Nearly a quarter (23%) of UK workers plan to quit their job in the near future – an increase of 3 percent from 2023. Another 13 percent do not plan to work for their employer long-term, up until 2026.
The research conducted by Culture Amp (an employee experience provider) on employee attrition is based on the ‘Commitment to Stay” data collected from employees of 5000 organisations in the UK.
The UK’s workers are more interested in quitting than workers in other Western countries. Only 19 percent of Americans and 18 percent Australians have considered resignation. Only Germany had a higher percentage of workers who are considering resigning in 2025.
CultureAmp calculates that the cost to replace an employee is 30 percent of their average salary. This rises to 200 percent if they are top performers. The average salary for the UK will be PS37,430 in 2024, which means that employers could have to pay between PS11229 and PS74860 to replace departing employees.
Culture Amp data from 4700 companies and over 3 million employees reveals other factors that could have a major impact on employee attrition by 2025. Analysis shows that the quality of leadership is the single most important factor influencing employee ‘commitment’ to stay. This outweighs the influence managers have, as employees closely link strong leadership with a company’s clear direction, health and performance. Employees’ commitment to remain is 94% with a great manager and great leader. A good manager and poor leader results in 35%; while a bad manager ,, a poorly led employee sees their commitment fall to just 19%.
Global data from the company also show that employee turnover increases after a leadership change, compared to when a manager changes. In the six months following a departure of a manager, those teams directly affected experience 45% more attrition than those who have not experienced a change in leadership. A manager change results in a 16% attrition rate.
In this uncertain post-pandemic environment, organizations must prioritize their strategic workforce management. “The critical challenge is employee retention which directly impacts the performance of an organisation,” says Nick Matthews. Culture Amp’s general manager for EMEA.
Our research challenges the conventional notion that employees leave bad managers. It is imperative that organizations leverage their leadership layer along with their front-line managers to ensure they have a cohesive and strategic focus on the employee experience as they navigate through 2025’s challenging issues.
The first time HR news published the article Nearly a quarter of UK workers intend to quit their job in 2025.
