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Business & Workplace Languagenoun · /rɪˈtenʃən/

retention

In simple English

Retention is a critical business metric in tech companies. Employee retention focuses on reducing staff turnover through competitive salaries, career growth, and good management. Customer or user retention measures how many people continue using a product or service over time. High retention rates indicate strong product-market fit and employee satisfaction. In tech discussions, retention often appears in contexts like 'retention rate,' 'retention strategy,' or 'retention bonus.' Low retention signals problems that leadership must address quickly.

What does retention mean in business and tech, and why does it matter for company growth?

At a glanceCEFR B2
Commonness5/5
Versatility4/5
FormalityCasualFormalNeutral
Spoken ↔ WrittenSpokenWrittenBoth
Directness ↔ DiplomaticDirectDiplomaticDirect
RegionUS and UK
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Say it like this

✓improve retention rates
✓retention strategy
✓employee retention
✓customer retention
✓retention bonus

Real examples

in a standup

"Our retention metrics show that 85 percent of users stay active after the first week."

in a team meeting

"We need to focus on retention this quarter because our churn rate has increased by 3 percent."

in a performance review

"Strong retention of top talent is essential for maintaining our engineering team's stability."

Don't say this

Handle with care. Retention in tech usually refers to keeping employees or users, not keeping code or features. Do not confuse with 'retaining' code changes (use 'keeping' instead).

✕We need to retention the old code.
✓We need to keep the old code.— Retention is not used as a verb in tech. Use 'keep' or 'maintain' instead. Retention is a noun meaning the act of keeping people (employees or customers), not code.
✕Our retention is down because we shipped bugs.
✓Our user retention is down because we shipped bugs.— Always specify what kind of retention (user retention, employee retention, customer retention, or add 'rate') to avoid ambiguity.
✕We offered a retention plan to the developers.
✓We offered a retention bonus to the developers.— While 'retention plan' is acceptable, 'retention bonus' or 'retention package' is more commonly used in tech companies.

Other forms

noun

retention

"High retention is a sign of a healthy company culture."

noun

retention rate

"Our annual retention rate improved from 88 percent to 92 percent."

noun

retention bonus

"The company offered a retention bonus to keep key engineers during the acquisition."

adjective

retention (as modifier)

"The HR team developed a new retention strategy to reduce turnover."

Often used with

retention rateMost common collocation; refers to the percentage of employees or customers retained over a time period
retention bonusExtra payment offered to employees to encourage them to stay with the company
retention strategyA plan or approach designed to keep employees or customers engaged and reduce churn
improve retentionTo increase the percentage of people staying with the company or using a product
employee retentionSpecifically refers to keeping staff members from leaving the company
customer retentionSpecifically refers to keeping customers or users engaged with a product or service
retention metricsMeasurable data used to track how well a company keeps employees or customers

Similar words

employee retentionMore specific term; retention alone can mean either employees or customers
staying powerInformal synonym; less common in formal business contexts
churn reductionFocuses on reducing the opposite (people leaving) rather than keeping people

Opposites

churnattritionturnoverexodus

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Practice

Try it

4 quick exercises

Complete the sentence

1. Our _______ rate dropped to 75 percent after the management change.

Spot the mistake

2. Which sentence uses retention correctly?

Pick the most natural phrasing

3. Your manager asks about keeping employees. Which sounds most professional?

Rewrite naturally

4. Rewrite this in natural tech English: 'The number of people who stay working here has gone down by 5 percent this year.'

Questions

Quick poll

Have you said "retention" in a standup this week?

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