America’s declining birth rate threatens its economic future, with a shrinking workforce and increasing job shortages. As nations scramble for solutions—immigration reforms, financial incentives, and workforce shifts—who will emerge victorious and solve the riddle of how to survive the urgent need to retain top talent.
The U.S. is facing a looming labor shortage as college closures rise, birth rates decline, and workforce demand outpaces educational attainment. Leaders must prioritize talent retention or risk being caught in a hiring crisis that could cripple their businesses.
Really bad according to a new study. A change in employment creates 50% of the stress of a divorce and 50% more than quitting smoking. So let’s ask ourselves what could be SO bad that they are willing to go through half of the same stress level as if they were getting divorced? They can’t all be leaving for just for pay or better opportunities.
What the data and projections for our workforce suggest is that now is the time to get a lot smarter about who we hire and how we retain them. HR can drive the necessary changes starting right now. Here is my list of resolutions that will lead to cutting turnover in this new year, and into the future.
It is possible that many companies think early turnover is just “the cost of doing business.” My recent work with the U.S. Census Bureau makes clear that there are fewer new workers coming our way, so I think it is time that we get a lot smarter about who we hire and how we retain them. Here are four ideas that I promise will work because if you don’t address it now, turnover may just cost you your business.
When I speak at HR conferences, I often ask the group to raise their hands if they know who their worst five managers for turnover and engagement are. The great majority immediately raise a hand. So your worst performing managers are well-identified and are known to those who rank both above and below them.
Employee referrals are 4Xs more likely to be hired, save companies over $7,500 per hire, perform their jobs better than their peer employees…and most importantly for our purposes, stay longer. The fact is that gaining employee referrals matters especially in industries where good candidates can be rare.
Relying too heavily on survey vendor data can lead to misleading conclusions on your employee engagement numbers and benchmark comparisons. Instead, focus on tracking performance against your own historical metrics. It’s also essential to highlight the financial impact of turnover in clear terms—dollars, not just percentages—driving leadership toward real, actionable solutions.
The world’s leading nations have a new common enemy which is that we are all running out of workers. The metric is “birthrate”, and the U.S. is at an historic low of 1.6 in 2023. Then there is Russia. I was watching The Late Show with Steven Colbert which showed a clip from Russian TV that couldn’t possibly have been true. I Googled it and was shocked to see that it was.
Fortune published an interesting article recently about how HR’s role has stepped up due to people-centric issues like COVID-19, the subsequent labor upheaval, and remote work. Their point is that HR now finally has that coveted “seat at the table” that top HR execs have longed for during the past decade or two. The question is what big challenges HR tackles using that seat.