Thinking/Perspectives

Hire Once

3 elements of a talent retention system any organization can use.

"Employee turnover" is shorthand for "people don't want to work here."

Employers resent turnover for good reason: it's expensive. Departures interrupt business operations and ding efficiency and profitability. They also scrap any initial investment in onboarding and training. All in, an employee leaving costs their employer between 10% and 30% of their salary. That's on top of wages already spent plus the cost to source their replacement (Source: Center for American Progress).

Yikes.

At some level, turnover is a natural part of life and business. People move. Family situations change. Work aspirations evolve. We can't control those dynamics. A "Hire Once" company does its best to control for all the other reasons employees leave: lagging compensation, toxic culture, and few options for professional growth. To mitigate those risks, "Hire Once" companies pursue three basic strategies.

To make employees feel:

Rewarded
Healthy
On a path toward growth

Each element can help drive retention on its own. Taken together, they form a comprehensive retention strategy. A "Hire Once" mindset takes practice and time to implement, but it's the antidote to the financial misery of high turnover and can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.