You don’t need to torch your budget, bungle strategy, or roll out a bad product to watch your retention rates plummet. There’s a much simpler way: just ignore your employees. Forget to say thank you. Overlook their contributions. Treat them like cogs in a machine rather than human beings whose ideas, sweat, and creativity actually build your business.
Do that consistently, and you’ll start bleeding talent faster than you can hire it.
The Silent Resignation Before the Loud One
Employees rarely leave in a flash of anger. The decision starts quietly, long before a resignation letter hits your desk. It begins the moment their hard work is dismissed with a shrug. The day their big idea gets brushed aside without acknowledgment. The week their extra hours go unnoticed because “that’s just the job.”
When contributions are invisible, so are the people making them. And when people feel invisible, they leave. Not always physically at first, but mentally, emotionally, and soon enough, physically AND literally.
The Fastest Way to Kill Retention: Forget Your People
Ping-pong tables don’t make people stay. Neither do pizza Fridays or flashy benefits. Those are nice, but they’re sprinkles on top. The real glue is respect. Respect looks like recognition, trust, and actually listening. Not foregetting your employees. It’s managers taking time to celebrate wins, even small ones. It’s leaders who invite people into the conversation instead of talking over them. It’s building a culture where contributions are not only welcomed but valued.
That’s what makes employees think: “This is a place worth sticking around for.”
The hiring domino effect: retention
Retention and hiring are Siamese twins; you can’t wound one without harming the other. When word spreads that your company doesn’t value its people, you’re not just losing employees… you’re losing potential candidates, too.
Every former employee carries their story into the world, and job seekers are listening. In the era of ClearanceJobs, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and whispered Slack channels, your reputation follows you. If the story is one of neglect, it won’t matter how glossy your job ads are. The best talent will swipe left before you even get a chance to woo them.
The irony? Retention is far cheaper than recruiting. Recognition costs nothing. Listening costs minutes. Making someone feel seen costs even less energy than replacing them. Value your people, and they’ll value your company. Ignore them, and you’ll spend your days plugging holes in a sinking ship.
If you want your employees to stick around, treat them like they matter, because they actually do.
THE CLEARED RECRUITING CHRONICLES: YOUR WEEKLY DoD RECRUITING TIPS TO OUT COMPETE THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY STAFFER.
