Talent Retention Remains at the Forefront of Management Minds

Gallagher has released its 2023 U.S. Organizational Wellbeing Report, which analyzes data collected from more than 4 thousand business and other similarly-organized entities in order to bring to light some of the most important trends in employee benefits, compensation, and retention in the American workplace.

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The headline figures from the study highlight the continuing importance of employee retention, which more than half of operational professionals and almost 2 out of 3 human resources professionals cited as their current top priority. 

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Accordingly, one of the main overall takeaways from the report is how high turnover rates and stubbornly tight labor markets are affecting trends. For example, two factors that are gaining increased relevance when it comes to talent attraction and retention are whether or not the overall experience for employees on the job is positive generally and whether or not the employer is providing comprehensive benefits offerings. 

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Employees, prospective and current, want to see that employers have an active interest in promoting the wellbeing of their employees as evidenced at least in part by an inclusive and well-thought-out package of employee perks and benefits offerings that ideally align with both company culture and employee interests like DEI initiatives. 

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To that point, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives remained an area of focus, as well. The additional complexity introduced as a result of offering a diverse array of benefits offerings was more than counterbalanced by the advantages gained via more precisely serving employee needs. Also, while human resources offices are still predominantly responsible for managing DEI initiatives, that duty is migrating toward joint oversight between HR and company leadership, with more than 4 out of 10 respondents including DEI as a metric for which leadership is now accountable. 

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Another noteworthy trend gleaned from the data involves turnover, which is up year over year. In 2022, 51% of employers reported a turnover rate of 15% or more, which is an uptick of 3% over 2021 figures when 48% of respondents reported turnover at a rate of at least 15%.

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Compensation is also on the rise in 2023 with nearly 8 out of 10 employers increasing their employee base salaries from their current levels, and about 4 in 10 employers are improving their variable compensation calculations in their employees’ favor, as well.

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Further, nearly 4 in 10 companies are expanding their health care benefits despite that more than half are anticipating increased baseline health care expenditures in 2023, which many are attempting to offset via the adoption of additional telemedicine and other price-reducing technologies and decision support platforms.

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And finally, optimism among the responding organizational leaders when it comes to expectations for future growth was another consistent theme borne out by the data. In fact, about 6 in 10 employers are expecting to see both an increase in revenue and an increase in their number of employees by next year.

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You can read more about the survey as well as the resulting data and subsequent analysis here. 

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