No one should be surprised by the news that valuable contributors are abandoning their current employers during these bad times.
Most enterprises (75%!) surveyed by manpower firm Right Management lost key talent last year. Smart companies are showing sensitivity to this dangerous situation, allocating a much larger share of their scarce payroll-increase dollars to top performers while leaving extremely modest sums for non-critical workers. How the best and most essential contributors are treated is central to their retention and continued engagement.
Dealing with the issues created by our economic downturn has forced leaders to exercise greater powers of discrimination than have been seen in decades. Effective management requires differentiation rather than imitation. The increasing willingness of valuable employees to desert their workplaces means that the lockstep uniform-treatment peanut-butter approach is a luxury that cannot be afforded. People can’t be blamed for consistently acting in ways they feel best serve their self-interest. Sometimes that means they will decide to leave.
Such desertions are actually caused by the poor economy and the generally slow job market. How could it logically be any different? If you already know that your current employer:
- cut headcount to the minimal level;
- increased your personal work load;
- reduced its merit increase budget;
- subjected you to pay compression;
- eliminated redundant backup staff;
- offers little in the way of recognition;
- pressures you to improve your productivity with fewer resources;
- lacks significant personal career growth or promotional opportunities;
- promises to further upset your work-life balance with more tasks; and
- may raise your presently uncomfortable stress level to unsustainable heights,
… well, then, ...why should you not accept one of those rare chances to cross the street and take a “foot-promotion?” Most new job offers involve more money, a bigger title and a honeymoon phase which certainly doesn’t exist here at StressedOut Enterprises. The promising opportunity for immediate improvement may disappear tomorrow, while your issues here will continue to grow and may only subside slowly over a long period of time.
It’s all about jobs. If American business won’t create new jobs, maybe it will take the wholesale desertion of key talent to prime the pump of our economy. When Sally Key Talent jumps ship from StressedOut Enterprises to Growing Company, her last employer will be forced to hire at least one if not two replacements to fill her large shoes. Both companies will increase salaries in order to retain their remaining talent whose value has been confirmed by market dynamics. The ripple effect will continue downward until finally that Fine Arts graduate playing video games for the last year in his upstairs bedroom may land a job that pays more than flipping burgers (which the Federal Government currently classifies as a manufacturing job, by the way).
Until employers feel pain, they won’t respond. Perhaps what we need is less complacency about retention and more churn in the employment marketplace to make things happen.
E. James (Jim) Brennan is Senior Associate of ERI Economic Research Institute, the premier publisher of interactive pay and living-cost surveys. Semi-retired after over 40 years in HR corporate and consulting roles throughout the U.S. and Canada, he’s pretty much been there done that (articles, books, speeches, seminars, radio/TV, advisory posts, in-trial expert witness stuff, etc.) and will express his opinion on almost anything.
Image courtesy of realityburst.com
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