Survey Details Costs of Millennial Turnover

 Gen Y research and consulting firm Millennial Branding teamed up with and Beyond.com, The Career Network, to conduct the survey, “The Cost of Millennial Retention.” The survey of hundreds of HR professionals in various industries, found that 87 percent of companies said it costs them around $15,000-$25,000 to replace each millennial employee they lose. The data showed that because approximately 40 percent of companies currently employ 50 or more millennial workers, these costs are expected to rise dramatically in the future.

Recent Millennial Branding reports show that 45 percent of companies experience high turnover for millennials—by a 2:1 margin versus older generations. The latest survey revealed that a whopping 79 percent of HR professionals polled feel optimistic about increasing millennial employee retention rate.

“Companies continue to struggle retaining my generation and as a result it costs them a lot of money and productivity that they could be saving if they created a stronger corporate culture to support them,” Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, said.

Other survey highlights include:

• 30 percent of companies surveyed have lost 15 percent or more of their millennial employees in the past year, and most felt at least 10 percent of these former workers went directly to their competitors

• 51 percent of companies report that the cost of training and development is the highest when hiring millennials; 71 percent said losing millennial employees increases the workload and stress of current employees; and another 56 percent revealed that it takes between 3 and 7 weeks to hire a fully productive millennial in a new role

• Top reasons millennials leave their companies are 1) receiving a better offer from another company (30%) 2) career goals aren’t aligned to their company (27%) and 3) a lack of career opportunities (13%).

“The Millennial Generation has learned to be two things during the recession: resilient and nomadic,” Rich Milgram, founder and CEO of Beyond.com, said. “As the job market improves, the level of confidence will improve along with it and cause many in this age group to reevaluate their current situation, possibly seeing value in seeking greener pastures.”