1 in 10 people in the UK has never lasted in employment with the same employer for more than a single year. That’s one of the findings in a recent survey in the UK to ask them the longest time they’ve remained in a position with a single employer.
We asked 2,001 people through polling specialist, Censuswide:
“What is the longest time you have stayed with a single employer?”
The survey also found:
- On average (using the mean), the longest someone has stayed with a single employer is 10.1 years
- This rises to over 15 years for those aged 55 and over
- While 1 in 10 Brits has never stayed with the same employer for more than a year, this figure rises significantly to 1 in 5 for those in London
- There are around 40,000 searches every single month in Google UK for “resignation letter template” and thousands more for other variants of this query as well
Longest Tenure Across All Age Groups
Looking at all demographics, the breakdown in answers is outlined below:
| What is the longest time you have stayed with a single employer? | |
| Response | % of Respondents Who Answered This Way |
| Less than 1 week, please specify in days | 0.15% |
| 1 week – 1 month | 1.40% |
| 2-3 months | 2.70% |
| 4-6 months | 3.90% |
| 7–11 months | 3.10% |
| 1-2 years | 8.60% |
| 3-4 years | 10.84% |
| 5-6 years | 10.24% |
| 7-8 years | 7.85% |
| 9-10 years | 13.59% |
| More than 10 years, please specify in years | 32.98% |
| N/A – I have never had an employer | 4.65% |
The Sub 1 Year Employees
For the youngest amongst the work force, it would come as little surprise that their longest tenures are shorter than those of older workers. This is, in large part, likely down to how short a time they have been in the world of work.
But some particularly surprising findings came out of the 35 to 44 year old age group.
We looked specifically at how many people had never stayed with a single employer beyond a year. We found:
- 20% of those aged 25 to 34 have never stayed with a single employer for more than a year
- 12.8% of those aged 35 to 44 said the same
- The figure falls to .68% for the 45 to 54s
- This number drops to just over 1% for the over 55s
Arguably the biggest surprise there is that those aged 35 to 44 in such high quantity haven’t yet surpassed the one year mark with a single employer.
Why Do People Leave Their Jobs?
A 2022 study by Edenred uncovered the most frequently cited reasons for people resigning from their jobs. They are:
- Feeling unmotivated (15% of the 2,000 people surveyed cited this as a reason for quitting a job)
- Being overworked (14%)
- Management don’t care about wellbeing (14%)
- Poor atmosphere (14%)
- Less pay than I wanted (13%)
- Rude boss (11%)
- A lack of room to progress (11%)
What can we do to prevent high staff turnover?
We have to accept a degree of staff turnover for all sorts of reasons. But ultimately, our role as employers and HR professionals is to ensure that people aren’t resigning because we failed them. Ensuring we offer fair pay, fair benefits, take care of our staff wellbeing, ensure they’re motivated, have good work life balance, have development opportunities and feel valued are the core things we need to consider.
After all, we know how expensive it can be to replace good people who go.
*Acuity surveyed 2,000+ people
