Why this pays off becomes clearest the moment someone resigns. Every new hire costs money and takes a great deal of time: the advert, the selection, the contract, the induction. Until the new person is up to speed, the rest of the team carries the extra work, and that lasts for weeks or months. On top of that, knowledge is lost that was never written down anywhere, such as how a particular client works or why a process runs the way it does. A well-established team is therefore more productive than one that is constantly onboarding new members and saying goodbye to valuable colleagues. Finally, a high level of employee retention strengthens employer branding and makes recruitment efforts more convincing.
For a long time, the shortage of skilled workers was the reason to care about retention. That argument no longer carries as far. The Swiss Skills Shortage Index for 2025 sits around 22 per cent below the previous year, and only 4 of 32 occupational groups still show a clear imbalance between supply and demand.[1] That has not made retention any easier. In Gallup's country-level data for Switzerland, 8 per cent of employees are emotionally engaged with their employer, 85 per cent are not engaged, and 8 per cent are actively disengaged.[2] Most people stay, then, without feeling connected.
Six Pillars of Successful Employee Retention
Retaining employees successfully relies on six different factors. As an employer, work on these areas, remain open to the needs of your employees, foster satisfaction and motivation within the team, and thereby reduce turnover. No organisation covers all six pillars equally well, and none has to. What matters more is knowing which one counts for your people right now. You find that out by asking. Below, we have summarised some examples for each pillar:
1. Work Environment and Organisation
Employees want a work environment that suits them and makes them feel comfortable. This includes reliable duty and shift rosters, flexible working hours and part-time models, working from home where the job allows for it, and equipment that lets people get on with the work. Feel free to get creative here!
What helps most in this pillar is predictability. Anyone who knows two weeks in advance when they are working can arrange childcare, medical appointments and holidays around it. That applies to office work just as much as to shift and duty rosters. More important than the number of perks is that they hold: a day off that is the first thing cancelled whenever things get tight loses its effect. Where teams are spread across several sites or spend much of their time in the field, leading teams at a distance comes into it as well.
2. Health and Leisure
Measures in this area not only strengthen employee retention but also ensure a healthier and more efficient workforce. Options include a contribution towards health insurance premiums, a subsidy for a gym membership or a bicycle, a flu jab on site, or ergonomics advice at the workplace. For teams doing physical work or spending much of their time on the road, a decent break room often counts for more than a membership.
Gallup's Swiss figures show how great the need is: 34 per cent of employees report having experienced stress the previous day.[2] That is one in three people on your team. Such offers only work, however, once the cause is looked at as well. A gym membership alongside a permanently excessive workload changes nothing about the strain. So look first at workload, at availability after hours, and at whether holidays are actually taken. Burnout prevention needs both.
3. Professional Development
Invest in the continuing education of your employees. Talent development encourages interests and personal growth, an appealing motivation boost for many professionals. The prospect of advancement within the company also plays a key role in employee retention. Promoting leaders internally also saves time and money for HR.
This is where the gap is widest. According to the Swiss HR Barometer 2024, 42 per cent of employees are offered career development support by their employer; 2'032 working people in Switzerland were surveyed.[4] For everyone else, the topic simply does not come up. Closing that gap takes little: one conversation per person per year, about the next steps rather than about the past twelve months.
4. Strong Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing
For many employees, it is important to work for a company with a good public reputation. This makes employer branding, a positive candidate journey from the first contact, and transparent internal and external communication essential. Another attractive benefit for your team: offer bonuses to employees who successfully refer new talent.
An employer promise works inwards as much as outwards. What was promised in the advert and in the interview is what new joiners experience from day one. Where the two drift apart, your own people notice it before the labour market does. Employee referrals show you where you stand: if they dry up despite a bonus, that usually says more about the experience than about the size of the bonus.
5. Corporate Culture and Transparency
Talents want to identify with the values of their employer. Sustainability and social responsibility are key factors here. In addition, employees want a work environment where their opinions are heard and make an impact. This paves the way for innovation, which boosts both employee satisfaction and the company's success and competitiveness.
A culture like that is carried by managers, and things do not look good there at the moment. Gallup reports 22 per cent engaged managers worldwide for 2025, nine points down on 2022.[3] In practice this means that one survey a year is not enough. A real say comes about where people can see what became of their answers. A no to a suggestion counts too, as long as it is explained. If you want to describe your own corporate culture before you change it, established models will help.
6. Financial Benefits
Salary and other financial perks are among the most important measures for sustainable employee retention. Fair compensation is essential to keep employees long-term. Those who contribute more should be compensated accordingly. Bonuses and other financial incentives remain effective ways to increase employee satisfaction.
With pay, though, the order matters. A salary that feels unfair drives people out reliably. Good pay on its own will not keep them if the other five pillars are missing. So check first whether comparable work is paid comparably at your organisation, and whether your people can follow how a salary comes about. After that it is worth looking at additional employee benefits, and there the fit with someone's life situation counts for more than the number of perks.
And when a role does need filling again
Even strong employee retention does not prevent roles from needing to be filled again at some point. People move away, retire, develop into other roles internally, or the organisation itself decides on a change. Retention then turns back into recruiting.
And this is exactly where the retention of your next employees begins, long before their first working day. The application process shapes the first impression of the company and can be decisive in whether talented people become satisfied employees in the long run.
A modern, professional recruiting process creates the right conditions for that. With Refline, applications are managed efficiently, processes are simplified and a positive candidate experience takes shape, for a good start to a lasting working relationship. Discover the wide range of features in our live demo or book a free consultation. We look forward to hearing from you.
[1] Adecco Group and the University of Zurich, Swiss Skills Shortage Index 2025, published on 27 November 2025.
[2] Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report, country-level data for Switzerland, surveyed January to December 2025.
[3] Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2026 Report, global analysis, surveyed 2025.
[4] Swiss HR Barometer 2024, University of Lucerne, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, 2'032 respondents, surveyed March to June 2024.