Engagement & Retention
Why people stay, why they leave, and what keeps them invested.
Absenteeism
Absenteeism is a pattern of unplanned or habitual absence from work, beyond agreed time off like vacation or public holidays. Occasional sick days are normal. Absenteeism refers to absence that is frequent, unexplained, or rising, and it is often a signal of deeper issues such as burnout, disengagement, health problems, or caregiving pressure.
Attrition Rate
Attrition rate is the percentage of employees who leave an organisation over a set period, usually a month or a year. It covers resignations, retirements, and terminations. In many companies "attrition" specifically means departures where the role is not backfilled, while "turnover" covers all exits. Definitions vary, so state yours on every report.
Clan Culture
Clan culture is a type of organisational culture that is collaborative, people-focused, and feels like an extended family. Leaders act as mentors, loyalty and teamwork are highly valued, and decisions are often made by consensus. It is one of four culture types in the Competing Values Framework developed by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn, alongside adhocracy, market, and hierarchy cultures.
Company Culture
Company culture, also called corporate or organisational culture, is the shared set of values, beliefs, behaviours, and unwritten rules that shape how people work together. It shows up in what gets rewarded, what gets tolerated, how decisions are made, and how people treat each other when things go wrong. It is what employees describe when they tell a friend what it is really like to work there.
Employee Burnout
Employee burnout is a state caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. The World Health Organization describes it as an occupational phenomenon with three dimensions: exhaustion, increased mental distance from or cynicism about one's job, and reduced professional effectiveness. It builds over time and is driven mostly by how work is designed, not by individual weakness.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is the level of emotional commitment and energy employees bring to their work and their organisation. Engaged employees care about outcomes, put in discretionary effort, and want to stay. It is different from satisfaction: a person can be satisfied with their pay and perks and still not care much about the work.
Employee Engagement Metrics
Employee engagement metrics are the measures a company uses to track how committed, motivated, and connected employees are. They combine survey-based measures, like engagement scores and eNPS, with behavioural measures, like retention, absenteeism, and participation. No single metric tells the full story, so they are read together and tracked over time.
Employee Engagement Survey
An employee engagement survey is a questionnaire that measures how committed, motivated, and connected employees feel about their work and organisation. It usually combines rating-scale questions with a few open questions, is run anonymously, and is repeated over time so trends can be tracked. The results only matter if leaders share them and act on them.
Employee Experience
Employee experience (EX) is the sum of every interaction a person has with an organisation, from the job ad they first read to the exit interview on their last day. It includes the work itself, managers and colleagues, tools, physical or remote workspace, and policies. It is the employee version of customer experience.
Employee Retention
Employee retention is an organisation's ability to keep its employees over time. It is tracked as retention rate: the percentage of employees who were on the payroll at the start of a period and are still there at the end. Retention is the flip side of attrition, but it is measured on a fixed starting group, so new hires do not inflate it.
Employee Turnover
Employee turnover is the rate at which employees leave an organisation over a period and are typically replaced. It counts all separations: resignations, dismissals, layoffs, and retirements. Turnover rate is usually reported monthly or annually and broken into voluntary and involuntary turnover, because each points to different causes.
Employee Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is the overall health and quality of life of employees, as shaped by their work and workplace. It usually covers four pillars: physical, mental, social, and financial wellbeing. It is broader than a wellness programme. Workload, manager behaviour, flexibility, and pay all affect wellbeing more than perks do.
eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score)
eNPS (employee net promoter score) is a one-question measure of employee loyalty. Employees answer "How likely are you to recommend this company as a place to work?" on a scale from 0 to 10. The score is the percentage of promoters (9 to 10) minus the percentage of detractors (0 to 6). It ranges from −100 to +100. It is adapted from the customer Net Promoter Score.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation is the drive to do something because of an outcome outside the activity itself: a reward to earn or a consequence to avoid. At work, that includes salary, bonuses, commissions, promotions, public recognition, and deadlines. It is the opposite of intrinsic motivation, where the work itself is the reward.
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is the drive to do something because the activity itself is satisfying, interesting, or meaningful, not because of a reward or pressure from outside. At work, it looks like an engineer refactoring code because she enjoys making it clean, or a manager mentoring because he likes seeing people grow.
Occupational Wellness
Occupational wellness is the sense of satisfaction, purpose, and balance a person gets from their work. It is one of the commonly cited dimensions of overall wellness, alongside physical, emotional, social, financial, and others. It covers whether your work uses your skills, fits your values, offers growth, and leaves room for a life outside it.
Presenteeism
Presenteeism is when employees are at work, in person or online, but not functioning at full capacity because they are unwell, exhausted, stressed, or distracted. It includes working while sick and the habit of staying visibly "on" to look committed. It is harder to see than absenteeism, but often costs more in lost output.
Quiet Quitting
Quiet quitting means doing the work your job requires and nothing beyond it. No unpaid overtime, no extra projects, no answering messages after hours. The person has not resigned. They have stopped going above and beyond. The term went viral on social media in 2022 and became shorthand for disengagement.
Retention Bonus
A retention bonus is a one-time payment offered to an employee for staying with the company until a set date or milestone. Companies use them during mergers and acquisitions, restructures, major projects, or when a critical person is at risk of leaving. The money is usually paid only if the employee is still employed on the agreed date.
