100% Tariffs on One-Size-Fits-All Programs

Here’s a short, trendy exercise to measure the impact of all you do to cut employee turnover…and let’s add to improve employee engagement as well.

Make a list of the top ten things you do to improve both. Let me help you by suggesting things that might go on your list:

• Pay
• Benefits
• 401 (k) programs
• Engagement Surveys
• Exit Surveys
• Benchmarking against other companies
• Onboarding
• Recognition events
• Communication events
• Service awards

Now insert a score for each regarding how much they impact turnover and engagement, let’s say on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being high.

If you scored any of these items higher than 3, you are out of touch on what really matters to your people. And if you’re still funding these one-size-fits-all programs without hard evidence they work, maybe it’s time to impose a 100% tariff on those too. Because just like cheap imports, ineffective programs come with hidden costs—and in this case, it is your people walking out the door.

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Further Reading: Who Drives Retention Success? Gallup Says Your Team Leaders

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What’s the BIG Missing Piece? Supervisors

Gallup tells us supervisors have a full 75% impact on engagement levels of their teams and at least half on how long those employees stay. And then we find these various studies on first-line supervisors and their turnover:

• “If you have a turnover problem, look first to your managers”… Gallup
• Employees stay for managers first and co-workers second… salary.com
• “When employees stay, it’s because of their immediate managers”… National Education Association
• Onsite childcare and flexible scheduling cut turnover 0% whereas holding nurse managers accountable to retention goals cut turnover by 41%…Healthcare Advisory Board
• “Make supervisors accountable for retention”…monster.com
• “Poor leadership causes over 60% of employee turnover”…Saratoga Institute

Note that the third item addresses teacher turnover, for which our society is totally focused on teacher pay. Yes, teachers will never be paid what they’re worth but pay alone won’t solve teacher turnover. This same study included a quote from a teacher who said she would follow her current principal even if required to teach in a barn.

The fourth item tells precisely how to cut nurse turnover which is a highly ranked goal for every healthcare system.

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Further Reading: Who Jeopardizes Engagement the Most? Gallup Math Says It’s Managers

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What Does Work for Employee Retention

Gallup’s study provides a good lead-in for precisely how to cut employee turnover which includes all parts of Finnegan’s Arrow which is presented below:

Dollars means convert turnover to dollars to awaken your top team to turnover’s immense cost…and you can do so using our free cost of turnover calculator.

Goals indicates establishing two goals to improve retention, for all turnover and for new-hire turnover.

Stay Interviews requires training all leaders top to bottom on conducting Stay Interviews with their individual employees to identify why each one stays, would leave, and how to keep them…followed by establishing individualized retention plans.

Forecasting requires leaders to declare how long each employee is likely to stay.

And Accountability is the most important component of all, as leaders must be held accountable for achieving their two retention goals and also for developing accurate forecasts.

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Further Reading: Gallagher Report: Why Turnover is Still #1 Concern in 2025

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Back to Tariffs on the Turnover Improvement List

Note that most plans for retention and engagement exclude supervisors from not only any accountability for retention and engagement but also from any inclusion at all. This is perhaps the greatest oversight in people management today. How can it be that the #1 driver of retention and engagement is first-line supervisors, but we continue to work around them rather than directly through them to solve these multi-million-dollar issues that directly drive our profits and our productivity?

So let’s transfer our thinking from Tariff Day to Courage Day. Start by placing a dollar cost on turnover and invite your chief financial officer to participate. Once CFOs understand turnover’s cost, implementing the rest of Finnegan’s Arrow becomes a snowball rolling downhill. And while you’re at it, place that 100% tariff on blanket engagement strategies that overpromise and underdeliver. It’s time we stop spending millions on feel-good programs that dodge accountability—and start investing where the impact is real.

Ready to Move the Needle on Employee Retention?

It’s time to stop throwing money at one-size-fits-all programs that don’t move the needle. Instead, double down on what actually drives retention—your leaders. Start by calculating the cost of turnover, then put accountability where it belongs. Ready to shift from gimmicks to real gains? Write me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com or connect with me on LinkedIn.