Why bosses must embrace ‘work hard, leave fast’ employees

You can practically hear the collective sigh of relief as the calendar flips over into February. We’re done with temporary sobriety, experimental veganism, a compulsion to ditch our partners (Divorce Day was on January 6) and the hump of Blue Monday. At last, we’ve made it to payday and the days are starting to feel longer as we head towards spring. 

Many see January as a chance for a career refresh and the chance to cast around for pastures new. The Institute of Leadership and Management has found that 74% of workers think they could do better, career-wise, at the turn of the New Year and 42% of those actually do something about it.

Plotting a career change is not the seismic shift it once was, although it’s not quite as rapid as some forecasters might suggest either. Research from insurer, LV= found that the average U.K. worker changes jobs every five years. In some sectors and roles, particularly creative and marketing spheres, there is a tendency to swap roles every three to four years.

Employers naturally look for a stable core when it comes to staffing. High turnover has previously been thought to cast a shadow over a business, not to mention the costs involved in constantly replacing staff. A report as long ago as 2014 put the price of replacing a single member of staff at around £30,000, including advertising, time to interview but critically, time to get the new hire up to speed. We can only assume those costs have gone up since then. 

That said, we increasingly operate in a much more flexible business environment. Trends are moving so rapidly, onboarding new people and finding ways to upskill quickly are fast becoming the norm. To keep up with those trends, staff are often hopping from one role–and organization–to the next in order to gain new skills and experience. Employers shouldn’t see this as a negative. As one door closes behind a former staffer, another opens, welcoming someone else who has been collecting skills, magpie-like, on their way up the ladder. We all have to get used to this new normal.

So how do employers strike the balance between investing in new talent, and making sure that investment doesn’t simply leak out with employees, only to have to start all over again? Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson has a motto for every occasion, and this is no different: “Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

It therefore falls to companies and their leaders to create a working environment that nurtures talent enough to attract and retain it where possible. Those that still believe the employee relationship is a purely transactional one are in the dark ages. A survey by Deloitte reveals that seven out of 10 millennials would choose a company for shared values over a higher salary. What’s more, in an environment in which businesses themselves must be agile, adaptable and ready to change with fast-moving times - it makes sense to hire people with those same values. People who want to learn, are open to change and may want to move around more frequently.

The key to building staff retention is in nurturing not just the consumer or corporate brand, but the employer brand too: becoming known as a place where employees can learn, develop new skills, feel proud of who they work for and find alignment with their personal values. It doesn’t just keep staff on side, it builds the kind of advocacy that will draw the best talent to your organization.

What are the ingredients of a successful employer brand in 2020? A clear articulation of your employee value proposition (what’s special about you and what employees will gain from working for you), tangible markers of personal progression and success (stretch assignments, training, promotion and rewards) and the kind of culture and values that promote a sense of pride, belonging and increasingly, wellbeing.  

The quest for new experiences and different roles will continue, however well your employer brand nurtures and develops its staff. Finding ways for both talent and employers to benefit from investing time in one another for increasingly shorter tenures will define the most attractive places to work in the new decade ahead.