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Voluntary turnover is down among faculty and staff, according to recently released findings from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR).
As part of its annual workforce surveys, CUPA-HR has been tracking data on turnover among faculty and staff, including voluntary separations, retirements, and involuntary separations, since 2017. Voluntary turnover is down or holding steady compared to 2024 across all employee categories, including part-time non-exempt staff, part-time exempt staff, full-time non-exempt staff, full-time exempt staff, non-tenure-track faculty, and tenure-track faculty.
The question becomes: What's behind this trend? Is the higher education workforce healthier and happier, or is something else at play?
A Deeper Look at the Data
First, let's examine the data from CUPA-HR a bit closer.
- In all the years that CUPA-HR has tracked this data (2017-2025), turnover rates for part-time non-exempt staff have been higher than any other employee type (with an all-time low of 14.6%).
- The Full-time exempt staff rate is not far behind (with an all-time low of 9.4%).
- In contrast, tenure-track faculty had an all-time low of 2.3%, and non-tenure-track faculty had a low of 5.1%.
While the nature of faculty roles likely contributes to their lower turnover rates, this raises questions about how institutions are supporting their staff, particularly part-time non-exempt.
Voluntary Turnover Rates Vary by Institutional Classifications
The data from CUPA-HR reveals that there is not only variation among employee types, but there is a great deal of variation among who's leaving and who's staying at institutions with different Carnegie classifications.
Baccalaureate institutions seem to be retaining part-time exempt staff better than other institutions (with a voluntary turnover rate of 13.8%) yet have a higher rate of turnover for full-time exempt staff than other institutional classifications (10.6%). In contrast, associate's institutions struggle to retain part-time exempt staff (with a voluntary turnover rate of 23.9%) but have the lowest voluntary turnover among all institutional classifications for full-time exempt (7.6%). According to the report, "Doctoral institutions report the highest voluntary turnover rates for non-exempt staff among all classifications, with rates of 12.4% for full-time and 20.0% for part-time staff."
What's Driving the Stabilization?
While we're still seeing some troubling trends, for now, the voluntary turnover has seemed to stabilize, which may be giving institutions room to breathe. Yet the question still remains: why have things stabilized? What's really going on in the higher education workforce?
While there aren't any conclusive answers, several HR professionals I've spoken with suspect that the current political and economic uncertainty is playing a significant role in this trend.
"From what I've been seeing, people are a bit more risk-averse right now given the economy and political unknowns, so they're trying to make the most of where they are," said Derek Ekaitis, staff and faculty relations manager at Clemson University. "Some employees are moving into new roles within their current organization, but those looking to make a bigger change are being more selective or just waiting for the right opportunity to come along. A lot of folks are sticking with their current roles because there's a sense of familiarity and stability there, especially when so much else feels uncertain."
Antoinette Lancaster, business coordinator, payroll & HR at the University of Maryland, echoed these thoughts, adding that institutional retention efforts may be contributing.
"Over the last few years, many institutions have paid more attention to retention, employee engagement, flexibility, and workplace culture," she said. "At the same time, employees seem to be approaching career moves differently than they were a few years ago. With the current job market and economic uncertainty, many employees may be focusing more on stability, benefits, and work-life balance than they were a few years ago."
The dip in turnover could also be related to fewer available openings. "COVID-19 shook things up in ways we've never seen before," said John Ikenberry, president and co-founder of HigherEdJobs. The number of job postings we saw in the years directly after COVID was notably higher, likely due to "The Great Resignation."
"Today we're seeing less of an employees' market than it was a few years ago," Ikenberry noted. During the height of the Great Resignation in 2022, more than 480,000 jobs were posted on HigherEdJobs. By 2025, that number had fallen to just over 312,000.
This raises an interesting question about cause and effect. Fewer job openings may be limiting mobility for higher ed professionals, ultimately contributing to lower turnover. At the same time, if more employees are staying put, institutions naturally have fewer openings to fill, resulting in fewer job postings. It could be a self-perpetuating cycle.
The Call to Action for Institutions
CUPA-HR's findings, while illuminating, should serve as a starting point for institutions. They don't tell the full story, but as Lancaster said, they offer "an opportunity for institutions to step back and ask what's contributing to employees staying or leaving. It can help identify areas where improvements may be needed, whether that's onboarding, professional development, workload, communication, or overall employee support."
Anissa Mimms, assistant director of training and organizational development at Louisiana State University, noted that higher education is known for creative thinking and the ability to navigate organizational complexity. She encouraged leaders to lean into this creativity as they consider more thoughtful, responsive approaches to supporting and retaining employees.
Sarah Hill, HR generalist at Colorado State University, also said it's a call for institutions to investigate further and "open up the conversation with our employees to understand what they want and expect from us as an employer."
Turnover across all roles matters, but experts caution that leaders should pay particular attention to their frontline/student-facing roles. Persistent turnover among those roles can impact students and campus operations significantly, warned Hill. When employees leave, there is often a ripple effect: increased workloads, burnout, knowledge gaps, and disruptions that can ultimately negatively impact the student experience.
Bianca Price, HR customer service experience manager at Michigan State University, echoes the importance of prioritizing these employees.
"As a frontline leader, I see frontline-facing roles as a daily part of an institution's operational infrastructure and the heartbeat of every institution," she said. "In many ways, interacting with frontline staff is how people make sense of the institution and its complexity. Interacting with front-facing operations is where questions, concerns, and problems stop being abstract and become deeply human."
To reduce voluntary turnover on your campus and avoid such service disruptions, institutions must examine their own data and engage employees regularly in conversations about their experiences, challenges, and needs. Both qualitative and quantitative data are essential for helping leaders make more informed decisions about attracting, supporting, and retaining talent on their own campuses.
