Motivated to Stay: Effective and Best Practice Retention Methods to Slash Turnover

This 60-minute webinar is designed to help leaders, HR professionals, and managers understand why retention is more critical now than ever before and how to apply practical strategies to reduce turnover. Using the Retention100™ framework, the session highlights eight pillars organizations can leverage to build cultures where employees are motivated to stay.

Key features include:
•    A data-driven exploration of the cost of turnover and its organizational impact.
•    An introduction to the Retention100™ diagnostic framework (8 pillars).
•    Practical strategies across hiring, communication, rewards, development, and relationships.
•    An interactive exercise to identify organizational strengths and weaknesses in retention.
•    A forward-looking discussion on trends shaping the future of retention (remote work, generational shifts, AI, automation).

Participants in the webinar will receive a link to an online, research-based assessment tool to grade how well their organizations align with global best practice in employee retention. The webinar is based on the author’s book, available on Amazon, entitled Motivated to stay.

By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Explain why retention matters now more than ever, drawing on recent turnover data and workforce trends.
2. Differentiate between turnover and retention and articulate their strategic importance.
3. Describe the eight pillars of the Retention100™ framework and how they can be applied in practice.
4. Identify organizational gaps using the Retention100™ model and prioritize action steps to strengthen retention.
5. Develop a retention action plan tailored to their workplace, including at least 3–5 strategies for immediate implementation.
6. Anticipate future challenges and opportunities in employee retention, including remote work, generational differences, and AI’s impact on jobs.

1. Welcome and Introduction (5 minutes)

• Introduce facilitator(s) and authors of the book.
• State objectives:
• Understand why retention matters now more than ever.
• Explore the Retention100™ framework (8 pillars).
• Identify practical strategies organizations can implement immediately.
• Quick participant poll: “What is your biggest retention challenge right now?”

2. The Retention Imperative (10 minutes)

• Present key statistics:
• Cost of turnover ($4,700 average per employee, up to 200% of salary for key roles).
• 2021 turnover rate: 47% of U.S. jobs affected.
• Case example: “Sarah the Software Engineer” story—illustrates financial, cultural, and reputational impact of turnover.
• Define turnover vs retention.
• Stress why retention is a strategic necessity in today’s workplace.

3. The Retention100™ Framework: 8 Pillars (20 minutes)

• Introduce Retention100™ as an organizational diagnostic and action tool.
• Brief overview of each pillar with 1–2 strategies each:
• Hiring Right – Align candidate values with culture; avoid costly mis-hires.
• Data-Driven Decisions – Use metrics and predictive analytics to anticipate turnover risks.
• Communication – Build transparency, feedback loops, and trust.
• Recognition – Reinforce achievements with authentic, timely appreciation.
• Rewards & Benefits – Competitive, personalized, and clearly communicated packages.
• Learning & Development – Career pathways, skill growth, ROI of training.
• Positive Relationships – Manager-employee trust, inclusion, mentorship.
• Onboarding & Exit Strategies – Smooth transitions in and out, learning from departures.
• Highlight that organizations can use the online Retention100™ assessment to identify gaps and prioritize actions.

4. Applying the Framework: Interactive Exercise (10 minutes)

• Breakout or group poll: Which two pillars are strongest in your organization? Which need the most work?
• Participants reflect on 3–5 priority action items for their workplace (mirroring the Retention100 Action Plan template in the book).
• Share 1–2 examples from volunteers.

5. Future of Retention (5 minutes)

• Trends shaping retention:
• Remote/hybrid work.
• Generational shifts (Millennials & Gen Z values).
• AI & automation redefining job roles.
• Emphasize shift from preventing exits → creating environments where employees want to stay.

6. Wrap-Up and Q&A (10 minutes)

• Recap: Retention is about culture, strategy, and consistent leadership behaviors.
• Provide call-to-action:
• Take the Retention100™ assessment (get the link if you participate in the webinar)
• Form a cross-level retention team.
• Develop and track a tailored Retention Action Plan.
• Resources: Motivated to Stay book, Retention100™ website (online), heat map tool.
• Open floor for participant questions.

Turnover has become one of the most expensive challenges for U.S. organizations:

• The average cost of turnover is $4,700 per employee, but it can climb to 200% of annual salary for specialized roles (SHRM, 2022; cited in webinar).
• In 2021, nearly 47% of U.S. workers left their jobs (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022).
• Gallup estimates that turnover costs the U.S. economy $1 trillion annually, much of it preventable with better retention strategies.
• High turnover also damages customer service, organizational culture, and reputation, reducing long-term competitiveness.

Reducing turnover is therefore not only a cost-saving measure but also a strategic imperative for sustaining workforce engagement, stability, and organizational performance.

• Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)
• Chief People Officer (CPO)
• Vice President of Human Resources
• Vice President of Talent Management / Talent Development
• Vice President of Employee Experience or Engagement
• Director of Human Resources
• Director of Talent Management / Learning & Development
• Director of Employee Relations / Employee Engagement
• Director of Organizational Development (OD)
• Head of People & Culture

William J. Rothwell, PhD, DBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPTD Fellow, RODC, FLMI is a Distinguished Professor in the
Workforce Education and Development program in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems at the
Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus.
Work Experience
Dr. Rothwell worked full-time in human resources, training and Organization Development in both government (Illinois Office of Auditor General) and in a multinational company (American Brands, #48 on the Fortune 500 list) from 1979 until he joined Penn State University as a professor to head up a graduate program in Human Resource Development/Organization Development He has been a consultant for over 50 multinational companies. Among his many clients are Motorola University China, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Siemens, Sony, GM Shanghai, Phillips, Erickson, HP, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the American Red Cross, Care, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Postal Service, and many more. He is President of two consulting firms: (1) Rothwell & Associates, Inc. (a firm that focuses on public speaking online and onsite) and (2) Rothwell & Associates, LLC (a firm that focuses on consulting with an emphasis on succession planning, talent management and related topics). He is also, with his wife, a business owner of The Rothwell Partnership, which controls 10 homes for rent. From 1997 until 2022 he and his wife also owned and operated a personal care
home (Greenhills Village and Assisted Living Residence) for the elderly that was licensed by the State of Pennsylvania for 54 residents and employed 27 full-time and part-time employees.
Education and Professional Certifications 
Dr. Rothwell earned his Bachelor’s degree in English with High Honors and Department Honors from Illinois State University; he earned a Master’s degree and completed all courses for the Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; he earned his Master of Arts in Business Administration (MABA) from Sangamon State University (a university since renamed the University of Illinois at Springfield); he earned his Ph.D. with a specialization in Human Resource Development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and, in 2022 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) by the Alliance International University in Dutch Curaçao in the Caribbean. He has also earned multiple professional certifications: the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Human Resource Certification Institute; the Society for Human Resource Management Senior Professional in Human Resources (SHRM-SCP); the Registered Organization Development Consultant (RODC) designation from the International Society for
Organization Development and Change; and the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) Fellow (member of the Hall of Fame) from the Association for Talent Development. He is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI) designation based on passing 10 graduate courses in the insurance field. (The latter is essentially a Master’s degree in insurance.)
International Work
Dr. Rothwell has been to China 83 times, to Singapore 32 times, and has visited every continent (except Antarctica) to do training, consulting, college teaching, and research. He has chaired 110 Ph.D. committees at Penn State, has served on doctoral committees at foreign universities in England, China, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, and is still listed as a visiting professor at Nankai University in Tianjin China, a visiting professor at Shanghai JiaoTong University in Shanghai, and a special speaker at Renmin University in Beijing China. (He taught 10 MBA courses at Nankai University and 10 MBA courses at Beijing University.)
Awards
In 2022 Dr. Rothwell was named a Distinguished Professor in the College of Education, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Organization Development Network, and earned the Global Lifetime Achievement Award by Penn State Global Programs (the university’s highest award for doing work internationally). He received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the College of Education in 2016 and was given the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in the 2004-2005 academic year. (The teaching award is a single award given to one faculty member on Penn State’s 24 campuses each year.). In 2011 he was given the Association for Talent Development’s Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award; in 2016 he received the Best Global Training and Development Leadership Award from the World HRD Congress in India, and in 2014 he was named a Brandlaureate in Malaysia. In 2022 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by The OD Network; in 2023 he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame; in 2024 he was named to Marquis’ Who’s Who in America; and in 2024 he has been notified that he will be given the International Society for Performance Improvement’s (ISPI) Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award at the 2025
conference. 
Publications and Presentations

Dr. Rothwell has authored, coauthored, edited, or coedited 158 books since 1987 and has delivered over 2,000 professional online and onsite presentations over 30 years in 15 nations. His recent books since 2020 include Succession Planning for Small Business and Family Business, Rethinking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, High-Performance Coaching for Managers, Organization Development (OD) Interventions: Executing Effective Organizational Change, Virtual Coaching to Improve Group Relationships: Process Consultation Reimagined, Adult Learning Basics 2nd ed., Increasing Learning and Development’s Impact Through Accreditation, The Essential HR Guide for Small Businesses and Startups, and Workforce Development: Guidelines for Community College Professionals, 2nd ed.