Graham Labs

We find why your new hires quit, and fix it in 90 days.

In three weeks, we turn your HRIS, timeclock, and exit data into a clear plan that shows which shifts, supervisors, and hiring sources drive early turnover and overtime, then help your team put it to work.

Size my overtime and early-quit cost → See what you get ↓

Led by Clay A. Graham, SPHR: about 40 years running HR in food and industrial plants, including George's, Simmons, Schwan's, Hawker Beechcraft, Tuthill and Whirlpool. Data systems by Thomas Graham: Walmart and Cardinal Health reporting, multi-site manufacturing data migrations.

Companies we have experience with

  • Schwan's
  • Hawker Beechcraft
  • Tuthill

Quits are down. Your overtime isn't.

Manufacturing quits cooled to about 1.4% a month in 2025 (BLS JOLTS). But production-worker overtime rose from 3.6 hours a week in 2024 to 4.0 in September 2026 (BLS CES). In Purdue MEP's study, most new-hire exits at the plants studied happened within 90 days.1 The leak has moved: it no longer shows up on the turnover report; it shows up in your overtime and agency invoices.

  • Lines short-staffed on certain shifts, covered by mandatory OT
  • Agency seats you can't get rid of, at a markup some light-industrial sources put around 40–55% (directional)1
  • New hires you paid to train who are gone before day 90
  • No one able to tell you which supervisors, shifts or hire sources are behind it

We start with three numbers you already have.

  1. Monthly overtime dollars (or OT hours × loaded rate)
  2. Monthly staffing-agency spend, plus the markup above the worker's pay
  3. Hires in the last 12 months, and how many left within 90 days

Early-quit cost ≈ 90-day leavers × (onboarding + training hours × wage + ramp-time lost output)

Vacancy overtime premium ≈ OT hours on short-staffed shifts × 0.5 × wage

Agency markup ≈ agency hours × (bill rate − agency pay rate)

If the diagnostic doesn't point at more than its fee in recoverable overtime and agency spend, you'll know in three weeks and you keep the analysis. (This describes what the analysis shows; it is not a guarantee of savings.)

We haven't found anyone else who sells this.

Staffing agencies

Fill seats. They don't tell you why your own hires leave.

PEOs

Price per employee per month for payroll and benefits.

Local fractional-HR firms

Mostly serve companies under 100 employees and bill hourly.

MEP centers

Deliver training and apprenticeships. We partner with them.

We offer a fixed price, a 3-week timeline, your own data, and a costed plan aimed at your overtime and agency lines.

The Plant Workforce Diagnostic

Three weeks. Fixed fee. Your overtime and early-quit losses, traced to the source.

We take the exports you already have (HRIS, timeclock/attendance, exit and termination records, pay bands) and use AI-assisted analysis to build a clear picture of where and why people leave, plus a plan to fix it.

  • Overtime & agency cost map: OT and agency hours tied to the vacancies and early quits driving them
  • 90-day tenure survival curve: when new hires leave, by shift, department and hire source
  • Attendance & overtime analysis: absenteeism patterns and what they cost
  • Exit & pay-band analysis: reasons for leaving, set against pay position
  • Supervisor-level hot spots: where turnover concentrates
  • Retention plan: prioritized actions for the next 90 days
  • Leadership readout: a working session with your plant GM / ops leadership

$15,000–$25,000 fixed, depending on site count and data scope.

Design-partner offer: the first 2 plants get the diagnostic for $9,500 in exchange for an anonymized case study.

After the diagnostic

Fractional Plant HR + Retention Analytics

$6,000–$10,000/month (3-month minimum)

Senior HR leadership for your plant on a part-time basis, plus a monthly retention dashboard and supervisor coaching.

Add-ons

  • Registered apprenticeship builds: program design, DOL registration and grant applications.
  • HR due diligence for plant acquisitions: red-flag reports, workforce analytics and a 100-day people plan for PE and strategic buyers.

Who we are

Clay A. Graham, SPHR

Managing Partner

Clay has spent about 40 years in manufacturing and food-plant HR, at employers including George's, Simmons, Schwan's, Hawker Beechcraft, Tuthill, DBG USA and Whirlpool. He built a DOL-registered apprenticeship program at Tuthill and has worked through restructuring at Hawker Beechcraft. Based in Rogers, Arkansas.

Thomas Graham

Partner, Technology

Thomas builds scalable data systems. He ran reporting systems supporting nearly $1B in annual revenue at Walmart, led the reporting transition for a $10B organization at Cardinal Health, and has led data and engineering teams through multi-site manufacturing data migrations.

How it works

  1. Intro call (30 min) We learn about your plant and check fit.
  2. Proposal & NDA Fixed scope and fee, data agreement signed.
  3. 3-week diagnostic You send the exports and we do the analysis.
  4. Readout & plan You keep the findings. Continuing with a retainer is optional.

FAQ

What data do you need?

Standard exports: employee roster with hire and term dates, attendance/timeclock, exit or termination reasons, pay bands. CSV or Excel is fine. We'll send a checklist.

How much of our team's time does it take?

A kickoff, the data pull, and the readout. We do the analysis.

Is our employee data safe?

We sign an NDA and DPA, keep only the fields we need, and never use your data to train AI models.

Who should I bring in?

You (plant manager/GM) own the problem; your HR lead owns the data. We bring HR in from day one. The diagnostic makes their job easier, and it doesn't grade them.

Do you work with our MEP center?

Yes. MEP centers handle training and process improvement. We provide the turnover data, and the two fit together.

Are you a staffing agency?

No. We help you keep the people you have and fix the reasons they leave.

What size plants do you work with?

Best fit is about 200–800 employees at the site; we work with 100–1,500, in manufacturing and food processing, in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

What does it cost?

The diagnostic is $15K–$25K fixed ($9,500 for the first 2 design partners). The retainer is $6K–$10K/month.

What if we only want the diagnostic?

That's fine. You keep the deliverables and there's no obligation to continue.

Find out what your first 90 days are costing you in overtime.

Tell us about your plant: company, location, employees at the site, and your biggest workforce issue. We'll reply within 1 business day to set up a 30-minute intro call.

Request a Diagnostic

Or email thomas@grahamlabs.io. Please don't include employee personal information.