Employee Turnover at Google

3.6
yr
Mean employee tenure
27.7
%
Implied Annual Turnover
2.7
%
pp. higher than the industry average

Contributions to staff retention at Google

Company Age

36.3 yr

Company Size

281K empl.

Mean Seniority

3.7K days

Industry

Media

Country

US

Intrinsic

-107.8 days

About Google

A problem isn't truly solved until it's solved for all. Googlers build products that help create opportunities for everyone, whether down the street or across the globe. Bring your insight, imagination and a healthy disregard for the impossible. Bring everything that makes you unique. Together, w...

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What is "Avoidable" turnover?

Employee turnover is normal. Employees come and go for many reasons, including personal reasons and reasons that have nothing to do with a specific company. In addition, turnover is known to be high in some industries and for some job types. So how much can a company actually do to improve retention? This differs from company to company but we estimate this number. For Google, we estimate average tenue could be increased by 108 days with effective retention programs. We base this number on a comparison of Google to other similar companies.

What is driving turnover at Google?

Employee turnover at Google is primarily driven by company size and employee seniority. Google is a comparatively large company. Smaller companies have a lower rate of employees leaving the company. These companies might be able to keep better track of employee morale and get ongoing feedback from employees more easily. On the other hand, companies with higher company size typically have a higher rate of employee turnover. These companies might be more dispersed geographically and have fewer opportunities for employees to feel like they have a positive connection to the company. The employees in this company have had more experience and are more experienced than the average employee. The employees with the least experience leave the company more frequently than the employees with the most experience. There are a few reasons why this might be the case. First, junior employees may be more likely to feel unhappy in their job and be eager to find a new one. Finally, junior employees may have less opportunity to have an impact on the company, which could lead to feelings of frustration and unhappiness.

Methodology

The numbers reported here are based on statistical analysis of publicly available employment data of current and past employees of the company. We determine mean tenure based on how long past employees have stayed at the company and how long current employees have been employed. We determine the annual turnover percentage as (1/tenure * 100). We analyse a sample of the employees at a company. We make an effort to sample in a representative way but some bias is unavoidable. Some types of employees may be overrepresented in our sample based on their job, their online activity, and their geographic location. We expect our number to have a confidence interval of approximately 1 year. In other words, if the mean tenure reported is 4 years, the true value lies between 3 and 5 with 98% confidence. Similarly if the average turnover reported is 20% we expect the true value to be between 15% and 25%.

Disclaimer

We make an effort to report accurate information and to be transparent regarding our methodology. However, we make no warranty of any kind as to the accuracy of these reports. Use at your own risk. If you feel that any of the information reported here is inaccurate for any reason, please let us know.