Half Engaged, Half Leaving: The Retention Trap
FrequencyMay 04, 202600:06:56

Half Engaged, Half Leaving: The Retention Trap

FirstUp surveyed over 3,000 employees across corporate, manager, and hourly worker roles in North America and the UK. Engagement scores look healthy on paper. Underneath that, nearly half of employees say they are engaged — and nearly half are also planning to leave within 12 months. 60–76% have missed important policy updates despite receiving communications regularly. Managers are the most trusted source of information across all roles, but are overloaded and under-equipped to carry that responsibility.

Chuck's take on why North American employees are less likely to leave than their UK counterparts despite similar engagement levels: healthcare. If your benefits are tied to your job, you don't leave until you have somewhere else to go — no matter how disengaged you actually are. That's not engagement. That's a retention mechanism that has nothing to do with how people feel about their work, and it makes the entire measurement framework suspect.

If the reason people stay isn't connected to how they feel, no amount of communication tools is going to address the real problem.

https://firstup.io/blog/employee-engagement-paradox-retention-risk/