The business sector had the fifth lowest tenure, with employees staying an average of 3.3 years. However, the data revealed there was a 41% increase in tenure from SME businesses (2.9) to Enterprise (4.1), which may indicate enterprise companies within the business sector offer more appealing incentives or benefits.

Startup and SME companies had on average lower tenure than enterprise companies, likely because startups offer less stability, with around 60% failing in their first three years of business.

However, the Vestd’s data highlighted the importance of creating effective benefits and remuneration packages as a key way to retain employees across varying company sizes. 

This research comes after a CIPD report found that 30% of UK employees leave to join another organisation every year, with Google trends data revealing 7,000 web searches for ‘letter of resignation’ in the past month alone.

The report also revealed the marketing industry had the lowest staff retention overall, with employees staying an average of 2.8 years at a company, followed by the hospitality industry with three years. This may be due to survey data that found that almost two-thirds of marketers considered a change in role for better financial remuneration.

The data also revealed that the IT industry had the third-lowest tenure (3.1), with employees more likely to stay in startups and SMEs (3.3) compared to an enterprise-size business (2.8). 

Commenting on the findings, Ifty Nasir, CEO of Vestd, said: “Employee tenure is a key indicator of job satisfaction and company culture. Our findings demonstrate that, while it is natural to see movement between companies, industries like marketing, hospitality, and IT are struggling to effectively retain staff for long periods of time, leading to higher turnover rates and disrupted workplaces.  

“But with financial stability and well-being becoming a key priority for employees across all industries, offering robust packages that respond to these shifting needs has become a powerful incentive to not only retain current staff, but attract new talent. 

“Reward-based incentives, such as employee share schemes or enterprise management incentives (EMI schemes), provide employees with a sense of ownership within their workplace, whatever their role. It’s also a powerful incentive for staff to work their way up the ranks, decreasing employee turnover in the long-term while encouraging a vested interest in the success of the company.”

The full research report can be found on the Vestd website.