Employees staying in an organization is generally viewed as a positive sign. But what if staying longer does not necessarily mean they are engaged, committed or excited about their future there? This is where the idea of job hugging comes in. Job hugging refers to employees holding on to their current jobs, even when they may not be fully satisfied with their role or workplace. This behaviour can be influenced by economic uncertainty, fewer opportunities in the market, or concerns about changing jobs.
But the concerning question for CHROs shouldn’t be Why aren’t employees leaving, but why are employees staying? There is an important distinction between employees who stay because they see a future with the organization and those who stay because leaving feels like a risk. This makes job hugging more than a retention issue. It is an employee experience and workplace culture issue.
What’s the Real Problem With Job Hugging?
A stable headcount and positive employee tenure graph can sometimes hide the real employee experience. If employees are staying but becoming less engaged, less motivated or less willing to invest in discretionary effort, organizations may eventually see the impact through productivity, innovation, collaboration and customer experience. All of this will in turn affect business outcomes. This is particularly relevant in times like today when organizations are navigating changing Genz expectations, recession and rapid changes due to evolution of AI.
Great Place To Work India’s research provides an important context here. In 2026, 63% of companies continue to see a decline in discretionary effort. The 2025 India workplace study also found that 63% of companies experienced a decline in employees’ willingness to go above and beyond, compared with 55% in 2024 and 43% in 2023. The report associates this decline with experiences such as inadequate recognition, unclear expectations, low-trust leadership, unfavourable team dynamics and limited growth opportunities.
This brings us to an observation that retention alone does not tell the whole story. CHROs need to understand the quality of that retention. There are a few questions that can help distinguish healthy retention from job hugging.
Are employees:
- Growing in their careers?
- Receiving meaningful recognition?
- Trusting their leaders?
- Able to speak openly?
- Seeing opportunities within the organization?
- Willing to recommend the workplace?
- Giving their best at work?
What Does Great Place To Work India Data Tell Us About Job Hugging?
While job hugging is a relatively new term, the underlying employee behaviours can be explored through workplace data. Great Place To Work India’s research looks beyond whether employees stay or leave. Through employee feedback, organizations can understand how people experience leadership, trust, fairness, recognition, growth and their everyday workplace.
Our job-switching research reveals a divided employee landscape. Overall, 38% of employees are looking for a new job, while 70% of employees considering a change expect to leave their current organization within the next 12 months. At the same time, 6% of employees say they would like to leave but do not feel they can. This 6% represents the closest direct indicator of job hugging in the Indian workforce.
This makes the Indian picture more nuanced: job hugging exists alongside substantial mobility intent. Some employees are actively considering a move, while another group remains in their jobs despite wanting to leave. For CHROs, both signals matter.
1. Staying is not the same as being committed
One of the most important things CHROs need to examine is employee commitment. An employee may remain with an organization for several years, but tenure alone does not tell you whether they are genuinely committed to the organization. This is where employee sentiment becomes important.
38% of employees are looking for a new job, while 6% would like to leave but do not feel they can. Among employees considering a change, 70% expect to leave within the next 12 months. This highlights why simply looking at who has stayed with the organization may not provide a complete picture of employee commitment.
2. Career growth can influence whether employees see a future at work
One possible signal of job hugging is an employee feeling that there are limited opportunities outside their current role but also limited opportunities within it. When employees cannot see a clear path forward, staying can become a default rather than a deliberate career choice. For CHROs, this makes career development an important part of the retention conversation.
Our research identifies limited growth opportunities as one of the experiences associated with declining discretionary effort. In addition, 72% of CHROs identify a mismatch between role expectations and actual work as a driver of early exits, with retention risk particularly visible among early-tenure individual contributors in specific functions.
The implication is not that every employee needs a promotion. Employees also need opportunities to learn, take on meaningful work, build capabilities and see how their career can evolve.
3. Leadership behaviour can determine how employees experience staying
Managers and leaders have a significant influence on everyday employee experience. An employee may tolerate a role they have outgrown when the relationship with their manager is strong. Conversely, even an attractive role can become difficult to sustain when employees do not feel respected, supported or heard.
Great Place To Work India’s Trust Index™ looks at employee experience across dimensions including Credibility, Respect, Fairness, Pride and Camaraderie. This means that retention strategies cannot sit entirely within compensation and benefits. The way leaders behave is part of the retention strategy.
Job Hugging vs. Healthy Employee Retention
Job hugging and employee retention may look similar, but there’s a thin line of difference between both. Understanding the difference will enable CHROs and HR leaders to take the right step at the right time.
| Healthy Retention | Job Hugging |
|---|---|
| Employees see a future in the organization | Employees stay because leaving feels risky |
| Employees have opportunities to learn and grow | Employees feel stuck in their current role |
| Employees trust their leaders | Employees may remain despite dissatisfaction |
| Employees feel recognized and valued | Employees may disengage quietly |
| Employees contribute beyond minimum expectations | Employees may reduce discretionary effort |
| Employees choose to stay | Employees feel they have to stay |
The challenge for CHROs is that both can look identical in a basic attrition report. The headcount has not changed. The employee is still on payroll. But the underlying employee experience can be very different.
Great Place To Work India’s data reinforces this distinction. While 38% of employees are looking for a new job, 6% specifically say they would like to leave but do not feel they can. At the same time, 63% of companies continue to report a decline in discretionary effort. Together, these signals show why retention and employee commitment need to be viewed separately.
What Can CHROs Do About Job Hugging?
The answer is not to push employees to leave or to create artificial retention programmes. Instead, CHROs can focus on creating the conditions that make employees want to stay and grow.
1. Look Beyond Attrition Numbers
Attrition tells you who has left. It does not necessarily tell you who is disengaging, who is considering leaving, or who is staying despite being dissatisfied. CHROs can combine retention data with employee listening to identify patterns across:
- Engagement
- Trust
- Leadership
- Recognition
- Career growth
- Wellbeing
- Inclusion
- Intent to stay
This gives leaders a more complete picture of retention. Great Place To Work India’s 2026 research shows that the employee experience is a critical part of understanding retention. Its Trust Index™ Survey captures employee experience through a globally validated employee survey.
2. Ask Employees Why They Stay
Most organizations spend considerable effort understanding why employees leave. But there is another question worth asking – What makes you want to stay here?
Employee listening can uncover the factors that employees value most and the areas that could eventually push them towards the exit. This is where Great Place To Work India’s employee surveys can help organizations move from assumptions to employee-led insights. Our research found that belonging and fair treatment are the leading retention influence – 40% of CHROs rank a workplace where people feel they belong and are treated fairly as the #1 factor influencing employee retention. This is followed by opportunities to grow and be appreciated at 26%, and strong manager relationships at 15%. The goal is not simply to collect feedback. It is to turn employee feedback into action.
3. Create Internal Opportunities Before Employees Look Outside
If employees cannot see their next opportunity inside the organization, they may eventually start looking outside it. CHROs can strengthen internal mobility through:
- Career conversations
- Skill development
- Mentoring
- Stretch assignments
- Cross-functional opportunities
- Internal job opportunities
- Leadership development
This changes the conversation from how do we retain employees? to how do we help employees continue to grow here? This becomes particularly important when 72% of CHROs identify a mismatch between role expectations and actual work as a driver of early exits. The finding points to the importance of understanding whether employees’ current roles match what they expected and whether they can see a meaningful path forward within the organization.
4. Equip Managers to Have Better Career Conversations
Employees don’t experience an organization through HR policies alone. They experience it through their managers, teams and everyday interactions. Managers can play a critical role in helping employees understand how their current work connects to their longer-term career aspirations. Regular conversations can cover:
- What motivates the employee?
- What skills do they want to build?
- What kind of work interests them?
- Where do they want to grow?
- What is currently holding them back?
These conversations can help identify disengagement before it becomes an attrition problem. Great Place To Work India’s retention research also places strong manager relationships among the key influences on retention, with 15% of CHROs identifying them as an important retention factor.
5. Make Recognition Part of the Everyday Employee Experience
Recognition can reinforce an employee’s sense that their contribution matters. Rather than relying only on annual rewards, organizations can encourage managers and peers to recognize meaningful contributions throughout the year.
Great Place To Work India’s research identifies recognition and appreciation as an important part of the retention equation. In the 2025 CHRO retention data, 26% of CHROs rank opportunities to grow and be appreciated among the leading factors influencing employee retention. The India workplace research also associates declining discretionary effort with inadequate recognition. For CHROs, recognition should therefore be viewed not just as an engagement initiative, but as part of the broader culture employees experience every day.
6. Strengthen Trust Instead of Focusing Only on Retention
Ultimately, the job-hugging conversation comes back to trust. Employees need to believe that their organization is a place where they can build a meaningful career, not simply a place where they can hold on to a job.
Great Place To Work India’s Trust Index provides a way for organizations to understand how employees experience the workplace through dimensions such as credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie. When leaders understand where trust is strong and where it needs attention, they can move from retention tactics to culture-building actions.
The India 2026 study shows the business relevance of this approach: India’s Best Workplaces report nearly 2X higher revenue per employee than the average Nifty 500 company. The study also finds that organizations with the strongest Caring and Inspiring leadership experiences outperform by 14% across key outcomes including retention, recruitment, customer service, agility and discretionary effort.
The CHRO Question: Are Employees Staying or Choosing to Stay?
Job hugging presents an important shift in how organizations think about retention. A low attrition rate can look encouraging on a dashboard. But it does not automatically tell you whether employees are engaged, growing or committed to the organization. The more useful question is, are our employees staying because they see a future here or because they don’t see a better option outside? The answer lies in employee data. By combining employee listening with insights on trust, leadership, recognition, growth and workplace experience, CHROs can understand what is really happening beneath the retention numbers. Because the goal of a great workplace isn’t simply to keep employees from leaving. It is to create a workplace where people have compelling reasons to stay, contribute and grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is job hugging?
Job hugging refers to employees holding on to their current jobs despite potentially feeling dissatisfied, disengaged or uncertain about their future in the role. External economic conditions and a lack of alternative opportunities can contribute to this behaviour.
Is job hugging the same as employee retention?
No, employee retention measures whether employees remain with an organization. Job hugging focuses on the reason behind staying. Employees can stay because they are engaged and see a future in the organization, or because they are hesitant to make a move.
Why should CHROs care about job hugging?
Job hugging can make traditional attrition numbers less informative. Employees may remain in the organization while experiencing low engagement, limited growth, or declining motivation. Employee listening can help CHROs identify these underlying experiences.
How can companies identify job hugging?
Organizations can look beyond attrition data and examine employee feedback, engagement, intent to stay, leadership experience, career growth, recognition, and trust. Combining these signals can provide a more complete picture of employee retention.
How can organizations reduce job hugging?
Organizations can focus on the factors that make employees want to stay strong in leadership, career development, recognition, meaningful work, trust, wellbeing, and opportunities to grow. Regular employee listening can help identify where action is needed.
