Employee Retention - Publications - Faculty & Research

March 2022 (Revised March 2024)
Case

DaVita Responds to COVID

Early in August 2021, DaVita CEO Javier Rodriguez was assessing the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on his firm, which provided life-sustaining kidney dialysis to roughly 240,000 people. Effective infection control practices and information sharing had ensured... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Change Management; Communication; Talent and Talent Management; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Health Care and Treatment; Health Pandemics; Human Resources; Employee Relationship Management; Retention; Wages; Working Conditions; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Organizational Culture; Health Industry; United States

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06 Aug 2020
Research & Ideas

Who Will Give You the Best Professional Guidance?

objective—especially given that they know the players and may be coaching them as well. If you are hiring an internal coach be thoughtful on who they will work with and how to measure their success vis-a-vis employees’ growth. Success metrics can be everything from... View Details

Keywords: by Julia B. Austin

19 Jan 2022
In Practice

7 Trends to Watch in 2022

also be necessary. Many companies assume that 50 percent, 100 percent, even 200 percent annual turnover in workers is “normal.” As a result, they fail to invest in programs such as upskilling that will dramatically improve their retention... View Details

Keywords: by HBS News

January 2025
Case

Shifting Winds: DEI in Corporate America

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maisie Wiltshire-Gordon and David Lane

In the 2020s, intense and conflicting social and political pressures challenged organizational leaders around the world. Prominent among these were powerful competing views on workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) in the United States. Public... View Details

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01 Mar 2004
What Do You Think?

Are Customer Loyalty Initiatives Worth the Investment?

high [customer] retention can create a tremendous competitive advantage, boost employee morale, produce unexpected bonuses in productivity and growth, even reduce the cost of capital." Now comes Michael... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

January 2025
Case

A Tiger in the Tank: Exxon Sues Investors

By: Clayton S. Rose, Sarah Sasso and James Weber

In June 2024, investors were trying to make sense of ExxonMobil’s (Exxon) lawsuit against two impact investors, Arjuna Capital (Arjuna) and Follow This, that had just been dismissed by the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas. Exxon’s suit challenged the rights of two... View Details

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October 2024
Supplement

Skills-First Hiring at IBM

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah Mehta

A video supplement to accompany "Skills-First Hiring at IBM" (case no. 422-013) View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Society; Social Issues; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

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07 Nov 2017
First Look

New Research and Ideas: November 7, 2017

staggering rate. In an ambitious study of 4,200 companies, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, 72% reported using them to facilitate employee communication. We have studied internal social tools in various work settings, including... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

19 Apr 2016
First Look

April 19, 2016

employee learning into changes in individual and organization behavior or improved financial performance. Put simply, companies are not getting the return they expect on their investment in training and education. By investing in training... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

27 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 27

experiment carried out in a large business process outsourcing company, we found that socialization focused on personal identity (emphasizing newcomers' unique perspectives and strengths) led to significantly greater customer satisfaction and greater View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

12 Aug 2008
First Look

First Look: August 12, 2008

societal stereotypes of underrepresented minorities, making knowledge intensive firms a rich environment to examine diversity initiatives and explore the dynamics that hinder retention and promotion for underrepresented minorities in... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 18

behavior. We propose that envy and empathy lead employees to discriminate in illicitly helping customers based on customer wealth. We test for this hypothesis in the vehicle emissions testing market, where View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 May 2009
First Look

First Look: May 5, 2009

Psychology (forthcoming) Abstract This study examined the convergent and construct validity of ratings of individual creative contributions in a team context. A sample of 201 employees and supervisors, working on 26 team projects,... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

22 Aug 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research and Ideas, August 23

forget more than 80% of the information they were taught within 90 days. To increase retention and effectiveness, companies should offer reps additional training at times of need, provide them with access to supplemental material that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2024
Teaching Note

Skills-First Hiring at IBM

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah Mehta

Teaching note for “Skills-First Hiring at IBM,” case no. 422-013. View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Human Resources; Human Capital; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Selection and Staffing; Jobs and Positions; Job Design and Levels; Job Interviews; Society; Societal Protocols; Technology Industry; United States; New York (state, US)

Citation

06 Aug 2014
Research & Ideas

Climbing Down from the Ivory Tower

conducted over twice as many community mobilization meetings, while seeing approximately the same number of patients at the health posts. Both groups spent the same amount of time at each household, meaning the career group wasn't sacrificing quality time for quantity.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Education; Health

18 Dec 2012
First Look

First Look: December 18

greater customer satisfaction and employee retention after six months as compared to (a) socialization that focused on organizational identity (emphasizing the pride to be gained from organizational... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

30 Aug 2011
First Look

First Look: August 30

video ads. In a controlled experiment, joy and surprise were assessed through automated facial expression detection for a sample of ads. Concentration of attention was assessed through eye tracking and retention of viewers by recording... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

September 2019
Case

Shell: A Company of Opportunity?

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emer Moloney

The Opportunity Hub was a cloud-based platform that enabled managers to market projects they were working on and associated resourcing needs as “Opportunity Owners” and employees, or “Opportunity Seekers,” to browse these statements of need and engage when they had... View Details