This Article Appeared in WA Business News 2nd December 2009 edition

Have we had the Naughties? Although the world has never fully accepted a name for this period, it is hard to believe that we are only weeks away from saying farewell to the first decade of the new millennium. It doesn’t feel like 10 years since the big challenge of the business day was surviving the possible meltdown of Y2K! The technological issue we started the decade with is fitting, considering the incredible developments in I.T. and what they mean for the ways talent is found, remunerated and retained compared to 20 or even 10 years ago. This seismic shift in the way we live has also transformed the rules of employee engagement for an employer.

Regardless of your interest in generational behaviour, one observation that cannot be ignored is the average term each generation will stay in a job. Without quoting anomalous statistics, it is an accepted fact that employee tenure with an employer has significantly dropped over the last four generations. Traditionalists (born 1922-1945) often stayed in one role for their entire career, Baby Boomers and Generation X were less devoted to a single employer, whereas one Generation Y expert recently reported that Gen Y’s average tenure will be 2.6 years. Not long for an employer to get value!

What does this mean for your business?

  • The cost of acquiring a new staff member, when amortised over the expected term of service of the employee has dramatically increased. This makes it all the more important to use a recruitment partner (be it your HR Manager or an external provider) that understands your business and has a stringent process to get the right candidate for the job. During the boom, a lot of employers abandon this approach towards a “bum on seat” mentality, a strategy that could now stifle company success if it is continued.
  • The importance of getting the ultimate cultural fit in the candidate is paramount, as well as recruiting the right balance of technical skills and work attitude, as this will reduce the time it takes the person to get up to speed and provide value. When the expectation was for an employee to stay 10 years plus, this was not such as issue, but given the predicted low tenure going forward, it becomes critical to employee value offering. With the introduction this year of the Fair Work Act, the changes to unfair dismissal laws making it more difficult to terminate employment of staff who don’t fit into the culture of the company also increases importance of getting it right first time.
  • If your “employee engagement” model retains an employee for an extra year, which doesn’t sounds like much, it will increase the average Gen Y tenure by 38% (from 2.6 to 3.6 years). Obviously having the right culture and engagement model will keep the star talent for much longer than that, but this statistic reinforces the significant role of retention strategies.

The past 12 months have definitely altered the employee psyche, considering it was the first significant downturn that most employees under the age of 30 will have experienced in their working life. Company stability, vision and strategy is now more important to candidates compared to 15 months ago, when it was expected that every organisation would successfully ride the good times.

It has become critical for all companies, whether you’re a start up operation or a multinational leader, to have a well-defined employer brand. Employer brands are not just about clever advertisements, flashy websites and aesthetic brochures; it’s more crucial to design your Core Values for your employees and think about how each stage of your recruitment process reflects those values. From your choice of external recruitment provider (there’s no point in using a “transactional driven” recruitment agency if your values bestow the virtues of long-term relationships) to the interview experience, each step should bring the candidate on a consistent journey of your values and employer brand, so that the right candidates are excited about joining the company and more importantly, there is no “culture shock” when they start their new role with you.

If the last 20 years are a reflection of what is to come in the talent acquisition and management market, it seems the average engagement time of employees will continue to steadily decrease, although the tribulations of the GFC on employees will slow the decline much like any recessionary period.

Whether we employers like it or not, the art of attracting, selecting and retaining the best talent in the market has become the critical issue in business. Having the right strategies in place will carry you a long way towards the solution.

Brian Briscoe is managing director of Briscoe Search & Consulting, which partners clients in sourcing and retaining technical, leadership and professional talent through search and recruitment services. Contact Brian on 6382 1100, mob 0423 605 593 | brian@www.briscoesearch.com.au