Retention after hiring: How to build a workforce that stays
In executive search, the signed offer letter is often treated as the finish line. After years of placing leaders across Philippine and regional organizations at Viventis Search Asia, I have come to see it differently. The offer is only the starting line. The real measure of a good hire is not whether a candidate accepts the role, but whether that person is still contributing, growing and leading two, three or five years later.
That distinction matters more than ever. Philippine employers are hiring again, yet many are quietly losing the people they worked so hard to bring in. Hiring and retention can no longer be managed as two separate functions. They are one continuous leadership discipline.
A revolving door with a rising price
The numbers are sobering. Aon’s 2025 Salary Increase and Turnover Study placed Philippine attrition at 20 percent, the highest in Southeast Asia, and up from 17.5 percent in 2023 and 19.1 percent in 2024. This means one in five employees walks out the door each year.
Intent to leave runs even deeper. Aon’s Human Capital Employee Sentiment Study found that 64 percent of Filipino employees are either in the process of moving employers or considering a move within the next 12 months. Gallup’s latest global workplace research adds that 76 percent of Filipino workers believe now is a good time to find a job. Our professionals know they have options, and they are exercising them.
Every departure carries a cost far beyond the price of a replacement search. There is lost institutional knowledge, alongside disrupted client relationships, stalled projects and, at senior levels, a ripple effect on the teams that leaders built. When a key executive leaves within 18 months, the organization often pays twice: once to hire, and again to recover.
Retention begins before the offer
One of the most important lessons from our search work is that many retention problems are, in fact, hiring problems in disguise.
Organizations under pressure to fill a role quickly tend to oversell the opportunity and underexplain the reality. Candidates, in turn, accept roles based on title and package, rather than fit with the mandate, the culture and the people they will report to. The mismatch surfaces months later, usually as disengagement first, and resignation second.
The organizations that retain well hire with the end in mind. They define success for the role before they open the search. They give candidates an honest preview of the challenges, including the difficult ones. They assess for values, judgment and learning agility, not only technical capability. And they involve the hiring manager deeply, because the relationship between a new leader and the person they report to is often the single strongest predictor of whether that leader stays.
A skills-first approach helps here. When hiring decisions focus on what a person can actually do and how they can grow, rather than on pedigree alone, organizations build a better match between people and roles, and a more credible path forward for both.
The first 180 days decide a great deal
If hiring sets the foundation, onboarding determines whether it holds. Aon’s global sentiment data show that half of employees with less than six months at a company may seek new opportunities, with that likelihood falling sharply as tenure lengthens.
Yet onboarding in many organizations still ends after orientation week. For senior hires especially, the first six months should be treated as a structured integration period, with clear early wins, regular check-ins with leadership, access to key stakeholders and, where useful, an executive coach or internal sponsor. A leader who feels set up to succeed is far more likely to commit to the long term.
Managers are the retention strategy
Through the Viventis CHRO (chief human resources officer) Accelerator Program, which brings together senior HR leaders from across the country, one theme surfaces again and again: people may join a company for its brand, but they stay or leave because of their manager.
Retention is not an HR program, it is a leadership capability. Organizations that are serious about keeping talent invest in the managers who shape daily experience, equipping them to hold career conversations, give meaningful feedback, recognize contribution and spot early signs of disengagement. They also hold managers accountable for the health and stability of their teams, not just for output.
This is where CHROs must step into a more strategic role. The modern CHRO is not only a steward of policy and compensation, but an architect of the leadership culture that determines whether talent stays.
Growth is the new currency
Pay still matters. Aon found that better-than-average pay and meaningful benefits remain among the most influential factors for Filipino employees. But compensation alone has limits, particularly when budgets are tight.
Robert Walters’ 2026 Salary Survey found that only two in 10 Philippine employers plan salary increases above 6 percent this year, and that career growth and advancement remain the top factors influencing decisions to stay. Among Filipino Gen Z professionals, 52 percent cite career advancement as their primary reason for remaining with an employer.
The same survey noted that 29 percent of employers are freezing external recruitment to focus on developing and retaining existing workers. That is a telling shift. Organizations are recognizing that the most reliable talent pipeline is often already inside the building.
Artificial intelligence (AI) sharpens this point. In the Viventis AI Summit with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, a recurring concern among both leaders and employees has been whether workers will be prepared for an AI-enabled future. Aon has found that Philippine firms lag global peers in hiring and retaining AI-skilled workers. Employers that offer visible, practical upskilling, giving people the chance to learn and apply new tools in their current roles, send a powerful message: you have a future here. For many professionals, that message is worth more than a marginal raise elsewhere.
Measure what predicts leaving
Most organizations measure attrition after the fact, through exit interviews and monthly turnover reports. By then, the decision has been made.
Leading organizations look for earlier signals: declining participation in learning programs, shifts in engagement scores, stalled promotions and changes in how people talk about their future. They complement exit interviews with “stay interviews,” asking valued employees what keeps them, what might cause them to leave, and what would make their next three years meaningful. They also track retention of high performers and critical roles separately, because losing the right people matters more than the overall rate.
Looking ahead
The Philippines has one of the most talented, adaptable and driven workforces in the region. The challenge is not finding good people. It is building organizations worth staying for.
That begins with hiring that is honest and fit-driven, continues through deliberate onboarding and capable management, and is sustained by real opportunities to grow. Organizations that connect these stages into a single, coherent talent strategy will not only reduce attrition. They will build the continuity, leadership depth and institutional strength that long-term success requires. In a market where talent has options, retention is no longer a byproduct of good hiring—it is the proof of it.
(Yu Ming Chin is executive director of Viventis Search Asia Inc., an executive search and leadership advisory firm with offices in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. Chin also leads the Viventis CHRO Accelerator Program and co-chairs the Viventis AI Summit.)
