly targeting, interviewing, screening, and hiring candidates that is consistent with their corporate values.
As the graphic below demonstrates, when a company’s EVP is clearly stated and effectively communicated throughout the entire recruitment, onboarding, training, and management cycle, the results in new hire retention and performance can be greatly increased.
Here are just a few examples of People Science’s ability to help clients increase new hire retention and production levels.
| Customer | Position | Starting Turnover | Ending Turnover |
| Vonage | Customer Service | Approximate 110% | 35% |
| Vonage | Tier One – Tier Three Tech Support | 86% | 22% |
| Comcast | Field Technicians | 52% | 20% |
| Comcast | Customer Sales | 55% | 22% |
| American Red Cross | Mobile Collections Including truck drivers | 161% | 116%–in process targeting a 25% turnover |