As witnessed on The Apprentice reality TV series some candidates will do almost anything to impress the company they want to work for, even if it means doing an impression of a pterodactyl. But bosses should be aware that however keen an interviewee is to secure the post, once they have joined the firm they are likely to leave if it doesn’t satisfy their need to grow professionally and personally.

People these days are not necessarily interested in having a job for life. They are looking for personal fulfilment and are willing to move on to get more work and life experience if their current employer is not delivering.

Analysis of our employee data reveals a strong link between people who say they would leave tomorrow if they had another job to go to and poor personal growth in companies. Of those employees who feel strongly that their job is good for their own individual development only 4% would leave tomorrow. Of those who feel strongly that their job is not good for their personal growth, 73% say they would cut and run.

“The figures are staggering,” says Dr Pete Bradon, head of research at Best Companies Ltd. “I don’t believe any company can afford to ignore this issue.”

They certainly can’t. Staff turnover costs time and money, not just in recruiting replacements but also in training them and even then it may be one or two years before the newbies reach full productivity. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) puts the total cost of filling a vacancy at £7,750.

While a certain amount of turnover is unavoidable, the truth is that many employees leave their jobs through boredom. According to research by the CIPD lack of career development accounts for 39% of departures from firms. The implications are huge when you discover that on average almost one in four employees end up leaving private firms.

But turnover rates drop dramatically in companies that have high levels of employee engagement. Average turnover for the top 10 of mid and small firms, and the top two big companies, is 15% compared to 17% for other listed organisations and 19% for those entering the competition but not making it to the lists.

“The CIPD figures imply we could reduce turnover by a third just by dealing with personal growth,” says Bradon. “The people at the top of the Best Companies to Work For lists are doing really well with retention. Those who do really well on engagement have much lower staff turnover.”

If firms with the national average rates of staff turnover were able to cut them by 8% to the levels of the best performing companies in our lists, it would equate to an annual saving of £604,500 for a firm with 1,000 employees or £30,225 for firms with 50 staff. And there’s even more to be saved when you take absenteeism into account. The happier and more stimulated employees are, the more likely they are to come to work no matter what. In the top 10 mid and small and top two Big listed companies, the average time lost per staff member is 2.8 days compared to 3.5 days for other listed companies and 10 days for unlisted. In terms of potential savings that stacks up to £720,000 and £36,000 for the mid-sized and small firms.

“We get some people asking why they should pay money to do this survey,” says Bradon. “But just on the retention and absenteeism issue, a company with 1,000 people can save more than £1m a year if they deal with employee engagement. It makes sense.”

Turnover of staff who are not interested in being there is not a problem. The problem is when you

lose engaged people, says Bradon. “The trouble is the ones that will stay are the ones who can’t get a job anywhere else,” says Bradon. “The ones who are good and easily employable will be out like a shot. You are much more likely to lose the good people. If you were to lose 5% of your best staff, it would be a disaster.”

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