Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and Goala giving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven seventy nine. Today we're talking about something
Speaker 2: that quietly drains organizations every single day. The title of
Speaker 2: this episode is Retention Costs you never calculated. When leaders
Speaker 2: talk about employee retention, the conversation almost always lands on salary.
Speaker 2: We can't afford another rays, we're paying market rates. They
Speaker 2: left us for more money. Sometimes that's true, many times
Speaker 2: it isn't. The real cast of poor retention goes far
Speaker 2: beyond payroll, and many of those costs never show up
Speaker 2: on a spreadsheet. They're hidden inside your culture, your customer's experience,
Speaker 2: and the performance of the people who stayed behind. Think
Speaker 2: about the employee who resigns after five years. You know
Speaker 2: you'll have to recruit someone new. You know you'll spend
Speaker 2: money on job postings, interviews, uniforms, equipment, onboarding and training.
Speaker 2: Those are obvious expenses. The expensive part begins after that.
Speaker 2: Your experienced employees knew the shortcuts. They knew the customers
Speaker 2: by name, They knew where the problems usually started. They
Speaker 2: solved little issues before they became major ones. And now
Speaker 2: that knowledge walked out the door. Now your team starts
Speaker 2: answering questions that never had to be asked before. Mistakes
Speaker 2: become more common. Simple tasks take longer, Customers notice, Coworkers
Speaker 2: become frustrated because they're carrying extra weight while the new
Speaker 2: employee learns the job. The organization becomes slower without realizing why.
Speaker 2: And here's another retention cost. Many leaders never calculate the
Speaker 2: emotional tax on the employees who remain. Every resignation creates uncertainty.
Speaker 2: People start asking themselves questions, why did they leave? What
Speaker 2: did they know that I don't? Should I be looking
Speaker 2: somewhere else? One resignation rarely stays isolated. It plants seeds.
Speaker 2: Those seeds become conversations. Those conversations become doubt. Doubt becomes turnover.
Speaker 2: Then there is leadership time. Every vacancy steals hours from supervisors.
Speaker 2: Scheduling becomes harder, Interviews take time time, Training requires attention.
Speaker 2: Performance coaching increases. Instead of improving the organization, leaders spend
Speaker 2: their days filling holes in the organization. That's expensive. And
Speaker 2: here's one that rarely gets discussed. Innovation slows down. Experienced
Speaker 2: employees challenge bad ideas because they know the operation. New
Speaker 2: employees often don't. If your workforce is constantly turning over,
Speaker 2: fewer people have enough experience to recognize problems before they happen.
Speaker 2: Your organization becomes reactive instead of proactive. Retention affects safety too,
Speaker 2: Whether you're running any MS service, a manufacturing plant, a
Speaker 2: retail store, or a software company, experience reduces risk. Experienced
Speaker 2: employees recognize warning signs faster. They know what doesn't look right,
Speaker 2: they speak up earth That instinct isn't found in an
Speaker 2: employee manual. It's earned over time. Poor retention resets that
Speaker 2: clock over and over again. And here's another hidden cost. Reputation.
Speaker 2: The employment market is surprisingly small. People talk, former employees talk,
Speaker 2: applicants talk, Customers notice familiar faces disappearing. Your reputation slowly
Speaker 2: becomes people don't stay there. Once that perception develops, recruiting
Speaker 2: becomes dramatically harder. Now you're spending more money trying to
Speaker 2: convince people to work somewhere that others are trying to leave.
Speaker 2: That's a difficult position to recover from. So what's the solution.
Speaker 2: Retention isn't built with pizza parties, It isn't built with
Speaker 2: motivational posters, it isn't built with corporate bs or corporate jargon.
Speaker 2: Retention is built through everyday leadership. People stay because they
Speaker 2: feel respected, They stay because expectations are clear, They stay
Speaker 2: because someone notices their effort, they stay because problems get
Speaker 2: addressed before they become unbearable. And they stay because they
Speaker 2: believe tomorrow will be better than today. That belief comes
Speaker 2: directly from leadership. So here's a challenge for you. The
Speaker 2: next time someone resigns, don't immediately ask why they left.
Speaker 2: Ask yourself something deeper. What invisible costs is this resignation
Speaker 2: about to create that won't appear on our financial statements.
Speaker 2: You'll probably discover the answer is much bigger than replacing
Speaker 2: one employee. Retention is not an HR metric. It's an
Speaker 2: operational strategy. It's a customer experience strategy, it's a financial strategy,
Speaker 2: and most importantly, it is a leadership strategy. The organizations
Speaker 2: with the strongest cultures aren't always the ones paying the
Speaker 2: most money. They're the ones creating an environment where talented
Speaker 2: people can't imagine working anywhere else. That's the retention calculation
Speaker 2: every leader should be making as you move through your
Speaker 2: leadership journey this week, look beyond the obvious costs inside
Speaker 2: your organization. Sometimes the biggest expenses are the ones accounting
Speaker 2: software never records. Invest in your people before you're forced
Speaker 2: to replace them. The return on that investment is always
Speaker 2: greater than you imagine. And if you want more free
Speaker 2: leadership resources, head over to Paul fallavalito dot com and
Speaker 2: click on free Stuff. I have over twenty five free
Speaker 2: leadership documents you can download and start using today. This
Speaker 2: has been the seven minute Leadership podcast and I thank
Speaker 2: you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com