Riddle: Find the Hole in SHRM’s Annual State of the Workplace Report
SHRM’s 2025 State of the Workplace Report reveals recruiting as HR’s top challenge, but why is retention missing? Discover the key to solving turnover for good.
Why Employee Surveys Fail to Truly Boost Engagement
Employee engagement strategies often fail due to over-reliance on surveys which many employees distrust. The key to success is recognizing that engagement goes beyond a simple survey score and ensuring executives and managers view engagement and retention as critical metrics that influence overall operational performance, especially through strong leader-employee relationships.
To Cut Turnover, Survey Results & Benchmarks Don’t Matter
Engagement surveys are targeted toward generating company-wide programs, exit interviews aren’t valid data because employees don’t tell the truth, and CEOs want turnover percentage benchmarks instead of cost. Even together, the data from these three common tools give you absolutely no viable pathway to cut turnover.
WSJ Says “Americans Don’t Care as Much About Work”
This is a startling statement from the normally conservative Wall Street Journal. The pandemic has been the universal game-changer such that American’s work habits and work values changed in ways comparable to having experienced a war.
Seven Proofs Managers Drive Retention, Not HR
Two years ago, at SHRM21, I gave a presentation called Seven Proofs That Managers Drive Engagement & Retention, Not HR. It was clear then that there was a disconnect between what research tells us and what we do to improve retention. I’m revisiting my notes from that event to see how far retention efforts have come in two years.
There Is Finally A Real Engagement & Retention Solution
If I asked SHRM why engagement and retention are not on their list, I suspect they would tell me the primary tools for engagement and retention are surveys and SHRM has stayed away from the survey business.
Attention CEOs: Help Your HR Professionals Save 20 Hours Each Month
Never waste your time again asking an employee why she’s leaving. Never analyze a vendor’s data regarding why your employees leave. Never compile data into a report to tell your top team why your employees are quitting. Never report the top 5 reasons why employees quit ever again.
Suffering from High Turnover & Low Engagement?
What does science tell us about cutting turnover and improving engagement? Do scientific studies mention exit interviews? Employee surveys? Focus groups? Salary surveys? Benefits benchmarks?
The Truth About Who Will Work From Home
It is hard to build the personal level of trust that is required for true engagement and retention without in-person interactions.
See If You Agree: Stay Interviews Represent the Third Type of Question
Stay Interviews cut turnover and improve engagement because they drive supervisors to talk with their employees about work issues that matter to each individual employee. And sometimes about non-work issues that matter, too.