Across Social Care, providers are working harder than ever to keep great people. Yet turnover remains high, early leaver rates continue to rise, and the pressure on teams and leaders is intensifying. At Cohesion, we’ve spent years listening to the workforce through exit interviews, stay interviews, onboarding check‑ins, and now through our Predictive Retention Project, engaging with many organisations across the sector.

What we’re seeing is clear: Attrition isn’t inevitable but the sector isn’t always focusing on the right levers.

This series brings together the insights from our research, our conversations, and our data. It’s designed to help providers understand not just what is happening in their workforce, but why and what they can do next.

Why Retention Efforts Are Falling Short

The Data Problem: Measuring Attrition Without Meaning

Most organisations track turnover. Not all truly understand it. Across our focus groups and interviews, we heard the same pattern: Providers know how many people are leaving. They don’t always know why. And even when they do, the insight doesn’t always reach the people who can act on it. This disconnect is one of the biggest barriers to improving retention.

The sector is measuring attrition – but not interpreting it.

Many organisations produce monthly turnover reports, often broken down by service or job role. But these reports rarely answer the deeper questions:

Why is this service struggling more than others? Why are new starters leaving so quickly? Why is one manager retaining staff brilliantly while another is losing them?

Without context, turnover becomes a number to report rather than a story to understand.

Exit & Retention interviews: a missed opportunity

Sector‑wide, exit interview participation sits at 20–30%. Cohesion’s person‑centred approach consistently achieves around 70%, giving providers a far richer picture of what’s really happening.

But even when exit interviews are completed, the insight often:
– Stays within HR
– Isn’t shared with operational leaders
– Isn’t linked to recruitment or engagement data
– Isn’t used to inform early interventions
– Isn’t reviewed alongside local culture or leadership behaviours

This means organisations are often collecting data – but not always learning from it.

Attrition without context is just noise.

To make it meaningful, providers need to correlate different elements including length of service, job family, locality, recruitment source, visa status, and team culture indicators. When these data points are layered together alongside real employee feedback, patterns emerge:

– Certain managers consistently retain staff better
– Some services lose people at the same point in their journey
– New starters from specific recruitment channels churn faster
– Poor induction correlates with early exit

This is where retention becomes predictable and preventable.

Attrition is not an outcome. It’s a symptom.

A symptom of culture, communication, leadership, workload, and belonging. When providers treat attrition as a number to reduce rather than a story to understand, they miss the opportunity for meaningful change.

The Structural Myths: Pay, Flexibility, and Early Attrition

Once we look beyond the numbers, three structural myths consistently distort retention efforts.

Myth 1: “People leave because of pay.”

Pay matters — but not in the way most organisations think. Across our interviews and Cohesion’s exit data:

– Pay is rarely the top reason for leaving
– It’s a proxy for feeling valued
– Pay uplifts improve attraction, not long‑term retention
– Culture, communication, and workload matter far more

We heard examples of organisations increasing pay or adopting the Real Living Wage. These changes improved attraction – but didn’t always improve retention. Why? Because pay fixes perception, not culture.

What people value

Providers told us that the most valued benefits included:
– 24/7 GP access
–  Occupational sick pay
–  Earned wage access tools
–  Free meals on shift
–  Emergency hardship funds
–  Cost‑of‑living support
–  Planting a tree for birthdays
–  Recognition bonuses
–  Long‑service awards
–  Wellbeing support
– A ‘Thank You’

These benefits don’t just support wellbeing — they send a message: “You matter here.” And that message is far more powerful than any one‑off bonus.

Myth 2: “We can’t offer flexibility because of the rota.”

Every provider agrees flexibility is essential. Very few have cracked it. The organisations making real progress have flipped the script: Flexibility is not an operational challenge — it’s a cultural one.

It starts with mindset, not scheduling software. The most successful providers empower managers to say: “Yes, I can make it work.” And when they do, everything shifts.

What flexibility looks like in practice

–  School‑hours shifts
–  Shorter 6‑hour patterns
–  Retiree‑friendly shifts
–  Student‑friendly bank roles
–  Hybrid working for central teams
–  Technology that gives staff visibility and autonomy
–  Managers who problem‑solve rather than block requests

Flexibility fails when trust is missing. When staff are promised choice but experience rigidity, attrition accelerates.

Myth 3: “If someone leaves early, they weren’t the right fit.”

The truth is far more uncomfortable: Most attrition happens in the first 90 days. And it has very little to do with “fit.” It has everything to do with:
–  Rushed inductions
–  Lack of support
–  Poor communication
–  No emotional connection

Providers with strong early retention:
–  Deliver values‑based “super” inductions
–  Check in at 30, 60, and 90 days
–  Maintain recruiter contact post‑start
–  Provide honest, realistic job previews
–  Create early wins and early recognition

Early attrition isn’t about capability. It’s about connection.

In Part Two, we’ll explore the human side of retention, the everyday experiences that shape whether people stay, grow, or walk away.

Join Our Retention Club

Cohesion’s Retention Project is bringing together providers from across the sector to understand what truly drives stability and to co‑create practical, evidence‑based solutions that work in real services. Through shared learning, the project is helping organisations move from reactive responses to proactive, insight‑led retention strategies.

We’re now opening the next phase of the project, and we’d love you to be part of it. Our next virtual roundtable where we’ll share early findings, explore emerging patterns, and hear directly from providers – takes place on 28th January at 12pm. And we won’t stop there – with more events in 2026 planned. To join us, email Dave Beesley, Social Care Talent Director – dave.beesley@cohesionrecruitment.com.

Written by Amelia McArdle