Writing the Book on Turnover — And Why Targeting Turnover Is the One Every Leader Needs Now

My new book, Targeting Turnover, is officially in bookstores…and of course online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and BookPal for group sales. It’s my 6^th book, and flashes my mind back to the first one when I keyed in the very first sentence on my computer. I studied that first sentence over and over as though it would be inserted into an historic time capsule. Can’t remember what it was just now.

This book is very different from the rest. I waited throughout the pandemic, wondering what is the single greatest challenge we are facing that demands that we work harder and more importantly much, much smarter to retain our best workers. And over time it became clear that the most important societal change of these times was entirely disconnected from the pandemic.

The Metrics That Matter Most

I realized then that many economists were talking about the workforce-devastating combination of our huge baby boomer retirements plus our ever-decreasing birthrate. Yet I’d never seen real numbers on what this meant for the actual number of workers who are available to us, present and future. Many calls and emails with the US Census Bureau brought me the answer. Here it is in one chart:

To summarize this chart in one sentence…

The US will add about one-fifth of the total number of working-age Americans going forward compared to our past.

And that starts in this year, 2025. Then the ongoing, continual picture gets more scary. Reading Census Bureau press releases and reports took me to other respected data sources like reports from the United Nations and the World Bank. These combined forecasts and analyses told me that the plunging birthrate was occurring in all first-world economic countries while poorer countries were having more babies, such that these are just a few of the headliner forecasts:

• By 2030 more than half of new working-age Americans will be immigrants, and this percentage will rise each year for as far as the Census Bureau can forecast.
• By 2080 the US population will begin to decrease.
• And by 2100 five of the ten most-populated nations in the world will be in Africa.

Looking at these reports, I sat at this same keyboard and asked myself, “Who knows this?” And the answer appears to be that no one has ever accumulated this data and reported it before.

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Further Reading: How Will AI, Tariffs, and Deportations Impact Our Workforce?

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This Is Why Retaining Top and Even Average Performers Matters More Than Ever Before

Putting aside our pandemic hangover, AI and other technology interventions, the work-from-home complications, nastier-than-ever politics, and even our ever-increasing attraction to our phones versus humans, nothing will impact our work more than the chart you see above… because our national and global business world is literally running out people. When you read about inflation, about supply chain woes and other econ-talk standbys, think lack of people first as it will drive up costs and drive down service for the rest of our lives.

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Further Reading: What China’s HR Leader told Me that Absolutely Cuts Turnover

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The Included Case Studies Tell the Truths

The book also includes six case studies that represent our client companies in healthcare, manufacturing, food processing, social services, and retail sales. The final case study reports on some highly confidential work we did with a classified section for a federal contractor. Each of these companies report having reduced turnover by at least 30%, ranging from a high of 58% in one company to another that discloses they have saved $81 million by working with us, so far. You’ll have fun reading these stories from these managers and executives.

So I thank you for joining me on this day of joy…and for continuing to read and forward to your friends these weekly Targeting Turnover reports. Together we can make improved employee retention the strongest indicator for success in our country.

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Ready to face the workforce crisis head-on?
Get your copy of Targeting Turnover: Making Managers Accountable to Win the Workforce Crisis today. Available in e-book, audio, and paperback wherever books are sold — including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and BookPal for group sales.