Banner Default Image

These are the 12 companies workers don’t want to leave

Back to Blogs
Blog Img

These are the 12 companies workers don’t want to leave

​In a tight labor market, job seekers have the current advantage of being able to change companies in order to secure better pay, benefits, flexibility and career opportunities. After all, the median length of time a worker spends with a given employer is just over four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But some companies go above and beyond in their retention efforts, despite fluctuations in the job market.

To find out which employers are doing it best, Workforce Logiq, a provider of artificial intelligence technology and services to businesses, created an algorithm to identify the companies where workers are least likely to quit.

Workforce Logiq created a Talent Retention Risk score using different data points, including macroeconomic trends, company-level social media and news sentiment, employee churn indicators (such as hiring or firing announcements) and other factors that correspond with workforce volatility. Using these TRR scores, the algorithm can predict the workers who are likely to engage with an unsolicited message from a recruiter about a new job opportunity.

This volatility can be measured across workers of a certain job title, industry, company and geographic location.

Among the Fortune 100 companies, just 12 employers stood out as having below-average volatility scores, and therefore above-average retention rates.

What high-retention companies are getting right

The company with the best employee retention is E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company, more commonly known as DuPont, which is a chemicals company originally founded in 1802 that recently went through a merger with Dow Chemical in 2017. According to Workforce Logiq’s algorithm, just 20% of DuPont workers are likely to engage with a recruiter message offering a new job opportunity.

Each company was also rated across five retention factors: company resilience, career growth, positive environment, business stability and strong leadership. DuPont won high marks in company resilience but lower scores for career growth and business stability.

Company resilience and strong leadership were the strongest retention factors across the majority of high-retention employers. Meanwhile, companies that stood out for having some of the best positive working environments include Intel and American Express, according to the algorithm’s data points.

The company that scored highest in its career growth offerings is Delta Airlines. The airline, which recently announced it will go fully carbon neutral starting March 1, set a goal to hire 12,000 new workers through 2020 across pilots, flight attendants and grounding staff. In October 2019, Bloomberg reported on the airline’s efforts to attract more than 10,000 pilots in the next 10 years by offering to cover training costs, loan forgiveness, coaching programs and other financial incentives.

Workers are loyal to established companies that invest in talent

Although certain companies scored better for retaining talent, there’s more to the score than meets the eye.

It’s worth noting that high volatility isn’t always due to negative events within an employer or industry, says Christy Whitehead, chief data scientist and talent economist at Workforce Logiq.

Instead, higher volatility scores could be more correlated to talent demand and dynamics in the market, Whitehead tells CNBC Make It.

Take the job outlook for technology workers, for instance: “The market for software engineers is robust,” Whitehead says, “and they are smartly taking advantage of the market demand to increase compensation and move up the corporate ladder.”

Higher volatility scores can also indicate a company is announcing or going through major digital transformations to improve its business offerings — arguably a good form of change that would still increase a worker’s TRR score.

While the majority of the companies with loyal workers have been around for many decades, if not centuries, the youngest employers on the list have seen rapid success thanks to technology: Amazon, the e-commerce giant founded in 1994, and Cisco, the telecommunications company founded in 1984.

For these major companies to scale quickly, they’ve likely invested well in both attracting new hires as well as nurturing talent over the years.

“An expression that’s starting to trend in our world is that retention is the new recruiting,” says Workforce Logiq chief strategy officer Joe Hanna, “meaning employers need to do as much internal recruiting, marketing and engagement work as they do externally.”

Here are the companies where workers don’t want to leave, based on their score determined by Workforce Logiq.

1. DuPont

Headquarters: Wilmington, Del.

Share of employees likely to quit: 20%

Number of employees: 98,000

Strongest retention factor: Company resilience

2. Honeywell

An aircraft engine is being tested at Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix.

Alwyn Scott | Reuters

Headquarters: Charlotte, N.C.

Share of employees likely to quit: 23%

Number of employees: 114,000

Strongest retention factor: Company resilience, strong leadership

3. Lockheed Martin

Headquarters: Bethesda, Md.

Share of employees likely to quit: 25%

Number of employees: 105,000

Strongest retention factor: Tie among company resilience, career growth, positive environment, business stability, strong leadership

4. Delta

An Airbus A320-212 operated by Delta Airlines takes off from JFK Airport on August 24, 2019 in New York City.

Bruce Bennett | Getty Images

Headquarters: Atlanta

Share of employees likely to quit: 15%

Number of employees: 88,700

Strongest retention factor: Strong leadership

5. Merck

Headquarters: Kenilworth, N.J.

Share of employees likely to quit: 28%

Number of employees: 69,000

Strongest retention factor: Company resilience, strong leadership

6. Amazon

Headquarters: Seattle

Share of employees likely to quit: 42%

Number of employees: 647,500

Strongest retention factor: Strong leadership

7. Microsoft

Microsoft Headquarters 

Source: Microsoft 

Headquarters: Redmond, Wa.

Share of employees likely to quit: 43%

Number of employees: 131,000

Strongest retention factor: Strong leadership

8. Intel

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

Share of employees likely to quit: 25%

Number of employees: 107,400

Strongest retention factor: Company resilience, positive environment, strong leadership

9. Best Buy

Best Buy employees get a pep talk before opening during Black Friday sales in San Diego, California on November 24, 2016.

Sandy Huffaker | AFP | Getty Images

Headquarters: Richfield, Minn.

Share of employees likely to quit: 21%

Number of employees: 125,000

Strongest retention factor: Strong leadership

10. American Express

Headquarters: New York

Share of employees likely to quit: 30%

Number of employees: 59,000

Strongest retention factor: Positive environment, strong leadership

11. Cisco

Cisco Systems headquarters

Getty Images

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Share of employees likely to quit: 34%

Number of employees: 74,200

Strongest retention factor: Strong leadership

12. The Coca-Cola Company

Headquarters: Atlanta

Share of employees likely to quit: 20%

Number of employees: 62,600

Strongest retention factor: Company resilience, strong leadership

This article was first published in CNBC Make It

Enjoyed this article? Let us know your thoughts comment below:

Half the Sky's mission is to supply the tools that can give every woman the ability to build a successful career and be fully prepared for the future of work. So, that they can lead a healthy, prosperous and more balanced/blended lifestyle of their choosing.  By building your confidence, you’re setting foundations to empower yourself and your career.  The world is your oyster, and it starts with you. 

Enjoyed this article let us know your thoughts in the comments below:

Sign Up


About half the sky

half the sky (HTS) is a career platform for women connecting you to career opportunities at companies that care. Providing you with information, tips and strategies to navigate the rapidly changing workplace.

Sign up to get career tips and job alerts directly to your inbox! Join us to shape the future of women at work together!