“Don’t hire someone just to fill a position. Hire the right person for the long haul.”
Turnover is one of those metrics that can easily be misunderstood. Many organizations celebrate low turnover as a sign that everything is going well. While that can certainly be true, the number by itself never tells the whole story. The better question is whether you’re retaining the people who make your organization stronger.
That was the focus of this conversation with Jody, and it’s something we paid close attention to during my years at Disney.
The reality is that great employees always have options. They’re talented, dependable, and capable of making a difference wherever they work. Other organizations notice that, too. If you want to keep those people, you have to create an environment where they feel valued, challenged, and supported.
One of the biggest reasons people leave isn’t the company. It’s the person they work for.
Over the years, we found that poor leadership often drove good employees away. People would tell us they loved Disney, but they didn’t enjoy working for a particular manager. That’s why we didn’t just measure turnover. We studied it. We tracked who hired employees, who supervised them, and where patterns began to emerge. Numbers often reveal problems long before someone brings them to your attention.
Retention is also about preparation. Even the best employees will eventually move on, retire, or accept new opportunities. Great organizations don’t panic when that happens because they’ve been developing people all along. Future leaders are already learning, growing, and preparing for greater responsibility.
Hiring and retention aren’t separate conversations. They work together. When you hire carefully, invest in people, and create leaders worth following, you build a culture where great employees want to stay. And when someone does leave, you treat it as an opportunity to learn rather than simply another vacancy to fill.
The strongest organizations don’t just count turnover. They understand the story behind it.
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Episode Chapters
[00:01:35] Looking Beyond Retention Rates
[00:03:02] Why Great Employees Always Have Options
[00:07:59] How Disney Measured Turnover and Retention
[00:10:42] The Real Reason Employees Leave
[00:12:35] Using Data to Improve Hiring and Leadership