Analysts named the key factors of employee retention in 2026

Universal corporate values and standard social packages cease to effectively retain staff. Employees' expectations vary depending on their profession, region, and length of service. This is the conclusion reached by analysts at the Sidorin Lab research center after analyzing public employee reviews of employers over the summer of 2025. The results of the study are available to Izvestia.

The sample includes all federal districts of Russia and the main professional areas, from IT and sales to manufacturing and healthcare. Experts have concluded that a single set of benefits no longer guarantees employee loyalty, and the labor market is becoming more and more segmented.

According to the research, one of the key factors of retention remains the team and the quality of management. At the same time, wages are gradually ceasing to be the only determining factor, especially in the Central Federal District and the megacities of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

At the same time, income issues often become a source of discontent. Employees are particularly sensitive to the lack of transparency of bonuses, delayed payments, and the lack of a clear indexing system.

"Employees need an honest and understandable system of grading, bonuses and payroll. When a person understands: If I completed the plan, I got a bonus, it creates a sense of stability and reduces tension. And the lack of transparency of bonuses or delayed payments is perceived much more painfully than even a high workload," Sofia Lukarzhevskaya, a leading analyst at Sidorin Lab and author of the study, told Izvestia.

In medicine, the key problem remains the shortage of staff: the topic of staff shortage is mentioned in the reviews of medical professionals 1.66 times more often than the market average. In the production sector, employees are more likely to pay attention to living conditions and recreation. In sales and retail, the transparency of the bonus system is becoming a crucial factor, while in IT and analytics, the priority is shifting towards the content of tasks and the quality of processes.

Read more in the Izvestia article:

Salary doesn't save you anymore: why do employees leave even with a high income

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