The Eagle Hill Consulting Employee Retention Index
Q3 2024
The Employee Retention Index provides early signals of turning points in U.S. workforce retention. The Index monitors key drivers of employee retention and equips organizations with insights to proactively develop strategies and programs to retain their people.
Employee Retention Index holds steady in Q3, signaling continued low attrition
Employers can continue to expect low employee attrition into early 2025, according to the latest results of the Eagle Hill Consulting Employee Retention Index. The Retention Index remained stable for the third quarter of 2024, decreasing by less than half a point to 104.7 from 105.1 in the prior quarter. While the retention outlook signals continued record low attrition, this quarter’s steadiness follows two quarters of gains and signals that a leveling of U.S. workforce turnover may be on the horizon in 2025.
The third quarter 2024 data found that while U.S. workers’ confidence in their organizations held steady, their assessment of their compensation rose. This aligns with the Department of Labor report that worker wages increased 0.4 percent in September, rising to four percent year over year. Comparatively, the Retention Index found U.S. workers are more discontent about organizational culture and express pessimism around their near-term job market outlook.
The Retention Index comes on the heels of two key U.S. economic reports, and the results are largely aligned with this new jobs data. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data found that more workers are staying in their jobs. JOLTS reported that the number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs fell to 3.08 million, the lowest level since September 2020.
Latest retention indicators
-0.4
Employee Retention Index
–
Organizational Confidence
-2.3
Culture
+1.7
Compensation
-2.7
Job Market Opportunity
Key employee retention insights
Retention outlook across the workforce
Workers most likely to stay in their jobs into 2025 are Millennial (113.8), male (110), and Baby Boomer (106.2) employees. Female (97.6) and Gen Z (88.3) employees are more likely to leave their jobs for other organizations. U.S. government workers’ retention outlook (104.6) is largely consistent with that of the national workforce (104.7). This quarter’s largest retention outlook shifts were at the Millennial (+6.2), Baby Boomer (-7.8), and Gen Z (-19.1) workforce.
Female employees present retention challenges for employers
Overall, the Employee Retention Index’s stability in Q3 is good news for employers, signaling that they can expect continued low employee attrition through early 2025. But there’s one segment of the workforce that still presents retention challenges for employers: women. Taking a deeper dive into the data, women continue to report lower sentiment than men across all of the Index’s indicators.
While the gender pay gap in the U.S. for 2023 is around 16%, the Q3 Employee Retention Index finds that gap between women’s and men’s perception of compensation is over 1.5 times larger, at 25%.
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Expert insights
Melissa Jezior
President & CEO
“The results of Eagle Hill’s latest Employee Retention Index indicate continued opportunity for organizations to focus on strategic initiatives. With workers continuing to stay in place, employers can take the long view on strategic priorities and even tackle issues that are more difficult to address – from operational efficiency to reorganizations. We’re already starting to see this play out with Amazon recently announcing its mandate for workers to return to the office five days a week.”
Jonathan Gove
Senior Executive Advisor
“The Q3 Retention Index surfaces that employers would be wise to focus on engaging top performers in their Millennial and female workforce, as they are more likely to leave once attrition begins to rise. This starts with understanding their unique needs and preferences and taking action to address them. Without this effort, these top performers are more likely to go, regardless of the job market.”
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.
Methodology
The Index is based on a monthly omnibus survey conducted by IPSOS of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults employed full or part time. Quarterly indices and reports are issued based on a minimum of 1,200 aggregated responses per quarter. Respondents are polled on a range of workforce topics including organizational confidence, culture, compensation, and job market opportunity.
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