How to Reduce Staff Turnover in Your Team
The retention challenge
Reducing staff turnover starts with understanding why people actually leave. Most of the time, it is not pay. It is how they feel about their work, their manager, and whether they can see a future where they are. This guide sets out the evidence on what drives people to stay or go, and what managers can do differently to improve retention in their teams.
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Why people leave, and why it matters
Disengagement is costing the UK economy £14 billion every year (Work Foundation, 2022), and the public sector carries a disproportionate share of that burden. High turnover is one of its most visible symptoms.
The reasons people leave are well documented. Poor management is consistently cited as one of the top drivers of voluntary exits. Research from ACAS (2022) links poor management directly to a 40% spike in staff turnover. That is not a marginal effect. It means that in teams where management quality is low, nearly half of avoidable exits can be traced back to how people are led day to day.
Strengthify's own research with over 5,750 public sector employees points to a related finding: feeling valued has a strong negative correlation (-0.40) with intent to leave. In practical terms, people who do not feel that their contribution matters are significantly more likely to be actively considering leaving. This is not about grand gestures. It is about whether someone's manager notices what they bring, acknowledges it, and creates conditions where they can use it.
The cost of getting this wrong goes beyond recruitment fees. Every time someone leaves, a team loses knowledge, continuity and capacity. In higher education and health and social care, where expertise is built over years and workloads are already stretched, the impact of turnover runs deep.
The real drivers of retention
Research is consistent on what makes people stay. It is rarely the things organisations spend most time trying to fix.
Feeling that their input is valued
Strengthify's Public Sector Engagement Insights Report (2025) found that recognition has the strongest correlation with engagement of any factor measured (0.72). When people feel that their contributions are seen and acknowledged, they are more motivated, more committed, and more likely to stay. When they do not, disengagement follows quickly. As one employee in the research put it: "No recognition, no trust, no reason to stay."
A manager who supports their development
Manager support has a 0.55 correlation with engagement in the report's data. Growth-focused cultures, where managers actively encourage development and connect people to opportunities, cut turnover by 15% (IES, 2023). People who can see a path forward within an organisation are far less likely to look for one elsewhere.
Trust in their manager and organisation
Engage for Success (2021) links trust directly to 20% better retention. Trust is built through consistency: managers who follow through, who are honest under pressure, and who treat people fairly. It erodes quickly when people feel decisions are made without explanation or that their concerns are not taken seriously.
Using their strengths
When people spend most of their time doing work that draws on what they are genuinely good at, engagement rises and stress reduces. Strengthify's research found that regular opportunities to use strengths at work have a 0.48 correlation with feeling valued. Engage for Success (2021) links strengths-driven approaches to an 18% improvement in retention. The connection is direct: people who feel aligned to their work are more likely to stay.
A sense of belonging
Team belonging has a 0.41 correlation with feeling valued in Strengthify's data. People do not just stay for the role. They stay because of the people around them and the culture they are part of. When that culture is fragmented, or when there is a clear divide between management and staff, the sense of belonging that keeps people in post disappears.
What managers can do to improve retention
Retention is not an HR issue that sits outside a manager's control. It is shaped, day by day, by how a manager leads their team. These are the areas that have the most direct impact.
Make recognition specific and consistent
Generic praise lands weakly. Recognition that names what someone did well, explains why it mattered, and connects it to their individual strengths is what actually shifts how valued someone feels. This does not require a formal programme. It requires managers who notice, and who make the effort to say something specific.
A simple habit is to end each week by identifying one person in the team whose contribution deserves acknowledgement, and making sure they hear about it before the following Monday. Over time, this builds a culture where effort is seen rather than assumed.
Have regular, meaningful one-to-ones
One-to-ones are one of the most underused retention tools available to managers. When they work well, they give people a consistent space where they feel heard, where their development is discussed, and where issues can surface before they become reasons to leave.
The mistake is treating one-to-ones as task check-ins. A conversation that only covers workload and deadlines is not serving its purpose. Building in time for development, strengths and how someone is feeling about their work changes the quality of the relationship and the information a manager has access to.
Connect people to growth opportunities
People who feel stuck leave. Managers who actively look for development opportunities, whether that is stretching someone into a new project, supporting a secondment, or simply having a conversation about where someone wants to go, demonstrate that they are invested in the person's future, not just their current output.
IES (2023) research on public sector workforce retention consistently points to the absence of development as a primary driver of exits. The ask from employees is rarely complex: it is to feel that someone is paying attention to their growth.
Align work to strengths where possible
Not every task can be assigned on the basis of strengths, but managers who are aware of what energises each team member, and who make deliberate decisions about work allocation as a result, create teams where people feel more engaged and less depleted.
The Western Health and Social Care Trust introduced a strengths-based approach to their Medical Education teams specifically to explore how tasks could be reallocated and team dynamics strengthened.
Participants reported increased motivation and a clearer sense of how their individual contributions fitted the wider team. Managers are now encouraged to explore strengths in progress reports and appraisals, embedding the approach into everyday practice rather than treating it as a one-off activity.
Build a culture where people feel they belong
Belonging is not built through team away days. It is built through how people are treated in ordinary moments: whether their opinions are asked for and acted on, whether differences are respected, and whether the manager creates a team identity that people want to be part of.
Strengthify's research found that team belonging has a meaningful link to manager training quality. Teams where managers have developed their leadership skills show stronger cohesion and a greater sense of collective identity. This is the foundation that retention sits on.
What does not work in isolation
Salary increases, flexible working policies and wellbeing initiatives all have a role to play, but they do not address the relational and cultural factors that most often drive exits. Offering a pay rise to someone who feels invisible in their team will rarely change their decision to leave.
Similarly, exit interviews, while useful, are a retrospective measure. By the time someone is completing one, the decision is usually already made. The more valuable investment is in the conditions that prevent people reaching that point.
One-off engagement surveys can also fall short without follow-through. Strengthify's research captured employee voices directly on this: "Surveys feel like lip service. Nothing changes." The frustration is not with being asked. It is with being asked and nothing moving as a result.
The manager's role is central
Gallup's research shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores. In the public sector, where Strengthify's data found that only 48% of employees agree their manager has the skills to maximise their potential, this represents both a significant gap and a significant opportunity.
The University of Westminster's Digital Transformation Team is a direct illustration of what is possible. Facing silos, low collaboration and high turnover, the team worked with Strengthify to embed a strengths-based approach across leadership and team practice. Turnover dropped, collaboration improved, and project delivery accelerated. As one leader reflected: "It's helped us embed a strengths-based culture that's transformed our daily work."
At the University of Brighton's Finance team, a whole-department approach to strengths-based management development produced 100% of managers reporting confidence across core leadership areas, including the performance conversations and development discussions that are most directly linked to retention. As Chief Finance Officer Ian Childs noted: "Conversations about capacity and priorities feel more open and constructive."
These are not isolated examples. They reflect what the evidence consistently shows: when managers are equipped to lead well, people are more likely to stay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Research consistently points to the relationship with the line manager as the primary driver of voluntary exits, ahead of pay, workload or working hours. Poor management, lack of recognition and the absence of development opportunities are the factors most frequently cited. This is why retention strategies that focus only on compensation tend to have limited impact.
How Strengthify can help
Strengthify works with managers and leaders across higher education, the NHS and the wider public sector to build the leadership skills and team culture that support lasting retention. Our Management Development Programme equips managers with practical strengths-based tools for recognition, development conversations and team performance. Our Discovery Workshops help teams build the shared language and belonging that keep people engaged and connected to their work.
If you would like to explore how a strengths-based approach to retention could work in your organisation, we would be glad to hear from you.
Related guides
This guide draws on findings from Strengthify's Public Sector Engagement Insights Report 2025. Read the full report.