Latest news with #employeeRetention
Forbes
07-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Effective Onboarding As A Solution For Your Overhead Problem
Raquel Gomes is the founder and CEO of Stafi. Employee turnover is expensive, and not just in dollars. It can cost you in lost productivity, slowed momentum and drained morale. One day, your team is moving forward. The next? You're redistributing responsibilities, rushing through handoffs and starting the hiring cycle all over again. That energy loss doesn't appear on your balance sheet, but it's just as real, and in my experience, far more draining. When it comes to turnover, here's what I think too many leaders overlook: The issue isn't always compensation or culture perks. Often, it's onboarding. When Great Hires Leave Too Soon A few years ago, I spoke with a business owner who had done everything by the book: competitive salaries, hybrid work and a collaborative culture. But despite the effort, turnover remained high. "We're hiring great people," she told me, "but they don't stay." So I asked her to walk me through what happened after the offer letter was signed. The pause said it all. At least one report found that around 30% of employees leave within the first 90 days. That's three months of investment gone, often because the onboarding process failed to set them up for success. And when people leave early, the costs add up: recruitment fees, retraining, time lost and team burnout. If you're struggling with overhead or team stability, the solution may not be hiring better; it may be starting stronger. The Hidden Cost Of Poor Onboarding You can have top-tier benefits, an inspiring mission and a strong leadership team, but if a new hire walks into ambiguity—unclear goals, confusing systems and no real support, they'll struggle to connect. And when people feel disconnected, they disengage. Or, worse, leave. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that effective onboarding can improve new hire retention by up to 82%. It's not just about saving time; it's about protecting momentum. Three Common Mistakes That Quietly Increase Turnover A welcome email and a system login aren't onboarding; they're housekeeping. I see too many teams treat orientation as a one-day event instead of a meaningful experience. To fix this, I recommend you build a multi-week journey. Include job shadowing, personal check-ins and a deep dive into team values. People don't just want to know what to do; they want to understand why it matters. Many new hires leave because they don't know what success looks like. Uncertainty breeds anxiety. And anxiety hinders performance. Therefore, make sure to be explicit. Share examples. Provide measurable goals. Define "great" so people have something to aim for and feel confident when they hit it. Silence can feel like failure. When new team members don't receive regular input, they often assume the worst or feel forgotten. Instead, establish a rhythm of connection early on. Try daily touchpoints in the first week, then structured weekly check-ins. It's about direction, not micromanagement. Three Non-Negotiables For Better Onboarding Give people a clear roadmap. A 30-60-90 day plan is a structured onboarding strategy that sets key check-in points at (as the name implies) 30, 60 and 90 days to support new hires. Make sure to outline milestones, expected outcomes and how progress will be reviewed. Let them see how today's tasks lead to tomorrow's wins. Every team has unspoken rules on how meetings run, how decisions are made and what things like "fast" or "done" really mean. Assign someone to help new hires navigate that landscape. Make sure new hires are trained on the exact tools and processes they'll use. Generic overviews don't prepare people for real work. The more tailored the training, the faster the results. If your business is bleeding time and energy from constant turnover, the answer isn't always cutting costs. Try building commitment. And the most effective place to begin is the beginning. Onboarding isn't a formality; it's a strategic advantage. When you invest in helping people feel connected, competent and clear from day one, you don't just hire better. You keep better. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Forbes
15-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Employees Who Won't Quit Are a Hidden Risk
Unhappy Workers Have you ever wished one of your employees would quit so that you wouldn't need to have one of those extremely uncomfortable conversations with this person? If so, you're not alone. Many leaders have mastered the skill of avoidance. In fact, they're so good at avoiding any kind of conflict that they could teach a masterclass on this topic. A few years back, when the job market was humming, you could pray this person would leave and most likely your prayers would be answered. If your prayers weren't answered, you could help push your person along by asking a headhunter friend of yours to reach out to them to discuss a job listing that would be a step up for them. Fast forward to today and those days are a distant memory. In a reversal from the Great Resignation, we now have the Great Stay—deeply unhappy employees who refuse to leave. Economic uncertainty has resulted in a workforce that's staying put out of fear, not loyalty or employee satisfaction, which is presenting hidden risks for organization. The 'Great Stay': What the Heck is This All About? Employees, in record numbers, are remaining in jobs they dislike (or even hate) but are unwilling to leave due to high levels of anxiety about the economy and job market instability. After record-high quite rates in 2022, dubbed the 'Great Resignation', quit rates have now dropped below pre-pandemic levels. The Numbers Don't Lie Here are the facts: The Hidden Risks of Reluctant Retention When workers feel dissatisfied with their jobs, they often become complacent. They do what is needed and little more. Innovation? Forget about it. These employees are less productive and more prone to burnout. They are often verbal and can turn an engaged team into a disengaged workgroup overnight. When the economy improves (and it always does) a mass exodus could catch your company off guard and create serious damage, especially when key players are the ones leading the pack. What Bosses Can Do Address performance issues in real time: Hoping performance problems will go away on their own is not a strategy. Teach your leaders how to handle difficult conversations and hold these leaders accountable. Be proactive: Don't assume retention means satisfaction. Up your communication. Do what I call 'Time out for a Coffee' sessions. This is where you invite people into your office weekly to chat over coffee. And if you're feeling especially generous, you may want to consider serving some snacks. Do less talking and more listening, so that you can get a beat on how your people are feeling about things at work. Get to the core of the matter: Address root causes. It's no secret that employees are seeking career development, workplace flexibility, equitable compensation and strong leadership. Give people what they need, and you'll be able to turn reluctant stayers into loyal contributors. Prepare for the future: Build a solid culture where employees love to work and customers love to do business. By doing so, you'll be prepared to withstand the next wave of voluntary departures. The 'Great Stay' may look great on paper but could very well be a ticking time bomb. Ignore this phenomena at your own peril.
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How To Turn Employee Absences Into Strategic Lever For Retention
Neil is President and COO of TIAG, an innovative technology company providing strategic, transformational commercial and defense solutions. Losing even one team member in a role that requires credentialed, cleared or highly technical expertise often means more than filling a vacancy. It results in losing project momentum and institutional knowledge, disrupting client continuity and increasing pressure on remaining team members. While companies continue to invest heavily in recruitment and employee benefits, one of the most overlooked and effective retention drivers is how they manage planned absences. Cyclical peaks are a reality across industries: sprint completions, proposal deadlines, product launches and compliance audits. These high-demand periods often clash with employees' personal time-off needs, whether for family obligations, long-planned vacations or essential recovery. When coverage plans are shallow or ad hoc, the outcomes are predictable: You miss an opportunity to refresh/reset your mental state and are instead either still working or mentally weighed down by what might not be progressing. These scenarios can erode trust, strain morale and accelerate turnover. A Process Problem, Not A People Problem Almost all organizations face challenges in quickly hiring or backfilling specialized roles, particularly in environments like software development, cybersecurity, healthcare, engineering and government contracting organizations. While leaders often have the best intentions, the fallback is frequently to add critical responsibilities to the plates of high performers. Over time, their exceptional efforts become the new baseline, and their above and beyond becomes expected. This may keep operations running, but ultimately depletes resources and undermines the organization's long-term sustainability. Another option is relying on surge support. However, tight deadlines or insufficient external relationships can make it difficult for contractors to integrate seamlessly without adequate context or continuity. The result is often a disjointed approach that fails to support. To address these challenges, my company developed a model we call Total Quality Process (T2Q), one part of which is evaluating resource allocation across the organization. When working with this model, we've found that it's important to develop a roles and responsibilities matrix that outlines exactly who is accountable, responsible, consulted and informed at every stage of a process. This way, the right people are prepared to step in temporarily, execute with confidence and keep critical initiatives moving. Most importantly, this process naturally creates a culture that focuses less on coverage and more on identifying development opportunities that strengthen internal bench depth. Rather than treating time away as an exception, T2Q proactively plans for absences, viewing them as an opportunity to optimize development, resource alignment and organizational resilience. This enables us to keep moving forward by mapping out responsibilities, ensuring coverage and allowing for skill development. This isn't a one-time initiative. It's a practice you build into operations. The strength of this process lies in three connected practices: • Capability Mapping: Teams regularly document the full scope of their work, including technical proficiencies, platform familiarity, project history, customer relationships, certifications, clearances and cross-functional experience. This creates a dynamic inventory of who knows what, not just who holds which title. • Critical Periods Planning: This goes beyond tracking time-off requests to forecasting operational intensity. Leaders identify periods where deadlines, deliverables or customer commitments are nonnegotiable, whether proposal submission, code deployment, public campaign or software go-live, to proactively coordinate coverage. • Growth Through Coverage: Absence coverage becomes a development opportunity with exposure to higher-level responsibilities. When a higher-level teammate is unavailable, mid-level developers might lead architectural discussions, junior project managers take ownership of timelines and cross-trained marketers might support campaign deployment. These assignments aren't "stretch goals," they're intentional and tied to performance conversations and leadership readiness. When employees know their time away is protected and that stepping in for others is a chance to grow, they stay longer, contribute more meaningfully and help build a culture of sustainable excellence. Transforming Absences From A Disruption Into A Catalyst For Growth This approach is built on a simple premise: Capability should be as visible and actionable as availability to maintain development velocity, service continuity and prevent gaps from becoming urgent. This is especially critical for teams central to growth, compliance, customer delivery or organizational reputation: • Proposal and capture teams manage RFPs, source selection responses and compliance-heavy submissions where accuracy and timing directly impact revenue. • Development and product teams close out sprints, coordinate production pushes and launch features, where delays can stall customer impact or innovation cycles. • Marketing and communications teams drive go-to-market campaigns, product announcements and executive communications where misalignment carries genuine brand and stakeholder risk. • Operations, HR and compliance teams oversee audits, system migrations and policy rollouts that affect enterprise-wide integrity, security and legal standing. How To Address Potential Challenges Although this process is beneficial, it also has some potential pitfalls. One of the main difficulties is the administrative burden. Regularly documenting all team capabilities, including certifications and project histories, can become cumbersome if not handled efficiently. Integrating this process into the fabric of daily individual and team routines is essential so it doesn't become an afterthought or feel like an extra task. Here are some other best practices we've found helpful over the years: • Routine Check-Ins: Schedule quarterly or semiannual reviews and encourage managers to hold regular one-on-ones with their teams to discuss current capabilities and professional growth. • Transparent Communication: While leadership views stepping in to fill gaps as a growth opportunity, employees may not share the same perspective and might resent having to take on extra tasks. Get buy-in, make it clear how it ties to their career growth, and make sure they have the support they need to succeed. Even more vital—recognize and reward these contributions during performance reviews, annual events and any formal recognition programs. • Balanced Workloads: Implement systems to ensure that employees stepping into new roles are given the support they need and that their core responsibilities are manageable. This helps prevent burnout and overwhelm. In today's environment, where complexity is constant and top talent is always in demand, resilience can't be reactive. It has to be intentional. The organizations that understand this and operationalize it will retain their people and outperform, outlast and outpace the competition. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Forbes
04-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Top Talent Quits Early And How To Keep Employees Longer
Why top talent quits early and how to keep employees longer getty Your star performer just quit. The one who made everything look easy, turned chaos into systems, and held their own in every meeting. You saw it coming weeks ago . The spark seemed to fade, then the extra effort went AWOL. Those game-changing ideas stopped flowing. Now you're back where you started, posting job ads and screening newbies, hoping to find someone half as good. Meanwhile, they're updating their LinkedIn with their new role at a company that gets it. Nearly 40 percent of employees quit within their first year , around 31% within six months . This pattern plays out across every industry. New hires arrive fired up and eager to prove themselves. Six months in, they've mastered the basics and deliver solid work. Month nine hits and they start asking about growth opportunities. By the one year mark, they're gone. Their body might still show up, but their mind left months ago. It costs an average of $1,400 to onboard a new employee, but that's nothing compared to the cost of losing a key team member or making a bad hire. You'll keep paying this price unless you sort the problem out. People don't leave for money. They leave because they stop growing. Stop that happening. Every high performer follows the same trajectory. Months one through six bring rapid growth and constant learning. After that, skills plateau hard unless you actively intervene. Think about learning any skill. The first quarters, you improve fast. The second half of the year, progress slows to a crawl. Without new challenges, boredom sets in. Your employees experience this same pattern, and smart leaders see it coming. 44% of companies do not provide compelling career paths. So build their growth path on day one. Map out quarterly milestones that show exactly where they're headed. New projects at month three. Leadership opportunity at month nine. Strategic work at month fifteen. Show them beyond the first few steps, show them the entire mountain they'll climb. When someone sees their future clearly mapped out, they stop looking elsewhere for it. Skills follow a predictable arc. They rise, peak, then flatten unless you add fresh challenges to restart the growth curve. Design three levels of stretch for each person, starting just outside their comfort zone and making it progressively harder every six months. First level might be improving what already exists. Second level could involve building something entirely new. Third level means teaching others to implement it across departments. Check progress every quarter and adjust accordingly. Too easy? Increase the difficulty. Too hard? Scale it back. Keep them in that sweet spot where learning happens fastest. Grade their progress like you would any other metric, because their growth directly impacts your retention. When people feel challenged but not overwhelmed, they stick around to see what they can accomplish next. Most managers wait until resignation day to ask why someone's leaving. By then, it's too late. The decision was made months ago. But you're better than that. At month 10, schedule a conversation focused entirely on what might tempt them away. Ask: What would make you leave? What opportunity would you jump at? What are you not getting here? Their answers become your retention strategy. If they crave more visibility, put them in front of clients or help them build their personal brand. If they want strategic work, include them in planning sessions. If they dream of leading, start grooming them now. People don't want to leave companies where they're growing. They want to expand their skills, increase their impact, and see a clear path forward. Give them growth, and they'll give you loyalty. Delete the soul-crushing busywork Gallup found 42% of turnover is preventable . The main culprits? Meaningless tasks and unclear expectations that drain the life out of talented people. Your top performers didn't join to format spreadsheets, sit through pointless meetings, or write reports nobody reads. They joined to make an impact. Every hour spent on admin is an hour they question their life choices. Track where your best people spend their time for one week. Circle every task that wastes their unique talents. Then systematically eliminate, automate, or delegate those tasks. Whatever it takes to free them up for real work that they love. When someone spends eighty percent of their time in their zone of genius, the thought of leaving rarely crosses their mind. They're too busy creating value and enjoying the process. Turn managers into growth architects Smart companies treat employment like education, where graduation is celebrated rather than prevented. When star employees leave, hire them back as contractors. Brain drain became brain gain. They got the freedom they craved, you get their expertise when needed, and everyone wins. Rethink how you approach retention. In the long term, make managers responsible for painting such a vivid picture of an employee's future that they can see themselves thriving in it. The psychological contract beats the legal one every time. People stay where they see tomorrow's version of themselves succeeding. Make managers career architects rather than task supervisors. How to stop your best team members leaving within a year The twelve-month cliff exists because human learning follows predictable patterns. Design around the patterns to get the outcome you want. It's your business. Track the learning curve, stack challenges, have the difficult conversations sooner, get your managers on board and rethink exits. Your name is above the door. Stop playing victim to team members when you could be the hero of this process.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Money Talks: 73% Say Competitive Raises Are the Key to Retaining Hospitality Talent, OysterLink Poll Finds
NEW YORK, July 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As the hospitality industry continues to grapple with high turnover and talent shortages, a new OysterLink poll reveals a clear message from professionals: pay your people well—or risk losing them. In a recent LinkedIn poll conducted by OysterLink, 73% of respondents said that competitive raises and promotions are the best way for restaurants and hotels to retain top staff. The poll, which drew responses from frontline workers, managers, and hospitality recruiters, underscores the growing importance of salary transparency and financial incentives in retention strategies. "We're hearing loud and clear that pay is still the top motivator," said Milos Eric, General Manager at OysterLink. "It's not that culture or training doesn't matter—it's that they can't make up for stagnant wages in a competitive market." Poll Results – "How Should Employers Retain Their Best Staff?" 73% – Competitive raise & promotions 18% – Career growth & upskilling 7% – Enhanced culture and benefits 2% – Accept turnover The findings come amid rising job-hopping trends in hospitality, where workers often switch jobs to accelerate their salary growth. OysterLink data shows that many frontline roles—like bartender, line cook, or front office manager—can see significant pay increases within two to four years, especially when moving between employers. While career development and culture still play a role, respondents overwhelmingly agree that pay remains the foundation of retention. Employers who fail to adjust wages risk losing their best talent to competitors who will. This poll is part of OysterLink's ongoing effort to highlight the real experiences and priorities of hospitality professionals across the U.S. About OysterLink OysterLink is a leading job platform dedicated to the hospitality industry. We connect restaurants, hotels, and hospitality employers with skilled candidates across the U.S. and internationally. With job listings, including bartender jobs in New York City and chef jobs in Los Angeles, industry insights, and career resources, OysterLink helps professionals build rewarding careers in the hospitality industry. Currently, OysterLink attracts over 400,000 monthly visitors and continues to grow steadily. Media Contactpress@ View original content: SOURCE OysterLink Sign in to access your portfolio
