Why should construction companies track employee retention data?

Retention is every bit as important as hiring, and you cannot improve what you do not measure. Tracking tenure and reasons for leaving reveals management problems, weak expectation setting, and trends in why people go. If your retention turns out to be strong, the numbers become an honest asset in advertising and interviewing.

How do I start tracking retention without expensive software?

Two Google Forms and a live dashboard are enough. Fill out one form at hire recording why you hired the person, and another when someone quits, is laid off, or is fired, breaking the reason into categories such as unethical, low performance, or poor teamwork. Feed that data into a dashboard tool like Dasheroo so you can review average tenure and turnover reasons at a glance.

What should I tell candidates about tenure at my company?

Tell them the average tenure and the average reasons people leave, honestly. Do not point to one long-tenured employee as proof when that is not the average; smart candidates know every company has outliers who stay through anything. Honest numbers also give you real motivation to fix the underlying issues.

Should managers be held accountable for retention on their teams?

Yes, average tenure within each manager's team is one of the questions disciplined tenure tracking should answer. When turnover reasons are categorized and collated on a dashboard, management problems surface quickly, and accountability becomes possible because the data exists.

Employee Retention Data · Ambassador Group

About the author

TJ Kastning

Founder & Managing Partner

TJ founded Ambassador Group after years recruiting for construction organizations, watching misaligned leadership decisions cost projects, margin, and morale. He believes hiring is a deep leadership discipline, not just a transactional function. It shapes culture, capacity, and long-term outcomes. His work with clients focuses on clarifying expectations, surfacing assumptions, and helping leaders think more clearly about the environments they are creating. TJ is involved in every search as guide and thought partner.

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“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”

-Peter Drucker

How good are you at keeping valuable people?

When people leave are they working with the company to leave it in a good position?

Are their often hard feelings?

How long do they stay?

What are their reasons for leaving?

Is there a trend in those reasons?

If your retention is stellar do you use it in your advertising and interviewing to attract great people?

Are managers accountable for average tenure in their teams?

If you know the answers to those questions it is because you track tenure metrics with discipline. Retention is every bit as important as hiring, if not more since now you are invested!

HOW

Create a google form you fill out when you hire someone. Answer why you hired the person.
Create another Google Form for employees who are fired, laid off, or quit. Answer why and what happened. Break down reasons for leaving into categories such as (unethical, low performance, poor teamwork, etc)
Create a live dashboard (Dasheroo, for example) with your Google Form data which tracks how long they have worked here and collates and numbers the reasons for turnover. This enables you, at a glance, to review your retention, identify management problems, expectation setting weaknesses, and advertise accurate tenure if it is indeed great. If it is not, well, knowing is the first step. Get after it.P.S. Don’t tell candidates that “Some people have been there for X impressive years” if that is not the average. Any smart candidate knows there are masochists in every company and yours may be no different. Tell them the average tenure and average reasons for leaving. Be honest. This is great motivation to seal up issues!

Questions, answered

The short version.

Why should construction companies track employee retention data?: Retention is every bit as important as hiring, and you cannot improve what you do not measure. Tracking tenure and reasons for leaving reveals management problems, weak expectation setting, and trends in why people go. If your retention turns out to be strong, the numbers become an honest asset in advertising and interviewing.
How do I start tracking retention without expensive software?: Two Google Forms and a live dashboard are enough. Fill out one form at hire recording why you hired the person, and another when someone quits, is laid off, or is fired, breaking the reason into categories such as unethical, low performance, or poor teamwork. Feed that data into a dashboard tool like Dasheroo so you can review average tenure and turnover reasons at a glance.
What should I tell candidates about tenure at my company?: Tell them the average tenure and the average reasons people leave, honestly. Do not point to one long-tenured employee as proof when that is not the average; smart candidates know every company has outliers who stay through anything. Honest numbers also give you real motivation to fix the underlying issues.
Should managers be held accountable for retention on their teams?: Yes, average tenure within each manager's team is one of the questions disciplined tenure tracking should answer. When turnover reasons are categorized and collated on a dashboard, management problems surface quickly, and accountability becomes possible because the data exists.