The Eagle Hill Consulting Employee Retention Index

Key employee retention insights

According to the Employee Retention Index, U.S. workers are going into 2026 more likely to stay with their employers than they were coming into 2025. While the Retention Index slightly down ticked this quarter, 2025 was a year of pronounced strengthening in U.S. workforce retention outlook. The Index climbed from 98.5 at the close of 2024 to 105.0 by the end of 2025, a substantial increase that reflects employees’ higher confidence in organizations, improved cultural satisfaction, more favorable compensation perceptions, and waning opinions of the job market. 

Internal drivers reach multi-year highs: Culture, Organizational Confidence, and Compensation strengthened significantly in 2025

Across 2025, the Retention Index’s internal-facing indicators – Culture, Organizational Confidence, and Compensation – trended higher than preceding years, signaling increasingly positive employee attitudes of their day-to-day work experience and long-term prospects within their organizations. Additionally, the internal-facing indicators consistently outpaced the external-looking Job Market Opportunity indicator throughout 2025, a trend not observed in prior years. 

This year-long strengthening of the Culture, Organizational Confidence, and Compensation indicators reflects that employees feel more supported, more aligned with organizational direction, and more valued than in the recent past. As employees grow more satisfied with these core elements of the employee experience, they signal greater inclination to stay.

Job Market Opportunity’s relative weakness bucks prior trends

The Job Market Opportunity indicator falls 2.3 points this quarter to 98.7, remaining the lowest performing Index sub-indicator for the fourth consecutive period. The Job Market indicator’s lagging position behind the Culture, Organizational Confidence, and Compensation indicators throughout 2025 represents a shift from prior years, where Job Market Opportunity was often a leading indicator. 

It’s Eagle Hill’s view that as workers see fewer viable or attractive external opportunities, they turn inward, anchoring onto the relative stability of their current roles and organizations. In an environment where external labor market signals are softening and hiring is cooling, employers may find themselves managing both the benefits and burdens of a workforce that is growing more content with where they are. 

Millennial workers are once again the workforce cohort most likely to stay 

Millennials lead the workforce as the employees most likely to stay in their roles over the coming six months, with a Retention Index of 115.4. They are the only generation to see gains in the Retention Index this period, rising 1.2 points. This strengthened retention outlook is driven by increases in Millennials’ Organizational Confidence and Compensation indicators, even as their Culture indicator weakens. Millennials also view the job market less favorably than last period, reflected in their Job Market Opportunity indicator’s 2.2 loss.  

Millennials’ retention outlook has consistently strengthened throughout the year, positioning them as the generation of workers most likely to stay in their jobs in the months ahead. Of note, Millennials hold significantly higher Organizational Confidence, Compensation, and Culture indicator scores than all other workforce generations. With Millennials representing a major portion of the workforce, their higher satisfaction and commitment is positive news for organizations that have identified and are positioning top-performing Millennials for leadership roles. That said, Millennials “stickiness” may pose a challenge for those employers who need to incentivize turnover in the middle-manager rank. 

Track. Assess. React.

The first of its kind, the Eagle Hill Consulting Employee Retention Index tracks quarterly sentiment of U.S. workers across four proven drivers of employee retention, which compose the Index’s indicators:

• Organizational Confidence: measures how confident employees are in their organization’s future and their organization’s leadership.
• Culture: measures how employees feel about their workplace culture, connections, feeling valued and recognized.
• Compensation: measures how employees view their compensation, benefits, and ability to grow their compensation at their organization.
• Job Market Opportunity: measures how employees perceive external prospects for employment and job security in the near term.

As the Employee Retention Index increases, it signals an increase in workforce retention in the next six months. As the Index decreases, it warns employers that workers are more likely to leave their jobs, and organizations can expect more turnover in the months ahead.