A Small Business Guide to Employee Retention, Inspired by Lessons From Billion-Dollar Firms

In recent years, the global job landscape has been rocked by the Great Resignation, the trend of record numbers of employees quitting their jobs in search of pastures new. While quitting rates have normalized to pre-pandemic levels as of January 2024, nearly half of U.S. workers across various industries plan to look for a new job in the year to come. There are all sorts of reasons why people leave their jobs, from dissatisfaction with their pay to a feeling of being stuck in place professionally. For a small business, it’s a blow whenever a talented employee hands in their notice — but it’s also a vital opportunity to analyze how your company can do better at keeping employees happy, motivated and less likely to leave. 

So where should the small business owner start?

Like with any aspect of running a business, we can look to the world’s biggest and most successful companies for ideas and guidance. Take a look at our infographic below that further explores the importance of keeping employees and how 14 billion-dollar firms have prioritized talent retention and enacted strategies that your small business can use as a framework. To help small business owners better understand how to retain talent, OnDeck researched how decision-makers at top companies such as Apple, Nvidia and IBM go about keeping their employees. As a preview, here’s a strategy from Microsoft:

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.