The top finding is Recruiting a Persistent but Common Challenge. The report further describes this #1 HR challenge:

In 2024, recruiting was the top priority for HR, fueled by the ongoing challenge of attracting top talent in a market where job openings outnumber individuals actively seeking work. Given these conditions, it is unsurprising that only a portion of HR professionals and U.S. workers viewed their organization’s recruiting efforts as effective. These staffing challenges resulted in heavier workloads for some employees, ultimately driving higher burnout rates.

Recruiting tops all other topics which include talent analytics, future of work, employee experience, technology, C-suite/board relations, and more. And not only is recruiting the top challenge, but the description provided above makes clear that most HR professionals who were surveyed do not think their recruiting function is working well.

As a “recovering HR director”, I have clear memories of how my HR team and I would respond to such a report. Armed with a white board and marker, we would identify new ways to recruit, read a best-practices article or two, develop a report, and present that report to the executive team. And then go on the recruit maybe a little bit better but probably not very much.

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Further reading: Message at SHRM24: Stay Interviews Require Accountability

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A Quiz Question That Leads to A Riddle

So to get to our riddle, let’s propose a quiz question with an obvious right answer. Which would be better for your company, in the short-term and especially in the long-term?

1. Continue to improve recruiting as best you can.
2. Improve employee retention so you don’t have to recruit as much.

Every single HR professional I know would choose B. But then they would ask how to improve retention given their limited budgets for pay, benefits, and the rest.

So our riddle is, Where did improving retention rank on SHRM’s list? And the answer is that there is no mention of improving retention or improving turnover on SHRM’s list of 16 practice areas, and those were the topics that were offered for this survey.

So if we take this discussion one step further, the clearly best solution for HR’s loudly-declared greatest problem appears to be less important than, let’s say, C-suite/board relations. Or than future of work. Or any of the other SHRM practice list. This is indeed a head-scratcher, even for my balding head.

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Further reading: The Room-Silencing Question at SHRM Las Vegas

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Seeing Light Through the Dark

In fairness, though, there is a clear reason for this massive oversight. And that reason is that until now employee retention has been seen as a combination of doing the rest of the list. Using some other list examples, employee turnover will improve if you do for example performance management/total rewards/talent management/learning and development, and more.

Reality, though, tells us that assumption is false. Because if it were true, then recruiting wouldn’t be so hard because employee retention would be making recruiting easier. But employee turnover continues to be high, while employee engagement is at an 11-year low.

It’s time, then, for employee retention to earn its well-deserved promotion to every important HR list, including SHRM’s practice list. To earn this promotion, employee retention needs a true fix, a research-based solution that as a solid track record of success, and here it is:

Convert turnover to dollars, develop retention goals, and then hold first-line leaders accountable to achieve those goals. Train those leaders to conduct Stay Interviews with each member of their teams to develop individual stay plans, and teach them also to forecast how long each employee will stay. Then hold those leaders accountable for achieving their retention goals and developing accurate forecasts.

For HR to do this, they must find the courage to influence their executive teams to say “yes”. HR must walk across the bridge from the HR-only side versus develop more of the same regarding onboarding, new benefits, and even fresher pay studies…because research tells us the #1 employees stay or leave is how much they trust their boss. HR can’t do this unless they build the case for executives to hold those bosses accountable for retention, as well as for engagement.

This is the way to improve recruiting…and it’s the permanent way.

Employee Retention for Organizational Success

Now is the time to plan how you will retain your best workers now to mitigate the numbers you will need to hire in the future. If you know you need to address turnover or improve engagement but aren’t sure where to start, email me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com and I promise to help you start your employee retention strategy now, so you can see results this year.

[i] https://www.shrm.org/content/dam/en/shrm/topics-tools/research/2025-shrm-state-of-the-workplace-research-report.pdf

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• Research tells us these workers favor hard work, more-so than their younger peers.
• Reasons they continue to work are both to supplement retirement income and to have a scheduled, meaningful thing to do.
• Employers cite older workers’ flexibility and willingness to operate outside of the normal boundaries of their jobs.
• Baby-boomers stay with their employers an average of 8 years 3 months, more than double the duration of younger generations.

And data clearly tells us that those age 55+ are by far the fastest-growing group of available workers:

Older Workers Really Do Want to Go to Work

But writing as someone who is 55+, I realize how difficult it is for you, our reader, to imagine an applicant who could retire…or you might even say should retire…but would instead actually want a job and go to work. And to make this just a bit personal, there is no way when I was thirty that I would have predicted that I would work beyond what most people consider to be a normal retirement age. Yet I’m working this very minute.

So this piece is my convincing you, at whatever age you are, that many older workers not only want to work, but they want to work for a long time…regardless of their date of birth.

To get help forming my argument, I turned again to a Wall Street Journal report that profiled some older workers who describe why they are working.[i] It’s not too far-fetched to imagine these same stories coming from older workers in your organization, some of whom you know and maybe some you don’t.

These stories have been condensed.

Better Than Crossword Puzzles

I’ll retire at my funeral. At 70 years of age, I totally enjoy my practice as an investigative attorney concentrating in locating missing people, especially long-term absentees. This is more fun than doing crossword puzzles and cryptograms – although I enjoy those activities, too, when I have a spare moment.

The Karate Senior

For over 50 years, I owned a karate academy. The pandemic forced me to close the school. At 75, I thought my vocation would be over. Now I go to my clients’ homes, or they come to my house where I turned my garage into a functioning dojo (gym). My father passed away at 102 and God willing, I’ll live as long and continue to be inspired to teach.

An Energized Empty-Nester

I just re-launched my career in March, giving a twist to my prior track. With the new flexible workplace—one of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic—spending time with family, traveling and many of the jobs of retirement are now available to the working. Also, my financial adviser recommends planning to live to 100. Why quit?

A Lesson in Life and Death

My father told his father to retire at 66. The day my grandfather turned in the keys to his office he suffered a stroke. He died three days later. My father, who was just 33 at the time, blamed himself, thinking that he had forced his father into becoming a useless member of society.

My father is 88 now, and a doctor. Had it not been for the pandemic, he would still be working today. I can see how much finally being forced to end his working life has impacted him. I believe there is room for old-timers for a long time, and this will only get better as virtual reality and artificial intelligence facilitate the application of experience. No to retirement. I refuse to die.

No Purpose, No Value

One day, you turn that part of your life off. OK, income loss aside, what are you going to do now? Get caught up on home projects? OK, after a couple of weeks, couple of months those items are taken care of.

My wife retired several years ago. She now believes it was one of the worst decisions of her life. So for me, that answer is: Keep working as long as I enjoy the work itself and until I get handed my hat and shown the door.

Motivated by Fear

While I would really like to retire – as much for my wife as myself – I am so scared of not having enough money. I just do not see any way I can. I believe that I will have to be working to 70 at least. At times I worry about my wife and me. I have heard of plenty of couples who, when they retire, find they have nothing in common, and that scares the crap out of me.

Finally In Control

I started formally working at 14. As I sit here today, age 73 and feeling like 30, I simply cannot imagine not working. I just enjoy it too much. I enjoy being relevant, productive and making contributions. I enjoy being happy. I will continue to work as long as I am in control. Slowing down—YES. Changing how I work—ABSOLUTELY. Actually retiring—NEVER!

A Self-Called Type A Weirdo

“When I’m on the other side of the grass” is what I tell my colleagues. I’m a competitive Type-A adrenaline weirdo so the usual retirement pursuits leave me bored. I thrive on chaos, confusion, and disorder at work.

Listening to Myself When it Comes to Work

I have identified four “handrails” that are important to me in any transitional period I consider: (1) purpose, (2) structure, (3) financial security, and (4) health. Looking closely at my current work, I recognize that all four of my handrails are in place supporting me. Which makes sense as I am very happy doing what I am doing and have no plans to retire. Ever.

So how do you find older workers? Here are my top-3 favorites:

1. Leverage employee referrals by asking older workers who else they know. Research tells us employee referrals stay longer and perform their jobs better.
2. In job advertisements replace “high potential: and “energetic”…code words for young…with terms like mature, experienced, and reliable.
3. Also mention flexible schedules and remote work options if your job permits.

Perhaps the best way to recruit older workers though is to look upon their applications with a smile versus a frown…and drive a “support-older-workers” culture throughout your company.

Let’s end by recalling that the reason you subscribe to our Targeted Turnover blog is to help you cut turnover and improve retention. Hiring older workers will help you do so.

Does your C-Suite need a wakeup call on how much turnover is actually costing you? Turnover is not an HR problem, it’s a leadership problem at each leadership level from the bottom up. Schedule a conversation with me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com to discuss your turnover challenges and I’ll share how you can use dollars instead of percentages to deliver your C-Suite team a wakeup call! Or I’ll do it for you as we’ve proven in every industry that you can cut turnover by 20% and more.

[i] https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-will-i-retire-e3750715

The post Older Workforce Part II: Confession of Someone Who Could Retire appeared first on C-Suite Analytics.

Some media companies hire professionals just to write eye-catching headlines. I promise “alarming” is right for what I’m about to report. McKinsey just announced that more than half of the job quitters during “The Great Resignation” did not return to their same industries.[i] We’ve all heard stories of how the pandemic period caused workers to rethink their jobs and their lives, and now we have very hard data that proves it. Here’s a direct quote:

What we are seeing is a fundamental mismatch between companies’ demand for talent and the number of workers willing to supply it.

Data Shows Dramatic Shift in Industry-specific Turnover is Now Common

Across the board, McKinsey tells us that just 35% of quitters have returned to their same industry, a full 48% returned to work in a different industry, and the remaining 17% have so far stayed out of the workforce altogether. McKinsey also reports on the percentage of workers who quit and returned to their same industries by specific industries. Here’s what they found, rank-ordered by the highest percentage of quitters who abandoned their original industry:

• Consumer/retail… 76% of leavers have stayed gone from their industry and just 24% returned.
• Public and social sector/not for profit…72% of leavers went elsewhere or stayed home, just 28% returned.
• Finance and insurance…65% of leavers have gone elsewhere or stayed home, just 35% returned.
• Industrials…64% gone, 36% came back.
• Travel, transport, and logistics…55% gone, 45% returned.
• Technology, media, and telecommunications…55% gone, 45% returned.
• Healthcare and pharmaceuticals…54% gone, 46% returned.
• Education…54% gone, 46% returned.

Let’s take the example of healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The data tells us that of all the job-quitters in those combined industries, just 54% have re-upped for a job in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. The remaining 46% have either moved on to another completely new industry or remain unemployed by choice….and it’s likely most of that group is working in another industry. Or for another example, seeing that just 24% have returned to consumer/retail tells us why we have to wait for a table at the corner restaurant.

What Industries Are Seeing the Highest Turnover and Why

Looking more deeply at the data shines light on other stunning findings. Nearly fifty percent of all teachers have quit with less than half of them returning. Might you be hearing about local teacher shortages? And assuming “Industrials” represents manufacturing, almost two-thirds of that workforce left and just a hair more than a third came back. This is why some economists have said workforce shortages are the true cause of inflation and supply chain snafus.

McKinsey then differentiates between “traditionalists” who have stuck with their industries versus “non-traditionalists” who have gone elsewhere. Their findings say these are the top reasons we should apply to re-attract non-traditionalists to their original industries, in this order:

1. Workplace flexibility
2. Adequate total compensation
3. Meaningful work
4. Support for health and well-being
5. Reliable and supportive people at work

Their list looks realistic but it doesn’t feel new. And it’s hard to create job flexibility for teachers, nurses, and on-the-floor manufacturers.

A missing chunk to the data is how many workers who have left your industry would come back under any conditions, considering any reasonable workplace changes you made. We know an untold number of healthcare workers are finished for this lifetime, burned out by COVID-19 on top of their usual pre-pandemic workday stressors. Same with teachers. And same with restaurant servers who scrambled to find alternative income sources during the pandemic which taught them they don’t necessarily have to work on holidays and weekends ever again.

Good News: Turnover from Different Industries Can be Great New Hires for Other Industries

I reported months ago in this column how many corporations were recruiting teachers into project manager roles…providing them a springboard to advance to other positions. Doing so changes our usual job posting approach on Linked-In, Indeed, and the rest because those previous job qualifications that we used mainly to screen out unqualified candidates now have to be re-written to screen in the applicants we want. One approach is to consider workers from other industries who might thrive in your industry and go get them…however you can recruit to find them.

But hospitals can’t find nurses outside of healthcare. And those companies seeking technologists still must recruit technologists, even if they are willing to teach them a new industry for their applications. And based on the data above, more than half of all healthcare and technology workers who have quit have chosen to stay gone from their industries by either joining a different industry or staying home.

Overall the Data Concludes Retention Wins Over Recruiting

So much data from this report and others all points to the same conclusion: Retention is essential and recruiting is a risk. And given the overall worker shortage, even a recession won’t make this much better.

You Can Improve Employee Retention, Even During The Great Resignation
Schedule a conversation with me at DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com to discuss your employee retention roadblocks and I’ll share ideas for how you can move forward and what is working for other companies to cut turnover by 20% and more, even during The Great Resignation that may benefit you.

[i] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools?utm_source=search&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=GAGA+2.0&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3eeXBhD7ARIsAHjssr8aS4TxqZ_0k4qWXc20NBGEJ_OnjOyMk12RIfW0pn8fOKAg8mWrQ7UaAhA7EALw_wcB

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