Retaining top talent in 2023: What can HR teams do to reduce employee turnover?

Top talent leaving your company can spell trouble for both your bottom line and wider team morale too.

On average, you lose six months of productivity when an employee quits – three months when the incumbent has decided to go and is working off their notice period, and three months whilst a new starter is getting their feet under the table.

When top talent leaves, this productivity gap is exacerbated further. In fact, high performers deliver up to 400 times more productivity than the average employee.

High performers also cost more to replace, and the average charge of replacing an employee is already around 2x their annual salary for most organisations.

There’s an issue of optics too. If one of your star employees leaves, two or three may go in quick succession, and it signals to other staff that things may not be going great for the organisation as a whole, which could trigger a string of further notice letters. With top staff shown to be more productive, their absence also lumbers remaining peers with more work to pick up.

And finally, and perhaps the biggest headache for business leaders, is that your top talent is taking their expertise (and even your secrets) to a competitor. As a result, your best practices, processes, and client contacts are all leaving through the door with them. Yes, a little employee churn is healthy. But when it’s regularly your star performers who are jumping ship, it can become a fundamental threat to the business.