A third of employers say that between 10 percent and 25 percent of new hires leave their organization (voluntarily or involuntarily) within the first year, according to a survey by Novations Group, a consulting firm based in Boston.

The survey, which included more than 2,000 human resource and training executives, found that 11 percent of respondents said that 25 percent to 50 percent of new hires leave within the first year. Fifty-four percent of respondents reported that less than 10 percent of new hires leave depart within the first year.

"The incidence of hiring failures is startling, even to experienced selection and assessment professionals," says Tim Vigue, executive consultant at Novations.  "Because there's no reliable baseline data we don't know for sure if the findings mark a trend or whether first-year departures have been a pressing problem for a long time.  But we think they're a not a new issue."

The most commonly cited reasons for the first-year departures were unrealistic expectations of the job and the organizations (48 percent), failure to grasp "how things get done" around the organization (39 percent), poor communications with immediate supervisor (33 percent), and failure to develop a sense of belonging and purpose (26 percent).  Respondents could select more than one reason.

"It appears that individuals and hiring managers are not sharing enough of the kind of information that would help each side determine if there is a good match," says Vigue. "This makes it a lot more difficult for new hires to get up and running in the new job and frequently results in new hires quitting."