How Cascade cut voluntary field turnover from 44% to 24%
From Beyond the Paycheck · 16:56
Show by Aura Finance
SummaryEmployee retention gets easier to discuss when the numbers change. Ken Moses, Chief People Officer at Cascade Environmental, joins Kelsey Willock on Beyond the Paycheck to explain how an employee-centered approach helped reduce voluntary turnover among field employees from 44% to 24%. With roughly 850 employees across 35 U.S. locations, Cascade has built a first-year progression program, an internal drilling academy, and a nine-month leadership development experience whose alumni have seen about a 30% promotion rate.Ken also shares how his team supported furloughed employees during the pandemic, why quarterly career and stay conversations can be more useful than one annual review, and how employee feedback shaped a higher 401(k) match. He discusses financial counseling, incentives for quality healthcare, the challenge of proving benefits savings to a CFO, and a practical approach to AI in HR: embrace the tool without ignoring ethics or the business.Chapters00:42 Ken Moses and Cascade Environmental02:46 From aspiring lawyer to HR—and the first paycheck04:58 Supporting the whole employee through uncertainty06:41 Leadership development and a roughly 30% promotion rate08:49 Moving from annual reviews to quarterly conversations09:50 Reducing voluntary field turnover from 44% to 24%11:38 Financial wellness, counseling, and retirement readiness12:52 Measuring benefits and following employee feedback15:02 AI in benefits and the compensation outlook16:20 Compliance, ethical AI, and understanding the businessTakeaways- Employee-focused retention is measurable: Ken reports voluntary field turnover falling from 44% to 24%, alongside first-year milestones and an internal talent pipeline.- Leadership development needs a path to real opportunity. Cascade's nine-month program blends in-person and virtual learning with executive capstones; roughly 30% of participants have since been promoted.- Replace one annual performance event with deliberate conversations about goals, career direction, and the reasons employees stay.- Listen before redesigning benefits. After about 66% of surveyed employees preferred a higher 401(k) match, Cascade later made the increase.- Benefits ROI requires follow-through: compare expected savings with year-end claims and behavior, and keep AI use both practical and ethical.Connect with the GuestKen Moses LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenmoses/Cascade Environmental: https://www.cascade-env.com/SponsorBeyond the Paycheck is sponsored by Aura Finance, a financial wellness platform designed to help employees feel more confident and in control of their money.Learn more: https://aurafinance.io
More episodes of Beyond the Paycheck
More episodes
- Why supporting the whole employee goes beyond the paycheck | Sarah Roth, Ohmium
- Why Procept BioRobotics builds for the highest performers and the fewest of them
- Salary won't be enough: DataArt's case for total rewards
- Companies are getting priced out of benefits. Now what?
- Employable, not just employed: West Monroe's people bet
- Expecting humans to be frictionless is where HR falls short
- Why Included Health made its own employees the case study
- Why Varex Imaging stopped treating HR as separate silos
- LPL Financial's answer to employee money stress
- The human is in the lead, not in the loop
podsearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about podsearch, the privacy policy or contact us.