That's a 25% turnover rate. I don't know any business but fast food that has that kind of turnover rate, and I certainly don't know any airlines or fractionals with that kind of turnover rate.
Hmmm.... I'm in trouble on this one. But here it goes...
My main business (headhunting/ executive recruiting) has a
400% turn over rate per year. That means we hire 5 people and sometimes 1 lasts 12 months. It actual ratio is 6 new hires for 1 to last 12 months and 8 new hires to get 2 years and around 12 new hires to find one to last longer; but rarely more than 5 years!
The joke in executive recruiting is that you don't even introduce yourself or print up business cards unless they been around 90 days. If they are around another 90 days, take them to lunch and give them a name plate on the desk and welcome them aboard since 50% of new hires already wash out by then. If around for their one year review plus 3 more months, give them a gold medal since in 15-18 months 75%+ are gone! And those who make it past 24 months, well they will tend to be in the business for 3-5 years. Burn out is 3-5 years since by year three they should be making $100K+ to remain employed and by year 5 the expectation is double that or you will be under the gun to do more and more (after all it's sales and every year you are expected to do more until you pretty much break!). I did it for 8 years and running now. That makes me a dinosaur in this industry. The stress can kill someone, so it's not worth the $100k to $800k per year you will make pending how much of your waking hours you dedicate to the business.
As matter of fact, any mostly sales job has well over 25%+ turn over across all industries. Car Sales, Stock Brokers, Insurance Sales, Headhunters/ Exec Recruiters, Pharmaceutical Sales, and so on all have ridiculous turn over rates at all companies (whether it be Prudential or the small firm I run).
Retail and Restaurant in general also a high turn over in general, not just fast food (even at the management level). Did you see the huge turn over rate in school teaching lately? Well over 25% now. And most any professional services firm from McKinsey & Co to Ernst and Young has super high turn over.
When I was a CPA years ago, it was clear most never stick around (I was one of those). I never seen a CPA firm where half of the new hires do not leave in the first 2 years, and the majority are gone within 4 years. Where do they go? Usually to another CPA firm just to leave them in a few years to take a corporate job for less pay, but more of a life. Or straight to a corporate job after the first firm. And how long do they stay in the corporate job? Only 3-5 years before switching again.
So 15-25% turn over is not bad for most companies. Of course most would like it to be closer to zero, but that's not reality in the new millennium. Right now, you tend to keep your executives longer than staff due to many reasons I won't get into (most of the reason being the way execs are compensated which gives them finanical security over other employees). But even that is slowly changing to where executives are now beginning to look for greener pastures where very few exist once you get in and through he smoke and mirrors interview process most companies have. And those at middle management and below, high turn overs are expected now in companies (and sadly, most accept that as the way of business now).
So 25% turn is not that bad by today's standards. It's not always been that way, since just 20-30 short years ago people had more loyalty to companies. So what happened? Well, companies across the board over the last two decades have cut overall benefit packages, reduced raises to a cost of living level, expect longer working hours than in the past, had major downsizing without paying much severance, and so on. And even in the union environment, the unions lost much of their influence and power so job security is down even with union representation. All this translates to less employee loyalty since everyone knows there is very little job security anywhere you go now. So lack of "company loyalty" per say yields lack of "employee loyalty".
Overall, people move around eight to ten times more than 30 years ago over a 40 year career. All in the search for the place that will pay a fair wage for work done, offer a sense of job security, and yield a good quality of life. Very few people have a sense of all three anymore (I do not anyone personally who can say yes to all three of those.. the job security one usually being the variable that's lacking most times). But long ago, companies like GM, Ford, Bethlehem Steel, etc. all offered all three of these things to their employees. And even those legacy carriers like Pan Am offered this many moons ago. Where are all those companies now? In 1940 you went to work at GM and started on the line and retired as an executive, all with one company. Today you go to GM and hope you have a job tomorrow and that they stop reducing our benefits while expecting more hours from you for less pay.
I still have hope. These conditions can't go on forever. Other great companies will rise as the current legacies fall. Just keep an eat open and try to plan the best you can to get into the new great company. And for that, you may want to keep your eyes out on the global level.
