Turnover a New Leaf: Transforming People Retention

Cecile Alper-Leroux
VP Product Strategy & Development
Ultimate Software


People are complicated. Employers know this first hand when they experience the pain of watching their top talent walk out the door without warning. Everything we do at Ultimate Software is about putting people first. I want to explore how transforming a traditional HR process - managing employee turnover - makes our person-centric approach a reality, and helps you meet your organizational goals.

Traditionally, managers subjectively indicate retention risk for employees most likely to leave, and then measure the turnover of that group after the fact. This approach, although useful, can be biased, and does more to explain what happened in the past versus what will happen in the future. We also know that the cost of replacing an employee can be an employee’s salary multiplied, not to mention a significant loss of intellectual capital. As a result, any amount of turnover can cause organizations to fail to meet their objectives.

To truly put people first and transform how organizations develop employees and manage turnover today, Ultimate decided to take a different approach, and searched for answers right in the data. Big data. We leveraged the millions of people records in the UltiPro cloud, and created an algorithm, which generates a score from 0 to 100 estimating employee retention probability.

We call this score the Retention Predictor™. Isolated employee information doesn't necessarily say much about an individual and his or her future at the organization. Metrics calculated using a comprehensive set of data about an individual can provide managers the actionable insight needed as a starting point for strengthening their teams. Managers, who are best equipped to work directly with employees, can use this information to quickly identify flight risks and proactively take action to improve the situation. Executives can see a complete picture of their talent and adjust their business strategies. And most importantly, employees can receive appropriate attention, which could even change their level of engagement and the trajectory of their careers.

So, yes, people are complicated. They always will be. But we feel there are ways in which big data can be presented to the right people in innovative ways that can reduce complexity in the workplace. In a world where retaining top talent is critical, a tool like UltiPro’s Retention Predictor is not just nice to have for your business – It’s a competitive advantage.

5 Ways to Create Sustainable Positive Change

Sharlyn Lauby
HR Bartender



Everyone wants to be happy at work. It’s only common sense. In all my years, I’ve never heard anyone say they wanted to be miserable at work. That being said, sometimes negativity does permeate the work place. And once it does, it can be very difficult to change.

Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, shared with us the secrets to sustainable positive change during his session at this year’s Ultimate Software Connections Conference. Achor explains that happiness and success are directly linked. His research says there are 3 predictors of success:

Optimism – our behavior matters and has the ability to positively change others.

Social Connection – building positive, supportive relationships.

Stress is a Challenge – the way we view and manage stress impacts our outlook on work and life.

It’s important to note that happiness and success are not interchangeable. Achor says that success doesn’t automatically get you happiness. But, the author maintains – happiness will get you success. Each time we achieve a goal (i.e. we realize success), it will raise the bar for the next goal. That’s how happiness continues to drive our productivity and increase our successes.

Achieving happiness isn’t easy. The whole idea of “finding happiness” often gets a bad-rap for sounding unrealistic. We need to take off the rose-colored glasses and join the real world. Truth is, happiness is a choice and we have the ability to retrain our brain to see the world and process information from a positive point of view.

Achor offers 5 actions that someone can take to create positive change. He recommends choosing one and doing it every day for 21 days. After 21 days, hopefully it’s turned into a habit and you can move on to another action.

1) Three Gratitudes – List three things every day that you’re grateful for. If you don’t want to write a list using paper and pen, find an app like Gratitude Journal 365 (iTunes, $0.99) where you can create the list online.

2) Journaling – Take two minutes each day to document one meaningful personal or professional experience. You could do this in a notebook, using an app or possibly even create a blog.

3) Exercise – 15 minutes of cardio. This could be a quick walk during a break or lunch. Great way to clear your thoughts and get a little activity at the same time.

4) Meditation – For two minutes, stop the multi-tasking and focus on one thing: breathing. As much as we've heard multi-tasking doesn’t work…we still try to accomplish everything at the same time. Two minutes to focus on your own breathing isn’t a long time.

5) Acts of Kindness – For two minutes, thank or praise someone else. Consider these conscious acts of kindness. Intentionally identify someone you want to thank. It might be a current co-worker or maybe someone you went to school with.

The first step in creating sustainable positive change lies with each of us. Achor tells us that we must change ourselves in order to change others. By adopting an optimistic attitude, we have the ability to influence others with our behavior and create a positive outcome.

If you haven’t heard Shawn Achor before, he’s definitely worth watching. Check out his TED talk on “The Happy Secret to Better Work”.

The Mobile Simplicity Imperative: Form Meets Function?

Cecile Alper-Leroux
VP Product Strategy & Development
Ultimate Software


Native, HTML5, design-driven … at the end of the day these technical terms and concepts, while important, don’t capture the way that mobile solutions and devices have transformed us. Tablets and smartphones have brought business solutions into the boardroom, are gearing up to replace textbooks in schools, and even play a huge role in disaster relief around the world. Simply put, mobile solutions have changed the nature of our daily activities, connected us to each other, and embedded technology in our lives.

But only when it works.

Like anything in life, when something fails or confuses us, we don’t use it. And in the case of mobile, these obstacles take the shape of poorly designed, cluttered experiences that don’t address what we need.

Increasingly, the attributes that make mobile devices different from other tools have come to feel natural to us. It no longer seems odd to command a device to ‘call mom’ by speaking to it or follow through on a task by touching a screen. As such, mobile applications and programs should match this ease by providing simple and intuitive capabilities; only then will they truly meet – and exceed – our needs and expectations.

Because mobile devices are smaller than computers, they must offer a more focused experience, guiding us quickly to the most important actions and insights. This is especially challenging in the world of business solutions where applications are built to streamline and complete a process instead of the people who interact or rely on it. Simple and instinctive designs put people first and focus on delighting, not frustrating them.

People have different connectivity and navigation expectations for their mobile devices. We rely on them on the go and often use cell signals instead of wireless Internet for connections, which can result in delayed downloads and poor experiences. We all want to move beyond traditional methods of searching and viewing to taking action on search results. These transitions must be simple and intuitive in order to be truly person-centric. And the designers behind these solutions need to account for this when building mobile experiences.

The reality of mobile is that the explosion of available apps has been matched by an equal randomization of quality experiences. Mobile experiences, both for consumer and business use, will continue to evolve, whether as standalone applications or extensions of existing business solutions like UltiPro. From our perspective, we are committed to not only expanding our mobile capabilities, but doing so in a way that never loses its focus on people and exceeding their standards for working, staying connected, managing their workplace narrative, and collaborating.