Nearly a quarter (23 percent) of UK workers plan to leave their jobs within the next three years, a 3 percent increase from 2023. Additionally, another 13 percent do not see themselves working for their current employer through 2026. According to Culture Amp, an employee experience provider, this insight into employee attrition comes from the analysis of ‘Commitment to Stay’ data from 97 million (ten million of which came from the UK) responses of employees across 5000 (one thousand UK-based) organisations, gathered from responses to 97 million questions. UK workers are more likely to consider quitting than their counterparts in other leading Western economies, with only 19 percent of American workers and 18 percent of Australians considering resignation. The only country to surpass it was Germany, where 24 percent are planning to move on by 2025. According to CultureAmp, replacing an employee costs 30 percent of an average employee’s salary, but rises to 200 percent for top performers when recruitment fees, productivity, and team impacts are taken into account. Employers may need to pay between £11,229 and £74,860 to replace departing employees in 2024, with the average salary in the UK being £37,430. According to Culture Amp data gathered from over three million employees at 4700 companies around the world, other factors may influence employee attrition in 2025. Among the most critical determinants of ‘commitment to stay’ among employees, leadership quality outweighed the influence of managers, because employees closely associate strong leadership with an organisation that has a clear direction and performs well. In the presence of a great manager and a great leader, employees’ commitment to stay reaches 94%; in the absence of a great manager and a great leader, it drops to 35%, while in the absence of a great manager and a poor leader, it plummets to 19%. The company’s global data also shows that employee turnover increases more after a change of leader than after a managerial change. The attrition rate for teams that have seen a change at the top is 40 percent higher within six months. On the other hand, a change in manager only results in a 16% attrition rate. “As Europe faces ongoing political, economic, and social/workplace uncertainties in 2025, organisations must prioritise their strategic workforce management in this unpredictable post-pandemic landscape. The critical challenge remains employee retention, which directly impacts organisational performance,” says Nick Matthews, general manager, EMEA, at Culture Amp. “Our research challenges the traditional notion that employees simply leave bad managers. It’s imperative that organisations leverage their leadership layer in conjunction with their front line managers to ensure that they have a coherent and strategic focus on employee experience as they navigate 2025’s challenges.” Contact the KC Group now for support with your career. View our latest jobs.