High rates of employee turnover present a massive challenge for businesses, especially those that are already struggling.
“Employee turnover has been shown to disrupt productivity-related outcomes. It’s been shown to correlate with decreased financial performance and, in some studies, even threaten an organization’s survival,” says Vanessa Burbano, the Sidney Taurel Associate Professor of Business at Columbia Business School.
Almost half of employee turnover—a whopping 42 percent—is preventable, according to a recent report from Gallup. Still, self-reported employee turnover risk in 2024 is at its highest point in nearly a decade.
While the reasons that employees voluntarily leave a company vary greatly—from a lack of job satisfaction to a demand for higher compensation—new research from Burbano has found a breakthrough in increasing employee retention: short-term corporate social impact activities, or activities that address societal challenges in order to create positive change, implemented during the employee onboarding process.
The reasoning, simply put, is that these activities can increase an employee’s perception of organizational justice, or how they feel their employer will treat them in the future. With the potential for better treatment comes a better chance of an employee staying.