In this episode of Disruption/Interruption, KJ sits down with Joey Coleman, two-time Wall Street Journal bestselling author and expert in experience design and retention strategy. Joey reveals the shocking truth about employee turnover—costing businesses a trillion dollars annually—and shares his proven framework for transforming the first 100 days of any relationship. From his background as a criminal defense attorney and White House advisor to consulting with NASA, Volkswagen, and Zappos, Joey brings unique insights into why companies lose employees and customers, and more importantly, how to keep them.

Four Key Takeaways

1. The First Day Crisis (10:25)
• 4% of all new hires quit after their first day of work globally, and by day 45, that number jumps to 22%. By the one-year mark, 40% of employees have left—costing U.S. businesses approximately $1 trillion annually.
2. The True Cost of Turnover (13:00)
• Replacing an employee costs between 100-300% of their annual salary just to get someone new into the seat—not including their actual salary and benefits. For a $50,000 employee, you're looking at $50,000-$150,000 in replacement costs alone.
3. HR's Shift from Culture to Compliance (27:00)
• Over the past 50 years, HR departments have shifted focus from creating great workplace cultures to managing compliance, documentation, and litigation prevention—leaving no one responsible for making the workplace the best it can be.
4. The Remarkable Organization Test (35:31)
• "The way you know you're running a remarkable organization is if you announce you're hiring and your existing employees immediately recommend amazing people they want to work with. In most organizations, internal referral candidates measure close to zero."

Quote of the Show (28:12):
"There is no one who wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror and says, 'My primary job when I get to work today is to make sure that this is the best place that any of these people have ever worked.'" – Joey Coleman

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Ways to connect with Joey Coleman:

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeycoleman1/

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