Employee Loyalty Starts with Culture: What the H. E. Butt Foundation Gets Right About Retention

Employee expectations have changed fast. The promise of remote work, the rise of burnout, and a sharper focus on well-being have all rewritten what people look for in a job. For HR leaders, that shift has made retention less about perks and more about purpose — about building workplaces that people actually want to stay in. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace report, global employee engagement slipped from 23% to 21% in 2024 — a drop that is estimated to have cost the world a whopping $438 billion in lost productivity. So, how can HR leaders sustain retention, maintain culture, and create trust while balancing flexibility and structure in the post-pandemic workplace? Recently, HRSouthwest Conference 2025 brought together industry leaders to explore the evolving dynamics of talent, technology, and workplace culture. During the event, Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B at MarketScale, sat down with Ty Miyahara, HR Business Partner at the H. E. Butt Foundation, to discuss how the organization builds a culture of retention through meaningful benefits, thoughtful leadership, and flexibility. Their conversation traced Miyahara’s four decades in HR — from recruiting in the 1980s to tackling modern challenges around hybrid work, employee engagement, and maintaining fairness in company policy. Top insights… Culture-first hiring and retention: Miyahara emphasizes hiring for shared values and long-term development over immediate technical fit, noting that adaptability and alignment with mission are now critical. Benefits as a retention engine: From 100% employer-paid healthcare to generous PTO and 403(b) contributions that can reach over 15%, the H. E. Butt Foundation’s employee benefits model demonstrates how robust support systems translate directly into loyalty and satisfaction. Balancing empathy with enforcement: Miyahara reflects on the HR professional’s dual role as both advocate and regulator — upholding company culture while maintaining fairness in complex leave and benefits cases. Ty Miyahara is a senior human resources leader with more than 20 years of experience driving talent strategy, culture, and operational excellence across the restaurant and service industries. He has held executive and senior HR roles with organizations such as CEC Entertainment, Wendy’s, Fiesta Restaurant Group, and Arby’s, where he led large-scale teams, mergers and acquisitions, and performance-based culture initiatives that supported thousands of employees nationwide. Currently serving as HR Business Partner at the H. E. Butt Foundation, Miyahara is recognized for his strengths in employee relations, talent development, and organizational design — earning industry honors including HR Houston’s Impact Award and Wendy’s Jim Near Employer of Choice Award. Article written by MarketScale.