Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

Retention rates were significantly higher for employers that had rotational programs than the retention rates for employers without rotational programs, according to results of NACE’s 2016 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey.

The survey report indicates that retention rates for one year (91.1 percent) and five years (70.9 percent) were elevated for employers that had rotational programs. (See Figure 1).

This year, 43.8 percent of employers reported using rotational programs for new college hires. Larger employers were more likely to have rotational programs, with more than half of employers with greater than 5,000 employees indicating they have a program. Just 7.1 percent of employers with fewer than 500 employees reported the same.

Industries that were more likely to have rotational programs included utilities (66.7 percent); chemical manufacturing (58.3 percent); miscellaneous manufacturing (55.6 percent); and finance, insurance and real estate (54.2 percent). (See Figure 2.)

Among employers with rotational programs, the majority of programs (67.7 percent) were one to two years in length, with segment durations lasting three to six months (75.8 percent). Program durations of three months or less were rare. (See Figure 3.)

More than three-quarters of employers (78.3 percent) offered rotational segments in different departments within their organization, while almost two-thirds (63.8 percent) rotated new hires through different job positions. Location rotational segments (50.7 percent) have been used significantly less. (See Figure 4.)

NACE’s 2016 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey was conducted from May 24, 2016, to August 31, 2016, among NACE employer members; 233, or 24.6 percent, responded. Highlights from the 2016 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey are available on NACEWeb. Participating members can access the full report through MyNACE.