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Human Resources vocabulary · HR Roles & Workforce Planning

Retention

Meaning in human resources, with examples

/rɪˈtenʃən/nounCommon term

In human resources, retention means: An organisation's ability to keep its employees, especially valued ones, and the actions it takes to stop them from leaving.

In Turkish: çalışanı elde tutma, çalışan tutundurma, elde tutma

How it is used

Also employee retention or staff retention. HR talks about the retention rate, a retention strategy and a retention bonus. The opposite measure is turnover.

Example sentences

  1. Retention of senior engineers is our biggest challenge this year.

  2. We offered a retention bonus to keep the project team until the launch.

Common collocations

  • employee retention
  • retention rate
  • retention strategy
  • retention bonus
  • improve retention
  • turnoverThe rate at which employees leave an organisation and have to be replaced, usually shown as a percentage per year.
  • employee engagementHow committed and motivated employees feel about their work and their organisation, and how much effort they are willing to put in.
  • career pathThe series of jobs and levels a person can move through in an organisation or profession as they gain skills and experience.
  • exit interviewA conversation or survey with an employee who is leaving, to find out why they are going and what the company could do better.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: HR Roles & Workforce Planning

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