Talent Retention: Employee Perspective

Each organization has the need to retain their good employees, their performing assets. It is important, therefore, to examine why employees change jobs. Let us look at this issue from the employees’ perspective.

Craving for New Challenges:

• It takes a competent person 2 – 4 months time to understand and settle down in a new job.
• Performance reaches its peak in 18 – 24 months.
• Thereafter, it becomes a mundane job, with no excitement at the work place.
• Frustration sets in, mostly in those whose creativity thrives on challenges, who enjoy doing new things, who like to face new people, who prefer a change in environment and who are allergic to non-changing routines.

Search for a Career:

• Competent people want to grow, to higher level positions, at least within their functional domains.
• Those in general management positions look for cross – functional experience to enrich their profiles and grow.
• Specialists in a domain want to become super-specialists, with change in their titles/ designations.
• Everyone looks at the organizational structure, its flexibility & scope for its growth to accommodate the ambitions of people.

Social Needs & image projection:

• Employees wants to be with family and friends, enjoy week-ends and be able to maintain a healthy work – life balance.
• They want promotions and be able to announce such recognition to their spouses, parents, kith & kin (including their circle of friends).
• Some have a craze to represent their organizations in professional associations, clubs, social media and some public forums. They want their talent to be known to people.
• Some want to share their expertise by training others and also contribute to initiatives which are socially beneficial & productive.
• In terms of social status, people want to live in style, use branded items, own property and entertain others in presentable environments.

Has your organization the will to focus on the above issues? In the job market, demand for talent shall continue to rise. If you have not addressed their needs, people will search for better avenues. And you will be left with an average lot, satisfied to stay with you in the garb of job security. Will they constitute your talent pool? If not, how will you attract & recruit fresh talent and how long will they stay with you? These are the teasers being faced by most organizations, big & small.

What initiatives you should take to retain employees who matter for your organization shall be discussed in the follow up article, entitled: ‘Retaining Talent – Employers’ Perspective.