The Silent Revenue Killer Destroying Bottom Lines? High Turnover
On a macro level, everything appears to be returning to normal as turnover rates
dropped to 2020 levels a few months ago and the economy is showing signs of a cooldown, but these realities conceal real danger. Healthcare workers [
nearly 25% in hospitals], retail employees [
60%], anti-money laundering AML analysts [
up to 100% for L1 analysts at some banks], call centers [
30-45%], and a slew of critical professions have stubbornly high turnover rates with no end in sight, and the consequences are significant. From damaged brand reputations to criminal activities going unchecked, and even patients dying, the negative impact demands an answer. AI, while often discussed as a job killer, can play a critical role in filling the gaps and keeping the humans we depend on across a slew of high-turnover professions happy enough to stay around by addressing issues before it’s too late.
Quantifying Turnover’s Devastating Impact
It all starts with the onboarding. AML analysts are a prime example of that issue, with a lengthy onboarding of 2-3 months, meaning the total onboarding cost alone could be half a year - three months lost for an unsuccessful hire, for example, and three additional months waiting for a new one. When it comes to retail employees or call centers, those are the front lines of brand reputation, with one bad in-store or phoneline experience leading to a trifecta of negatives; a churned customer, a gain for a competitor, and a damaged brand amongst that customer and perhaps their social circle as well. A real world example is musician David Carrol’s song “United Breaks Guitars,” which led to a 10%, or $180M, dip in stock price, while if we zoom out nearly half of Americans believe a brand’s reputation is more important than its price. The bottom line is that a businesses success or failure often hinges on retaining its employees.
What Leads Employees to Quit?
While money is often a factor, there are two truths that shed light on the complexity of retaining employees. The first is that
50% of hourly workers quit before their 100 day work anniversary and 20% of salaried employees. In other words, they knew the salary coming in and it’s not a shock of it being too low. According to The Work Institute’s
2025 Retention Report, factors such as career development, flexibility and well being, and manager behavior were top reasons employees left. The same report suggested that managers must be proactive in identifying and addressing employee needs and stressed the high costs of turnover, especially in the first year. While these diverse, non-monetary reasons for leaving are no doubt true, the issue is that by the time managers even realize an employee is frustrated and on their way out it’s too late. A proactive approach is nice, but for far too many managers, they’ve been promoted for being a good employee but not given the different toolsets needed for managerial success.
Catching the Early Warning Signs
For managers looking to increase employee retention rates, especially in high-turnover industries such as contact centers, specialized AI tools can help tremendously. Elvee, the world’s first AI platform built specifically to solve employee attrition, analyzes tens of thousands of diverse employee data points, ranging from performance metrics and work hours to traffic patterns and even local events, to help managers see problems before they spiral. The platform cuts attrition by up to 50%,. By predicting top performers and flight risks three months ahead with 90% accuracy, Elvee gives managers the chance to act early, while also offering personalized development paths that align talent with business goals. Just as importantly, it equips managers with better tools to share best practices, support their teams, and maintain quality even during rapid hiring.
AI Isn’t the Boogie Man It’s Made Out to Be
While specialized AI tools help streamline our day-to-day, It seems like many conversations about AI these days with regard to the workforce conform to a doom and gloom narrative along the lines of, “...they’re going to take all of our jobs.” Call centers are on the front lines of the replacement talk because AI is most easily implementable there. And indeed, HubSpot’s
2024 Annual State of Customer Service Report confirmed “a staggering 92% of customer relationship management leaders say AI has improved their customer service response times and 71% plan to increase AI investment.” Yet even in this AI saturated space,
analysts believe that a significant number of calls [
20-30%] will still be handled by humans, albeit highly trained ones, because customers don’t want to speak with an automated system and for the foreseeable future, and fringe cases will continue to exist. Crucially, as AI adoption and successful implementation begin to spike, it is the human element that will set many services apart. Think how many automated sales pitches end up in LinkedIn inboxes and how personal outreach via phone, or LinkedIn is so easily differentiated.
AI as Enabler, Not Replacement
Automation will lead to jobs lost, it’s a fact. But it will also solve critical issues across workplaces in a way that will make employees better trained and happier, while their results will be excellent across the board. For one, declining populations are a major issue [Europe’s population will
decline by 7% over the next 75 years and
only 6 countries globally will have birthrates that don’t lead to decline by 2100], however the bottom line is that more work needs to be done with fewer people and not implementing AI will make that impossible. Beyond the macro, AI is the one of the few tools that can provide managers with the indicators necessary to spot dissatisfied employees, point them towards a cause for that dissatisfaction, and enable them to take action. In call centers, AI platforms are utilizing tens of thousands of data points to do exactly that with a 90%+ accuracy rate, saving millions of dollars annually.
Many professions, including those critical to brand reputation and even saving lives, are being negatively impacted by high turnover that is devastating to their revenue in the short-term and is paired with longer-term brand impacts that are equally devastating. Far from being a black and white picture of replacement, AI adoption is essential to remedy retention issues and help managers identify and take action to address the causes of turnover before it’s too late. The result is a significant amount of money saved (even in professions with lower salaries such as call centers), stronger brands, and perhaps most importantly happier customers and employees.