Employee Retention - Publications - Faculty & Research

31 Oct 2023
Research & Ideas

Beyond the 'Business Case' in DEI: 6 Steps Toward Meaningful Change

both clarity and caution. While leaders have fallen back on the “business case” for hiring and promoting employees from historically marginalized groups, this rationale can trigger resistance, backlash, and biases, particularly among... View Details

Keywords: by Katherine Hutt Scott and Barbara DeLollis

09 Jun 2022
HBS Case

From Truck Driver to Manager: US Foods’ Novel Approach to Staff Shortages

back and shifted its staff, furloughing some employees and placing others in temporary jobs in other industries until the company needed them back. For example, the company had created a role that it calls “restaurant operations... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

16 Oct 2023
HBS Case

Advancing Black Talent: From the Flight Ramp to 'Family-Sustaining' Careers at Delta

on employee engagement data, Bastian could see that while talent retention was high at Delta, too many frontline employees felt stuck and unable to gain opportunities to... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert; Air Transportation

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Organizational Behavior - Faculty & Research

on a Passion: Elizabeth Rowe at the Boston Symphony Orchestra." Harvard Business School Case 425-037, April 2025. Skills-First Talent Management: Engagement and Retention By: Boris Groysberg , Nicole Zelazko, Robin Abrahams and Katherine... View Details

01 Sep 2023
News

Solving for Z

With nearly 20 years of experience as a senior human resources executive, Matthew Breitfelder (MBA 2002) has seen a lot of change in the corporate talent space. But what’s happening now looks like a tectonic generational shift. From his perch as global head of human... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; Illustrations by Doug Chayka; Administration of Human Resource Programs; Government

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Healthy Outcomes - Managing the Future of Work

Research Research Healthy Outcomes: How employers' support for employees with caregiving responsibilities can benefit the organization Read the Report Read the Report By: Joseph B. Fuller Post-COVID, many more employers recognize that... View Details

November 2008 (Revised January 2010)
Case

Stone Finch, Inc.: Young Division, Old Division

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and Elizabeth Collins

CEO Jim Billings wants to attract energetic, entrepreneurial talent to Stone Finch, Inc., which comprises an older division that fabricates products like piping and tanks for water and wastewater processing plants, and a much newer division that develops biochemical... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Human Resource Management; Motivation; Business Growth; Motivation and Incentives; Leadership; Business Subsidiaries; Innovation Strategy; Resource Allocation; Organizational Structure; Organizational Culture; Retention; Operations; Recruitment; Integration; Business Growth and Maturation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Growth and Development Strategy; Manufacturing Industry

Citation

Educators

Purchase

07 Jul 2019
HBS Case

Walmart's Workforce of the Future

initiative. “That requires a lot of reskilling of employees and hard choices, in an uncertain environment, in terms of how to deploy capital.” “This digital transformation creates new jobs, but, more important, it changes the nature of... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail

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The Caring Company

benefits for employees are more likely to see better outcomes such as higher retention and better engagement. Read the report Media Coverage The Care Economy Joseph Fuller & Kayla Lebovits 26 Aug 2020 |... View Details

Blog

What Can You Do to Foster Gender Equity?

“masculine norm” of leadership. While organizations may start out hiring a good number of women, it's not hard to see why these experiences lead to retention problems—and a significant loss of talent for the organization. Finding and... View Details

07 Jun 2023
Blog Post

My One Case: MBA Class of 2023 Looks Back

designed to alleviate burdens for frontline workers. The model—which included elements like scheduling, cross-training, and optimal store layouts—freed up employees to create a better service experience for customers. This led to... View Details

28 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

The Profit Power of Corporate Culture

which are the foundations for the successful implementation of whatever policies and practices are necessary to execute a given strategy; policies and practices that lead to a learning, innovative organization; measurement of the results in terms of things such as... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

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Topics - HBS Working Knowledge

Stagnation (12) Economic Systems (14) Economics (393) Economy (16) Education (118) Emerging Markets (14) Emotions (21) Employee Ownership (1) Employee Relationship Management (61) View Details

05 May 2022
HBS Case

College Degrees: The Job Requirement Companies Seek, but Don't Really Need

retention practices, notes that the new HBS note comes at a time of ongoing racial reckoning sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, whose death two years ago shined a light on numerous inequities faced by Black Americans,... View Details

Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald

19 Sep 2005
Research & Ideas

Rethinking Company Loyalty

you, their employer. The very nature of the relationship between employers and employees has undergone a fundamental shift: Today, workers not only don't expect to work for decades on end for the same company, but they don't want to. They... View Details

Keywords: by Lauren Keller Johnson

03 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

In a Work-from-Anywhere World, How Remote Will Workers Go?

the benefits of the “work-from-anywhere” movement for both companies and workers. “There’s been brain drain from small towns into large urban clusters, but I don't think we have seen the spatial redistribution that we could potentially see because of work from... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

13 Mar 2023
Op-Ed

How Leaders Should Leave

Leonard M. Miller University Professor and former dean of the University of Miami Herbert Business School. You Might Also Like: Time to Move On? Career Advice for Entrepreneurs Preparing for the Next Stage Employee Feedback: The Key to... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

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Technology & Innovation - Faculty & Research

access pushes decisions down, as it allows for superior decentralized decision making without an undue cognitive burden on those lower in the hierarchy. Better communication pushes decisions up, as it allows employees to rely on those... View Details

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Leadership - Faculty & Research

a volatile environment, Masuda and Daini's hundreds of employees responded to each unexpected event in turn. Luck played a part, but so did smart leadership and sensemaking. Until the last reactor went into cold shutdown, Masuda's team... View Details

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HBR Classics - Alumni

Gabarro, Robert J. Lees Wild West of Executive Coaching , Stratford Sherman, Alyssa Freas Motivating Others Employee Motivation Moving Mountains One More Time Negotiating with and Persuading Others Necessary Art of Persuasion Negotiating... View Details

Publications