ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Harold Kerzner, Ph.D. and Al Zeitoun, Ph.D.
California & Maryland, USA
BACKGROUND TO TEAM MEMBER TURNOVER ____________________________
All companies, regardless of their size and the number of projects they manage, are susceptible to worker turnover, including companies held in high esteem in project management circles. The more projects a company works on, and the greater the need to overcome project management challenges such as creativity and innovation, the greater the employee turnover risks.
Employee turnover can be involuntary or voluntary. With involuntary turnover, the employee may be removed from the organization if the company must downsize or if the employee’s performance is below the organization’s expectations regarding the worker’s performance. However, another significant and common involuntary turnover on a project occurs when an employee possesses superior skills that may be needed on a higher priority project or one that may be struggling. Workers may then be reassigned to other projects, and the reassignment can be permanent rather than temporary.
Voluntary turnover occurs when the employee is unhappy in the company, possibly with the people he/she must work with on projects or believes that more opportunities exist elsewhere. Workers on projects also dislike being treated simply as cost charging numbers, billing their time against a project, and then to be removed from the project as quickly as possible after task completion. In both involuntary and voluntary turnover there can be significant disruptions to on-going projects, including morale, budgets, schedules and stakeholder relations. Turnover is a way of life in project management and can be destructive due to ineffective project management leadership.
THE IMPORTANCE OF REDUCING TURNOVER ____________________________
In the early years of project management, very little was written about the importance of controlling or reducing worker turnover on projects. Project managers relied heavily upon functional managers and sponsors to provide support for project staffing throughout the life of the project and believed that workers could be replaced, if necessary, with little difficulty. If disagreements existed between the project managers and team members, most project managers believed that worker replacement would not be a critical issue.
Today, there are two factors why worker turnover has become an important issue for all project managers. First, companies are working on significantly more projects than in the past, and there is no longer an abundance of available and possibly qualified resources in many companies. Project workforce planning has become a critical issue.
Second, project managers are expected to now make business as well as technical decisions. Part of this responsibility is to make business decisions that are in the best interest of the entire company, and this includes recognizing the impact your decision may have upon other projects rather than just the project you are managing. The retention of the workforce and the education provided to team members can produce benefits that workers may use on many projects. Worker turnover possibilities must consider the impact on all projects rather than just one project.
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How to cite this article: Kerzner, H., Zeitoun, A. (2026). The Need to Reduce Team Member Turnover, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue IX, September. Available online at: https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/pmwj168-Sep2026-Kerzner-Zeitoun-Reduce-Team-Member-Turnover.pdf
About the Authors
Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., MS, M.B.A
Senior Executive Director for Project Management
International Institute of Learning
New York & California, USA
Dr. Harold Kerzner is Senior Executive Director for Project Management for the International Institute for Learning (IIL). He has an MS and Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Utah State University. He is a prior Air Force Officer and spent several years at Morton-Thiokol in project management. He taught engineering at the University of Illinois and business administration at Utah State University, and for 38 years taught project management at Baldwin-Wallace University. He has published or presented numerous engineering and business papers and has had published more than 60 college textbooks/workbooks on project management, including later editions. Some of his books are (1) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling; (2) Project Management Metrics, KPIs and Dashboards, (3) Project Management Case Studies, (4) Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence, (5) PM 2.0: The Future of Project Management, (6) Using the Project Management Maturity Model, and (7) Innovation Project Management.
He is a charter member of the Northeast Ohio PMI Chapter.
Dr. Kerzner has traveled around the world conducting project management lectures for PMI Chapters and companies in Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, Korea, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Mexico, Trinidad, Barbados, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Venezuela, Columbia, United Arab Emirates, France, Italy, England, and Switzerland. He delivered a keynote speech at a PMI Global Congress on the future of project management.
His recognitions include:
- The University of Illinois granted Dr. Kerzner a Distinguished Recent Alumni Award in 1981 for his contributions to the field of project management.
- Utah State University provided Dr. Kerzner with the 1998 Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the field of project management.
- The Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Project Management Institute gives out the Kerzner Award once a year to one project manager in Northeast Ohio that has demonstrated excellence in project management. They also give out a second Kerzner Award for project of the year in Northeast Ohio.
- The Project Management Institute (National Organization) in cooperation with IIL has initiated the Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year Award given to one project manager yearly anywhere in the world that demonstrated excellence in project management.
- The Project Management Institute also gives out four scholarships each year in Dr. Kerzner’s name for graduate studies in project management.
- Baldwin-Wallace University has instituted the Kerzner Distinguished Lecturer Series in project management.
- The Italian Institute of Project Management presented Dr. Kerzner with the 2019 International ISIPM Award for his contributions to the field of project management.
Dr. Harold Kerzner can be contacted at hkerzner@hotmail.com
Dr. Al Zeitoun, PgMP, PMI Fellow
System Thinker & Transformation Advisor
Maryland USA
Dr. Al Zeitoun is a Future of Work, business optimization, and operational performance excellence thought leader with global experiences in strategy execution. His experiences encompass leading organizations; delivering their Enterprise Digital and Business Transformation; guiding fitting frameworks implementations; and using his empathy, engineering insights, and collaboration strengths to successfully envision new business models and execute complex missions across diverse cultures globally.
In his recent role with Siemens, he was a Senior Director of Strategy responsible for driving the global program management practices, Master Plan governance, and enabling the Strategy Transformation processes and priorities.
In his position, as the Executive Director for Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Abu Dhabi, UAE, he was responsible for creating the strategy execution framework, achieving transformation benefits, governance excellence, and creating the data analytics discipline necessary for delivering on the $40B complex country energy mission roadmap.
At the McLean, USA HQ of Booz Allen Hamilton, Dr. Zeitoun strategically envisioned and customized digitally enabled EPMO advisory, mapped playbooks, and capability development for clients’ Billions of Dollars strategic initiatives. Furthermore, he led the firm’s Middle East North Africa Portfolio Management and Agile Governance Solutions.
With the International Institute of Learning, Dr. Zeitoun played a senior leader and global trainer and coach. He was instrumental in driving its global expansions, thought leadership, and operational excellence methodology to sense and shape dynamic ways of working across organizations worldwide. He speaks English, Arabic, and German and enjoys good food, travel, and volunteering. Dr. Al Zeitoun can be contacted at zeitounstrategy@gmail.com
