Top Keynote Speakers on Talent Attraction, Employee Experience and Retention

What if your best recruiting strategy isn’t recruiting?

What if it’s creating an organization people genuinely want to be part of?

In the competition for talent, salary, benefits, flexibility, and career opportunities all matter. But increasingly, organizations have to think beyond what they offer employees and consider what it’s actually like to work there.

How do leaders treat people? Do employees feel valued? Is there trust? Are people growing? Do teams enjoy working together? Is great work recognized? Does the organization live its values? Would employees enthusiastically recommend the company to someone they care about?

Because when people love where they work, they talk about it.

And that may be one of the most powerful talent attraction strategies of all.

Great employee experiences create great employee stories. Great employee stories create word of mouth. And word of mouth builds a reputation that attracts more great people.

That’s why talent attraction, employee experience, workplace culture, and retention shouldn’t be treated as separate conversations.

They’re deeply connected.

Why Does Talent Attraction Start With Workplace Culture?

For years, organizations often thought about talent attraction primarily as a recruiting function.

Write the job description. Promote the opportunity. Find qualified candidates. Make the offer.

But attracting great people becomes considerably easier when your organization has already created a reputation as a great place to work.

Your employer brand isn’t simply what your careers page says about your company.

It’s what your employees say about your company when leadership isn’t listening.

It’s what former employees tell their friends.

It’s what candidates hear from people they trust.

It’s what employees share on social media, at industry events, and around dinner tables.

And those stories are shaped by the employee experience.

Organizations that want to attract and retain great people need to think intentionally about:

• Workplace culture
• Leadership
• Employee experience
• Trust and psychological safety
• Communication
• Connection and belonging
• Recognition
• Accountability
• Growth and development
• Purpose
• Team dynamics
• Employee wellbeing
• Organizational values
• The everyday experience of coming to work

The goal isn’t to create a perfect workplace.

It’s to create an organization where talented people can do meaningful work, grow, contribute, feel valued, and want to stay.

Who Are the Best Keynote Speakers on Talent Attraction, Employee Experience and Retention?

Talent attraction isn’t necessarily a traditional keynote topic.

And that’s exactly why choosing the right speaker requires looking beyond recruiting.

The speakers who can have the greatest impact often address the conditions that make an organization attractive in the first place.

After nearly 30 years in the professional speaking and corporate meetings industry, I’ve seen organizations approach employee engagement, culture, leadership, and retention from countless angles.

The strongest strategies recognize that there isn’t one magic benefit or initiative that suddenly makes people want to work for you.

It’s the cumulative employee experience.

When recommending speakers in this category, we look for experts who can help organizations strengthen that experience from different perspectives: leadership, culture, communication, connection, accountability, purpose, emotional intelligence, service, creativity, and employee engagement.

Here are nine keynote speakers we believe bring particularly valuable perspectives to attracting great people, creating exceptional employee experiences, and building cultures where talented people want to stay.

Quick Guide: Choosing a Talent Attraction and Employee Experience Speaker

Speaker	Specialty	Especially Strong For
Anton Gunn	Culture, leadership, and retention	Retention, employee engagement, leadership, culture transformation
Ryan Minton	Employee experience and service culture	Employee experience, hospitality, frontline teams, retention
Colette Carlson	Human connection, communication, and trust	Employee engagement, psychological safety, leadership
Rachel Mahoney	Relatability, belonging, and connection	Employee experience, multigenerational teams, communication
Paul Epstein	Purpose, leadership, and championship cultures	Culture, employee engagement, leadership, team alignment
Steve Gutzler	Emotional intelligence and human-centered leadership	Leadership, team performance, trust, employee engagement
Mark Sanborn	Leadership, service, and organizational excellence	Employee experience, leadership culture, service
Alan Stein, Jr.	Accountability, standards, and team performance	High-performance cultures, leadership, team cohesion
Tucker Bryant	Creativity, purpose, and organizational values	Culture transformation, innovation, values, employee engagement

Anton Gunn | Creating Cultures Where Great People Want to Stay

You can’t build a world-class organization without creating a workplace where great people want to work.

That’s at the heart of Anton Gunn’s approach.

A former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, healthcare executive, former state legislator, strategic advisor, and CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame inductee, Anton brings substantial real-world leadership experience to the conversation around workplace culture and retention.

His message is particularly relevant because he puts responsibility for culture where it belongs:

Leadership.

Employees experience an organization largely through the people who lead them.

Do leaders build trust? Do they communicate? Do they recognize people? Do they create opportunities? Do they eliminate behaviors that quietly destroy workplace culture?

Anton helps organizations understand how leaders can build World-Class Workplace Cultures™ where employees feel valued, supported, accountable, and motivated to contribute.

And that creates an important competitive advantage.

When your best people want to stay, they’re also far more likely to tell other great people why they should join.

Best for: Talent retention, workplace culture, employee engagement, leadership conferences, organizational change, healthcare, executive leadership, and organizations focused on becoming an employer of choice.

Ryan Minton | Creating an Employee Experience Worth Talking About

If you want to improve the customer experience, start with the employee experience.

Ryan Minton has spent more than 25 years in the hospitality industry, working his way from frontline roles to senior executive leadership with some of the world’s most recognized hospitality brands.

That experience gives him a powerful perspective on what makes employees want to show up, contribute, serve others, and stay.

Ryan believes that organizations create exceptional customer experiences by first creating exceptional experiences for their people.

That doesn’t necessarily require extravagant perks.

It often comes down to the everyday moments that make people feel appreciated, supported, empowered, and proud of the work they do.

For organizations thinking about talent attraction, Ryan’s message creates an important connection:

Your employees are some of your most influential recruiters.

When people have an extraordinary experience working for your organization, they tell stories about it.

Those stories strengthen your reputation with customers, prospective employees, and the broader community.

Create a company people love working for, and your people can become some of your most powerful advocates.

Best for: Employee experience, talent attraction, retention, hospitality, frontline teams, service cultures, customer experience, leadership, and organizations focused on becoming a great place to work.

Colette Carlson | Human Connection, Communication, and Cultures of Trust

People want to work where they feel connected.

Colette Carlson, Human Behavior Expert and CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame inductee, helps organizations strengthen the human skills that make that connection possible.

Through her work around The Human Edge™, Colette explores communication, trust, emotional intelligence, resilience, psychological safety, and meaningful human connection.

These aren’t simply “soft skills.”

They’re fundamental components of the employee experience.

Do employees feel comfortable speaking up?

Do managers listen?

Can people have difficult conversations productively?

Do employees feel known and valued as individuals?

Do leaders communicate with clarity and empathy?

As technology and AI transform the workplace, these human capabilities may become even more important in creating organizations where people genuinely want to belong.

Colette combines research, humor, storytelling, and practical strategies to help leaders and employees build stronger relationships and more connected workplaces.

Best for: Employee experience, workplace culture, psychological safety, communication, leadership development, trust, engagement, retention, and human-centered workplaces.

Rachel Mahoney | Creating a Workplace Where People Feel Seen, Heard and Valued

There’s a simple question at the heart of employee experience:

Do people feel like they matter here?

Rachel Mahoney helps organizations understand the importance of creating cultures where people feel seen, heard, understood, and valued.

Drawing from behavioral science and psychology, Rachel explores relatability, communication, connection, and the behaviors that strengthen relationships across an organization.

Her work is especially relevant in today’s multigenerational workplace.

Employees may have different expectations, communication preferences, experiences, and perspectives, but virtually everyone wants to feel that their contribution matters.

Rachel helps leaders and teams become more curious, adaptable, and intentional about how they communicate and connect with others.

Those everyday interactions matter enormously.

Because employees don’t experience “company culture” as an abstract concept.

They experience it one interaction at a time.

Best for: Employee experience, workplace culture, multigenerational teams, communication, connection, belonging, leadership development, and retention.

Paul Epstein | Purpose, Leadership, and Building Championship Cultures

Great people want to know that what they do matters.

Paul Epstein brings a unique perspective to purpose, culture, and high performance from nearly 15 years as an executive in the NFL and NBA.

During his time with the San Francisco 49ers, Paul founded the organization’s Leadership University, an initiative designed to develop leaders throughout the organization and create a stronger pipeline of talent and leadership.

That experience reinforces an important lesson for organizations competing for great people:

Talent wants to grow.

People are more likely to engage and stay when they see opportunities to develop, take ownership, make an impact, and become leaders regardless of their position on the organizational chart.

Paul helps audiences strengthen confidence, purpose, decision-making, accountability, and personal ownership while showing organizations how championship cultures are intentionally built.

For employers, creating a culture where people can lead from any position doesn’t just improve performance.

It gives talented people another reason to stay and grow with you.

Best for: Workplace culture, leadership development, talent development, employee engagement, purpose, team alignment, high-performance organizations, and leadership meetings.

Steve Gutzler | Emotional Intelligence and the Employee Experience

Employees may join organizations.

But much of their day-to-day experience is shaped by people.

Managers. Leaders. Teammates. Colleagues.

That’s why emotional intelligence plays such an important role in employee experience and retention.

For decades, Steve Gutzler has helped leaders and teams strengthen self-awareness, emotional intelligence, communication, resilience, and human-centered leadership.

His work helps people understand how their emotions and behaviors affect the people around them, particularly during moments of pressure.

For leaders, this matters tremendously.

A manager’s ability to listen, communicate, regulate emotions, navigate conflict, demonstrate empathy, and build trust can dramatically influence how employees experience the organization.

Steve gives leaders and teams practical tools for showing up differently and creating healthier, more connected, higher-performing environments.

Best for: Employee experience, emotional intelligence, leadership development, high-performance teams, workplace culture, communication, engagement, and retention.

Mark Sanborn | Creating Extraordinary Experiences From the Inside Out

Extraordinary organizations don’t reserve great experiences for customers.

They create them for employees, too.

Mark Sanborn, bestselling author of The Fred Factor and CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame inductee, has spent decades studying extraordinary leadership, service, and organizational performance.

His work challenges individuals at every level to recognize the impact they have on the people around them.

That includes customers, but it also includes coworkers.

How do leaders create value for employees?

How do teammates make one another’s jobs better?

How does an organization turn service, recognition, initiative, and excellence into everyday behaviors?

Those questions have significant implications for employee experience.

A company becomes remarkable when extraordinary behavior becomes part of how people operate, internally and externally.

And remarkable workplaces create stories people want to share.

Best for: Employee experience, organizational excellence, workplace culture, leadership, service culture, employee engagement, customer experience, and companywide meetings.

Alan Stein, Jr. | Building High-Performance Cultures People Want to Be Part Of

Talented people want to be surrounded by other talented people.

But talent alone doesn’t create a great team.

Alan Stein, Jr. spent 15 years as an elite basketball performance coach working with some of the world’s highest-performing athletes, including Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant.

That experience taught him that exceptional teams are built around more than individual ability.

They’re built around standards, preparation, discipline, accountability, trust, role clarity, and consistent execution.

Alan translates those lessons into practical strategies for business leaders and teams.

For talent attraction and retention, his perspective is particularly valuable because high performers often want to be part of organizations that challenge them to grow.

They want strong teammates.

They want meaningful standards.

They want accountability.

And they want to know the people around them are equally committed to excellence.

Creating that kind of culture can become a powerful magnet for ambitious, high-performing people.

Best for: High-performance cultures, talent development, leadership, accountability, team cohesion, sales organizations, competitive environments, and organizations focused on raising performance standards.

Tucker Bryant | Creating Cultures of Creativity, Purpose, and Possibility

Talented people don’t simply want jobs.

They want opportunities to contribute ideas, solve meaningful problems, and do work they’re proud of.

Tucker Bryant, nationally acclaimed poet, former Google leader, and innovation expert, helps organizations create the conditions for greater creativity, courage, and possibility.

His work challenges the assumptions and habitual thinking that can quietly make organizations less innovative and less inspiring places to work.

Tucker also brings a unique ability to use storytelling and language to make organizational values feel tangible.

That’s important because employees are increasingly skeptical of values that sound good on a wall but don’t show up in their actual experience.

Tucker helps organizations explore what they stand for, how those values come alive, and how individuals can contribute to creating a culture that inspires better thinking.

For organizations competing for creative and innovative talent, that’s a meaningful differentiator.

Best for: Talent attraction, innovation, workplace culture, organizational values, creativity, purpose, change, employee engagement, and culture transformation.

How Do You Attract and Retain Top Talent?

There’s no single strategy.

Compensation matters.

Benefits matter.

Flexibility matters.

Career opportunities matter.

But organizations shouldn’t overlook the experience surrounding all of those things.

Ask:

• Do people trust our leaders?
• Are managers equipped to lead people effectively?
• Do employees feel valued and recognized?
• Can people see opportunities to grow?
• Are expectations clear?
• Is accountability consistent?
• Do employees feel connected to their teams?
• Can people speak up and share ideas?
• Are our organizational values reflected in everyday behavior?
• Are we creating an environment where high performers can thrive?
• Would our best employees recommend this organization to someone they respect?

That last question may be one of the most revealing.

Because if your employees wouldn’t enthusiastically recommend working for your organization, recruiting messaging alone isn’t going to solve the problem.

What Is the Connection Between Employee Experience and Talent Attraction?

Employee experience is what happens inside your organization.

Employer reputation is what eventually travels outside it.

The two are deeply connected.

Every employee accumulates hundreds of experiences with your organization: their interview, onboarding, manager interactions, meetings, recognition, career opportunities, workload, communication, difficult moments, celebrations, and eventually, perhaps, their departure.

Together, those moments become a story.

And people tell stories.

That’s why employee experience can become one of the strongest forms of employer marketing.

Create an experience worth talking about, and your employees can create the word of mouth that attracts your next great hire.

How Does Workplace Culture Affect Employee Retention?

People leave organizations for many reasons, so no culture can eliminate turnover entirely.

Nor should that necessarily be the goal.

But workplace culture can significantly influence whether talented employees can envision a future with an organization.

People are more likely to stay where they feel valued, challenged, supported, connected, and able to grow.

Leadership plays an enormous role.

Employees may love an organization’s mission and still leave because of a manager.

They may appreciate their compensation but become exhausted by a dysfunctional environment.

They may enjoy their work but leave because they don’t see opportunities to develop.

Retention isn’t simply about convincing people not to leave.

It’s about continually creating reasons they want to stay.

Are Employees Your Best Recruiting Tool?

They certainly can be.

Think about the difference between a company telling candidates:

“We’re a great place to work.”

And an employee spontaneously telling a talented friend:

“You should come work with us. I love it here.”

The second message carries a different level of credibility.

Employees have networks, relationships, professional communities, social platforms, former colleagues, friends, and family members.

When their workplace experience is exceptional, those people hear about it.

That creates organic advocacy around your employer brand.

But word of mouth works both ways.

Organizations can’t manufacture employee advocacy through a marketing campaign.

You have to create an experience worth advocating for.

What Role Do Leaders Play in Talent Retention?

An enormous one.

Employees experience organizational leadership at several levels, but their immediate manager often has the greatest influence on their everyday experience.

Leaders shape:

• Communication
• Recognition
• Trust
• Expectations
• Accountability
• Psychological safety
• Development opportunities
• Team dynamics
• Workload priorities
• How employees experience change

That’s why organizations focused on retention should invest not only in recruiting talent but also in developing the people responsible for leading that talent.

Great managers can become an organization’s competitive advantage.

Poor managers can undermine even the strongest recruiting strategy.

Can a Keynote Speaker Help With Talent Attraction and Retention?

A keynote speaker can’t fix a broken employee experience in an hour.

But the right keynote can create an important catalyst for change.

A great speaker can help leaders see their impact differently, give teams a shared language, reinforce organizational values, introduce practical tools, create alignment around culture priorities, and help every employee understand the role they play in the workplace experience.

And importantly, the topic doesn’t need to be labeled “talent attraction.”

A keynote on leadership, emotional intelligence, connection, culture, service, accountability, purpose, or employee experience may ultimately have an enormous impact on an organization’s ability to attract and retain great people.

Because recruiting is only one piece of the talent equation.

Creating a workplace people don’t want to leave may be the more powerful strategy.

Become the Company People Talk About

Organizations spend significant resources telling the marketplace why they’re great places to work.

Imagine if your employees did it for you.

Not because they were asked to.

Because they genuinely believed it.

That’s the opportunity.

Create leaders people want to work for.

Build teams people are proud to join.

Give employees opportunities to grow.

Create meaningful connections.

Set high standards while supporting people in reaching them.

Live your values.

Recognize great work.

Listen.

Build trust.

Create extraordinary experiences from the inside out.

Then let people talk.

Because in a competitive talent market, being a company people want to work for is powerful. Being a company people can’t stop talking about is even better.

Looking for the Right Keynote Speaker on Talent Attraction, Employee Experience or Retention?

At Michelle Joyce Speakers, we don’t just book speakers. We build relationships.

For nearly three decades, I’ve worked with corporate meeting professionals, organizational leaders, associations, speaker bureaus, and some of the most respected keynote speakers in the industry.

When an organization tells us it wants to improve talent attraction or retention, we don’t immediately start with a list of speakers.

We start with questions.

What’s happening inside the organization? What are employees experiencing? What does leadership want to change? Is the real opportunity culture, communication, management, employee experience, connection, accountability, purpose, development, or something else?

Because the right keynote shouldn’t simply address the symptom.

It should support the kind of workplace you’re trying to create.

Connect with us here, and tell us about your audience, your objectives, and the experience you’re hoping to create, and we’ll be happy to be a resource.