In today’s knowledge-based economy, the competition between businesses is as much about people as it is about business. Much has been said about the importance of talent attraction and retention to an organization’s success. Despite doing everything right to keep their best people, some organizations are still finding it difficult to hold on to them. Why is this so? Alumnus and Faculty Mr Lowe Joo Yong (MBA 1994) shares his view.
The Generational Divide?
One question that Mr Lowe often asks his young undergraduates is this: “Do you foresee yourself working for the same organization throughout your whole career?”
It is interesting to note that the overwhelming response has often been an emphatic ‘no’ – even though his students have not started work yet.
“It seems the young of today have a clear idea of what their career will look like and it is not one that would be familiar with their parents’ or grandparents’ generations,” shares Mr Lowe. “I can appreciate that there is definitely a generational difference.”
When presenting executive seminars and lectures to corporate executives, Mr Lowe, too, likes to ask them: “Do you find the young graduates entering the workforce today having less loyalty to the organization compared to employees from the older generations?”
To Mr Lowe, it seems corporate executives are mostly in agreement with this observation.
Yet, Mr Lowe is quick to caution against labeling the younger generation as disloyal or uncommitted. “Doing so will not help the organization’s cause to keep them at all. What is more important is to understand the reasons behind this generational difference and in particular, to really understand what a career means to young workers today.”
The Changing Notion of Career
“When I discuss with my students the meaning of career, it becomes clear that they see career as an experience rather than a job,” reveals Mr Lowe. “Their strong desire to experience different things in their career is the reason why they would not be sticking to one organization.”
But just what sort of experiences are they looking for?
“They want to try different jobs, including jobs in unrelated industries,” relates Mr Lowe. “They want to experience working in different types of organizations (MNC, SME, GLCs, etc); try their hands at doing their own businesses at some point; and may even take on unpaid or lowly-paid jobs for social causes.”
“In other words, they want a mixed bag of varied job experiences in their career that unfortunately no one organization can possibly offer.”
What is driving this change in mindset is also the fact that today’s younger workers do not have the burden of having to find a job in order to put food on the table for the family.
Some of Mr Lowe’s students will tell him that their parents actually encourage them to do what they like and not worry about contributing an income to the family.
“Many have also given thoughts to the issues of marriage and family. Some have already clearly made up their minds about not having any children when they get married and some have already decided they would not want to get married at all,” observes Mr Lowe.
He points out that the meaning of career is changing and that this will have an impact on how organizations manage their employees’ careers.
“In fact, it is harder and harder for organizations to manage their employees’ career because the employees want to take charge of their own careers,” says Mr Lowe. “These are major implications for organizations and people in leadership.”
Shifting the Focus
Mr Lowe believes that organizations should continue to implement policies that help them keep their best employees. While hoping the talents will stay with the organizations, they will also have to also accept that some (and this is an increasing group) will invariably leave despite the good efforts of organizations to keep them.
“It is then not an issue of the organization not having done enough nor one of lack of loyalty or commitment on the employees’ part but one of the changing career needs of employees today and what they perceive to be a career,” says Mr Lowe.
He also feels that management should shift its focus on permanent retention to harnessing the best from their talents whatever their lengths of stay with the organization.
The concept of career has changed and so should organizations’ mindsets about talent retention.
Mr Lowe Joo Yong (MBA 1994) is an NUS Business School Alumnus and a faculty of the Human Resource Management Unit. He lectures in the areas of Human Resources Management and specifically in Talent Management and Career Management. He also teaches in executive and leadership development seminars for corporate organizations. |