How a 150-person manufacturer cut employee turnover nearly in half in 12 months

A mid-sized Alberta manufacturing company with 150 employees. Over several years of steady growth the company had built solid operational capacity — but its people practices hadn't kept pace. By the time Hylton was engaged, one in three employees was leaving every year.

Annual employee turnover had reached 32% — meaning the company was replacing nearly a third of its workforce every year. Each departure triggered a chain reaction: overtime for remaining staff, expedited recruitment fees, and a production floor perpetually running below optimal capacity.

Leadership suspected the problem was wages, but lacked the data to confirm it. With no formal HR function in-house, there was no systematic way to understand why people were leaving — or what would change the equation.

We started where the answers live — with the employees themselves. A combination of one-on-one interviews and structured stay interviews gave us a direct read on what was driving departures and what would change it.

• Employee interviews and stay interviews across all tenure bands
• Compensation and benefits benchmarking against the regional market
• Leadership practices assessment with direct reports
• Redesigned onboarding program with 90-day integration milestones
• Supervisor training on retention-focused management practices

Within 12 months, turnover dropped from 32% to 18% — a 44% reduction. Annual recruitment cost savings reached approximately $85,000. Employee engagement scores rose 22%, and time-to-fill open roles decreased by 35% as a more stable workforce required fewer emergency hires.

The company stabilized its production capacity without increasing overall labour costs. With a functioning HR baseline now in place, leadership has visibility into workforce trends before they become operational problems.