Staff Retention

Your best people aren't leaving for money. They're leaving because they never connected.

People stay where they have real relationships. Halftime gives your team a 2-minute daily ritual that builds those relationships in the background. One replacement hire costs more than a decade of Halftime.

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✓Free for teams up to 6
✓Starter from $19/mo flat
✓Set up in 30 seconds
✓Works with Slack, Teams + email

Relationships form through repetition, not spectacle. You don't become close to someone because you did a trust fall. You become close because you've seen how they react when they lose at Snake for the fifth day in a row.

Halftime Today page showing the daily game that keeps teams connected

The math

$4,700 to replace one hire.
$19/mo to keep the team you have.

Average cost per hire (SHRM). Halftime is a rounding error by comparison.

People don't leave jobs. They leave teams they never connected with.

Most retention strategies focus on perks. The real fix is simpler: give people a daily reason to know their teammates. Two minutes a day changes whether someone stays or starts looking.

The cost of getting this wrong

52%

of voluntary turnover is preventable with better management and culture

Gallup

$4,700

average cost to hire a single employee, before training

SHRM

more engaged at work when people have a best friend on the team

Gallup

Warning signs you might recognise

People are quiet in meetings

They show up, camera off, say nothing. Not because they don't care, but because they don't feel like they belong.

New hires take months to integrate

They do the work but never break through to real relationships. By month six, they're already browsing LinkedIn.

Turnover keeps climbing and exit surveys say "culture"

You've tried pizza parties, surveys, and quarterly offsites. People leave anyway. The gaps between those events are too long.

Remote workers feel invisible

In-office people bond naturally. Remote people get left out of the small moments that build trust.

Retention isn't a perks problem. It's a connection problem.

Gallup's research is clear: the single strongest predictor of whether someone stays isn't salary, title, or benefits. It's whether they have meaningful relationships at work. People who have a best friend on their team are 7x more likely to be engaged, and engaged employees stay.

The problem is that meaningful relationships don't form in quarterly offsites or mandatory team dinners. They form in small, repeated moments. The hallway chat. The lunch table joke. The "how was your weekend" before a meeting starts. Even in-office teams lose these moments when people are busy, siloed across floors, or just heads-down in their work.

A small daily ritual that compounds

Halftime delivers a short game or prompt to your team every workday. People play when they have a spare moment. It takes 2 minutes. Scores go on a shared leaderboard. Banter follows naturally.

It's not a team building event. It's a daily touchpoint that gives people a low-stakes reason to interact with teammates they wouldn't otherwise talk to.

How it works

9amA new game appears. Notifications go out via Slack, Teams, or email.
During the dayPeople play on their own time. Two minutes, on any device.
4pmResults are revealed. "How did you get 47?!" starts the conversation.
Over weeksStreaks, leaderboards, and inside jokes accumulate. People feel like they belong.

Team leaderboard showing daily participation and streaks, proof of who's playing and how often

Team leaderboards track streaks and participation. Quiet teammates show up here who never speak in meetings.

What changes, and when

Week 1

People start playing. Quiet teammates who never speak up in meetings show up on the leaderboard.

Week 2

Streaks form. New hires get pulled into the banter. Mornings feel different.

Month 1

Inside jokes accumulate. Camera-off stand-ups get warmer. The team starts feeling like a team.

Month 3

The people you were worried about losing are the ones leading the chat. Retention follows.

Start free in 30 seconds

Free for teams up to 6. Starter is $19/mo flat for up to 10. One replacement hire costs decades of Halftime.

Try a game now Set up my team

Why this helps retention

Daily frequency compounds. A quarterly offsite gives you one day of connection. Halftime gives you 250+ touchpoints a year.
Low barrier means high participation. A 2-minute game is easier to join than a conversation. Quiet teammates who never speak up in meetings start showing up on the leaderboard.
Zero ongoing effort. Set it up once. It runs itself. No one has to plan activities, build quizzes, or host sessions.
It's genuine, not forced. People play because they want to, not because HR scheduled it. That's what makes it stick.

What it costs

Free for teams up to 6 players. Starter is $19/mo for up to 10. Pro is $39/mo for up to 25 with custom scheduling and analytics. Business is $99/mo for up to 75 with groups and department leaderboards. No per-seat fees. One replacement hire costs more than decades of Halftime.

See full pricing →

Common questions

How quickly do we see a shift?+

Most teams notice a change in the first week. Participation rates, banter in Slack, and engagement in meetings all tend to move before the first month is out.

Does this actually reduce turnover?+

We're not claiming Halftime alone fixes retention. What it does is create the daily connection that Gallup research identifies as the strongest predictor of someone staying. Combined with good management, it's a measurable contributor.

What if my team is already burned out on forced fun?+

Halftime is voluntary and asynchronous. There's no mandatory attendance, no video calls, no facilitator. People play because the games are genuinely fun, or they don't. Either way, it's not an obligation.

How much of my HR team's time does this take?+

Setup is about 30 seconds: pick days, times, and game preferences. After that it runs itself. No facilitation, no content to create, no reports to chase.

Can we pilot it with one team first?+

Yes. The free plan supports up to 6 players, so you can run a pilot with one team before expanding. Starter is $19/mo for up to 10, Pro is $39/mo for up to 25, and Business is $99/mo for up to 75.

Does it work for a mixed remote and in-office team?+

Yes. Games are played async on any device, so remote teammates don't get left out and in-office teammates don't need to change how they work. Results are revealed at a shared time so everyone sees them together.

Notes from Blake, Halftime founder.

Keep your best people.

Play a game right now, no signup. Free for teams up to 6 once you're ready to set one up.

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