Employee turnover in service industries is unavoidable, and often treated like something to fear or fix. But what happens if we stop seeing turnover as a threat and start looking at it as something that can strengthen our employees, our businesses, and even our community? If we understand what drives it and manage it intentionally, turnover can become a real advantage rather than a constant problem.

ServiceMaster PBM (Pages.ServiceMasterreStore.com) had a 92% annual turnover in 2025. Based on our current 156 employees, we expect to hire and train over 145 cleaners in 2026 to maintain our service levels. Even with those numbers, we are still well below where the janitorial industry typically sits. Analysts like IBISWorld describe turnover in our field as particularly high, and independent studies regularly estimate annual turnover in commercial cleaning from 75 to 200%. Some segments, with specialty cleaning services like ours, report rates as high as 300 to 400%.

The first step in turning turnover into something useful is understanding that not all of it is bad. Positive turnover happens when people move on to something better for themselves. That might mean more hours, higher pay, a schedule that fits their life, a new industry, or going back to school. As an employer with a mission to create opportunities, SMPBM  celebrates these as employee wins. We also encourage employees to come back part-time if they need additional hours or seasonal work. Negative turnover is different. These are departures caused by things we can influence.

Unclear expectations, inconsistent training, unstable schedules, communication problems, or simply a mismatch between the person and the role. These are areas where we can improve.

When you measure these patterns, positive turnover becomes proof that your people are growing, and negative turnover becomes information about what needs to be fixed in your business. Both are valuable.

The way to unlock that value is to collect good data. Over the past decade, we have gathered anonymized information at hiring, during the first 90 days, and at exit. At hiring, we look at the number of applications compared to the number of hires each month and where those applications came from: job postings, walk-ins, referrals, returning employees, hiring events, or community outreach.

In the first 90 days, we track the assigned manager, whether orientation was completed, and whether training was completed. At exit, we ask what would have made the employee want to stay and why they decided to leave. In the future, we will expand our tracking to include more role and location information.

When you review this data over time, a story emerges. It reflects your industry, the local labor market, and your company culture. Instead of reacting emotionally each time someone leaves, you can use this information to design better systems. Predictable schedules, seasonal or variable schedules where they make sense, consistent communication, recognition of reliable work, and realistic descriptions of the job during orientation. All of these reduce preventable turnover. And the same information helps you strengthen customer service by identifying areas where cross training is needed, narrowing the scope of hard-to-retain positions so training is expedited, and recognizing which roles or locations may require more structure or leadership support.

ServiceMaster PBM is continually working on improving negative turnover. We are not perfect, but we get a little better every year. One encouraging sign is that 51% of our hires come from returning employees and employee referrals – our #1 and #2 categories, respectively, for retention at 90 days. That tells us we are moving in the right direction.

Here is to being better in 2026! SMPBM President – Reid Morrow