Retain, retain & retain — HR's Most Comfortable Lie | Lies of HR #4

Retain at all costs." The 95% retention slide gets the biggest applause in the room — but a glowing number can be the proudest slide and the emptiest.

In Lie No. 4 of Lies of HR, we take it apart: why the lifelong-employee era is long dead (median tenure is down to 3.9 years), the crucial difference between regretted and non-regretted turnover, how a frozen job market created "job hugging" that makes retention numbers dangerously deceptive, and why forced retention and AI flight-risk surveillance rot a company from the inside. Then the reframe — trade the cage for a launchpad, and treat departures as a graduation, not a divorce.

The voices are AI; the arguments come from Martin Spiteri Schillig's sixteen years in HR.

Full written breakdown, sources, and the mailing list: https://liesofhr.com/lies/retain-retain-retain