CEOs top priority: attracting, retaining, and developing talent
What are CEOs focused on right now? An Oliver Wyman Forum / New York Stock Exchange CEO survey (March/April 2025) found that 75% of CEOs see talent attraction, retention, and workforce development as a major opportunity for their business over the next three years—up significantly from 50% in 2024.
Meanwhile, U.S. employee engagement has dropped to just 31%, the lowest in a decade, and only 27% of managers say they’re fully engaged. If your work culture isn’t built for respect, validation, and alignment, you’re operating on the wrong side of these trends. And in today’s environment, leaders just can’t expect quick wins on retention, engagement, or recruitment.
Employees across every generation desire and deserve workplaces where they feel respected and validated for their aligned ideas, efforts, and contributions every day.
When respect and validation form the foundation of your work culture, good things happen. For our clients, retention, engagement, recruitment increase by 35% or more within 18 months of implementing our proven approach.
Employees across every generation desire and deserve workplaces where they feel respected and validated for their aligned ideas, efforts, and contributions every day.
In addition, a work culture based on respect AND results leads to 35%+ increases in productivity, problem solving, and the customer experience.
Senior leaders can’t delegate culture creation to others. They must champion it, first by defining their ideal culture, modeling that ideal culture themselves, then by aligning players, plans, and actions to that standard.
Alignment means holding everyone—leaders, team members, and staff—accountable for treating others with respect and validation in every interaction. That requires modeling, celebrating, measuring, coaching, and mentoring so that all employees live out the organization’s values.
Culture refinement isn’t a quick fix. Building an ideal work culture is an 18-24 month project. Sustaining that work culture demands ongoing attention from senior leaders every day thereafter.
You can learn more about proactive culture refinement at GoodComesFirst.com.
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