Improving Employee Retention in a Talent Economy

Many companies would like to travel back in time to better prepare for tomorrow. Doing business under an industrial age model probably means you are focusing on the wrong things in a Talent Economy.

It’s time for businesses to go back to the future! How much do you think has changed since 1985? Take a stroll down memory lane and think about when you were passionate about work, things that made you happy, or about LIG. (That’s short for life in general, in case you don’t know that acronym.)

Today, only 49% of Americans are happy with their job – that means 51% are not. We have moved from the industrial age to the technology age, and on average 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring each day. If that is not scary enough, 44% of millennials are planning to leave their jobs in the next 2 years. We need a time machine that will blast us back to the future, so we can prepare for tomorrow!

If you are a public traded company, where do you focus your resources? Is it on driving shareholder value? Stock price? Capital? Profit? Cash flow? Sales? Marketing?

These business indicators are all important; however, we have moved into the Talent Economy, which is creating a huge amount of disruption. Similar to what Uber has done to the taxi industryand what Airbnb has done to the hotel industry. Companies are starting to experience the same kind of disruption with turnover costing $30.5B every year.

In the Talent Economy:

1. Employees are not loyal to the company, they are loyal to the people they work with.

2. Employees want to work at a place that is not focused on differences such as age, race, or ethnicity.

3. Employees want to feel valued and appreciated and be recognized for a job well done.

4. Employees want to collaborate, learn, lead, and make a difference.

That is why I say we must go back to the future. We need to fill our time machine with fun work environments and where everyone has something to teach and something to learn. Where success is celebrated and employees are passionate about their company and their co-workers. I have been fortunate throughout my career to work for great people who made the company a wonderful place to work. Everyone was aligned behind a common goal. We celebrated at company parties and had team building events during work hours. The company provided free product all day long at the push of a button. The future of work is bright if we focus on People First!