WORK

Your Retention Problem Isn't a Retention Problem

Raise your hand if you have Retention (or Retention's close cousin, Turnover) as a focus or a goal for 2026.

As a Chief People Officer, these were certainly part of my team goals (and company goals), for much of my tenure.

But I've changed the way I look at retention.

I've had the same conversation with several different CEOs in the past few months. They are all focused on retention, turnover, cost-per-hire calculations, industry benchmarks. And on and on.

And it makes sense. When you're running a distribution center or a manufacturing operation and you're already short-staffed, losing people feels like an emergency.

But I think we're asking the wrong question.

Most companies are asking "How do we keep people?"

What they should be asking is "Have we built something worth staying for?"

It may sound like it, but it's not the same thing said a different way. It's a completely different way of thinking about the problem.

When retention is your goal, you end up with retention bonuses and counter-offers and panicked exit interviews trying to figure out what went wrong. You're constantly playing defense. And if you're leading a deskless workforce, you know exactly what this feels like. There's an endless scramble to staff the warehouse, the production floor, the delivery routes. I've been there. I get it!

But what if you ask if you've built something worth staying for? Then you start looking at what your people actually experience every single day. Not what you think is happening. Not what the employee handbook says should happen. What really happens when someone shows up for their 6am shift.

So what makes a place worth staying for? I work with my clients to make these things happen:

Somebody actually knows your name. I know this sounds too simple, but if you aren't intentional, this easily breaks down in multi-shift operations or companies with dozens of locations. The places that get this right? People feel seen. Leaders know their team members not as badge numbers, but as actual humans. They notice when someone's missing before the attendance system does.

The work matters beyond the paycheck. I feel like I've written about this a lot, but you cannot throw a pizza at a culture problem. I love pizza, it's great, and that's a nice gesture. But it doesn't fix things. It doesn't make work matter. What does? Ask yourself these questions: Does your warehouse team understand how their accuracy affects real customers? Do your production workers see how their quality work shows up in the end product? When people can connect what they do to something that matters, everything shifts for them, and for you.

Stuff actually gets fixed. I have seen this over and over again in nearly every company I've worked in. The same safety concern gets raised month after month. Or the same equipment keeps breaking. Or the process everyone knows is broken just... stays broken. It gets logged in some system. Maybe it gets discussed in a meeting. But it never gets fixed. That toxic employee? That's just how Bob is. Meanwhile, people are leaving. People stop speaking up. Why would they? The companies worth staying for? They fix things. They exit toxic people. Not someday. Now.

Growth is real, not theoretical. Career ladders and nine boxes look great on paper. (Actually the nine box does not - I am not a fan.) What actually matters? Maria got trained on the new line. Carlos started leading the night shift. That's how growth happens in deskless roles. Through real responsibility and real development, not five-year plans nobody believes in. It happens in the moment. And it doesn't always happen up. Growth happens in every conceivable direction.

For YOU! Put these ideas into action:

Pick one team or one shift. Spend an hour or few just watching. Don't audit, don't fix, just observe. What gets in their way? What makes their day harder than it should be? Then go fix one thing. Not the biggest thing on your list. Just one real thing that's making their job harder.

Ask three of your best people - the ones you definitely don't want to lose - "What almost made you leave?" Do this while they're still here, not in an exit interview. And then just listen. Don't explain. Don't defend. Just listen. (Stay interviews are wonderful but take a bit more planning. This is a great start!)

Look at how many of your supervisors and team leads can tell you something specific they're working on to develop each person on their team. If the answer is "annual reviews," you've got a problem.

Pull up your last three retention initiatives. Now be honest: Did any of them actually change what someone experiences on a random Tuesday on second shift? If not, they're just noise.

You can't retention-bonus your way to a great workforce. You can only build something good enough that people choose to stay.

That's harder. It's also the only thing that actually works.

Want to chat more with me about this? Connect with me on LinkedIn!

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

COMMUNITY

One of my earliest speaking engagements was at Transform in Las Vegas with my friend Michelle Strasburger. Samara Jaffe was a huge supporter of mine then, and is today as well. It's been amazing to see the growth Transform had, from my first one with just a few hundred people I think, to the thousands of People people, Tech people and investors at the most recent event.

About a year ago, Samara asked Alex Seiler and I to co-run an affinity group for Transform, the Fractional People Network. We ran a number of great online events, but we've been quiet for a few months.

Not anymore!

Next month we have two incredible guests - our friends Rita Ramakrishnan and Amanda Halle - joining us to talk about content strategy for HR consultants.

They both are interesting and beautiful writers, and are both great follows on LinkedIn! (And as someone with no content strategy to speak of, I am looking forward to learning from them!)

We have over 2200 people in our Transform community which is wild! You do have to register for the community (it's free) and the event to attend, but it's also super easy. Check out the link below, and we hope to see you there!

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Register for Content Strategy for HR Consultants

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COFFEE

Another travel coffee!

This one from the hotel breakfast, and served exactly how I order my coffee in restaurants when I'm not sure if they will make my weird order.

Double shot of espresso, glass of ice, splash of cream.

I'm going to be honest, the hotel is beautiful, this looks beautiful, but was not that amazing. But, the view was so I can't complain that much!

Have a great week ahead!

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ETC....

Here are a few random things....

My travel for speaking engagement is done for the year, but I do have several webinars coming up.

December 3, I'll be joining my friends Jessica Winder, Alex Seiler and host Phil Strazzulla for an SSR and HRCI webinar on "5 HR Lessons Learned: Turning 2025 Insights into 2026 Impact"

On December 4, I'll be joining another SSR webinar, "The Secrets of Effective HR Leadership"

On December 10, after our Transform event, I'll be joining my friend Dr. Matt Poepsel for a Predictive Index webinar

On December 11, I'll be joining my friend Coreyne Woodman-Holoubek and Progressive HR for the annual HR Trends LinkedIn Live

I'll be sharing those on LinkedIn, and will link them here in future weeks.

In the meantime if you are in Distribution or Manufacturing or similar industries and want to chat, grab some time on my Calendly!

My Calendly Link

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Until next time....... thanks for reading!

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Tracie

My Partner Spotlight ​ WorkStory makes the review process easy - and while maybe not fun, much more human - through using AI. Dave and I had the chance to catch up with founder Matt Meadows in West Palm FL this week - over coffee of course! I've been thrilled to work with WorkStory for the past several months, and I love every time I hear from some of you about your interest in it! It's a great platform and the company is made up of wonderful people. Definitely check it out if you are interested in doing performance management differently. And, stay tuned for the final installment of the History of Performance Management this week! ​

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