Is Your Workforce Watching? Retention Risks When the Public Sector Shakes

Your Workforce Is Paying Attention: Retention Risks in 2025

Retention Risks in 2025: Why Your Workforce Is Paying Attention

As more than 280,000 federal employees and contractors face layoffs — with more expected — your workforce is paying attention. Even if your organization isn’t directly affected, employees are watching what’s happening. Some have family or friends who’ve been impacted. Others are seeing headlines and quietly wondering: “Could this happen here?”

According to AP News reports, layoffs across federal agencies are still unfolding. That means this isn’t just a public sector issue. It’s a visibility and retention risk for everyone else.

Your Workforce Is Paying Attention — Here’s How to Know

In times of high-profile disruption, even stable teams can feel uncertain. Early warning signs often look like this:

• Subtle shifts in meeting tone or energy
• More questions in 1:1s and skip-level conversations
• Resume updates and LinkedIn activity upticks
• Employees asking: “What aren’t we hearing?”

These quiet signals don’t mean people are ready to leave — but they do mean they’re paying closer attention to how your organization shows up right now.

How to Mitigate Retention Risk When the Public Sector Shakes

SHRM research confirms that organizational silence during disruption increases employee disengagement. [Read their guidance here].

1. Acknowledge the Headlines

You don’t have to hold an all-hands meeting — but you do need to say something. Even a short check-in from leadership or managers shows that you’re aware, steady, and not ignoring what’s happening around your people.

2. Double Down on Internal Mobility

In moments of uncertainty, employees don’t just want reassurance — they want options. Make internal career paths, learning opportunities, and new projects highly visible.

3. Reconnect People to Purpose

Many public-sector employees stay for the mission. That value doesn’t disappear in private industry. Help people see how their work connects to something that matters — especially when external headlines feel destabilizing.

4. Equip Managers to Listen Actively

Stay interviews, informal 1:1s, and casual career check-ins can surface quiet disengagement long before it turns into a resignation. Don’t assume people will speak up unless you ask — or that they’ll only leave if something goes wrong.

5. Communicate Steadily — Not Just Strategically

Anxiety spreads faster than information. Frequent, transparent, low-drama communication builds trust even when no major changes are happening. Steady is better than slick.

Why It Matters That Your Workforce Is Paying Attention

Disruption doesn’t need to be inside your organization to affect it. Your people are watching what happens in the market, to their peers, and in other sectors. That awareness shapes how they see their own role — and what they do next.

Now is the moment to lead with transparency, signal stability, and open clear pathways for development. Even in a strong culture, people need to hear — and see — that they’re valued and supported through broader change.

For more on how workforce shifts affect engagement, check out SHRM’s research on retention during uncertainty.

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