Thursday, October 15, 2009

People Attrition & Talent Retention - Part 1/2

Sometime ago, I watched a short video clip shared by a friend through Facebook. Here are some of the figures extracted from the video clip:
It was estimated that today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38
1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a year
1 in 2 has been with their current employer less than 5 years
This video, some incidents, together with some materials that I have came across lately has inspired me to write and a share a bit about my thoughts on people attrition and talent retention.

Let’s not argue about the trustworthiness of what was being portrayed in the video but let’s face it, people attrition is becoming a major problem affecting the industry and many companies are finding it increasingly difficult to retain employees. Encouraged by the advancement of information and communication technology development, the employment culture is also changing and it is now relatively common to change jobs every few years rather than staying with one company throughout one’s employment life.


A survey done by CompData has shown that in Year 2008, the voluntary turnover rate in the US averaged at about 12.5% with Hospitality sector topping the list (27.2%) followed by Technology sector (17.2%). The problem of people attrition has to be taken seriously and it is not surprising that keeping the people attrition rate low has been on the KPI list of many companies and will continue to be. Recruitment cost, training cost, lost of productivity / sales cost, etc. will definitely affect a company bottom line if not managed correctly. This is especially true for service oriented company where a people leaving might means losing a critical skill set that is key for the company growth. Imagine a capable doctor leaving a hospital, a system architect leaving the design team, a competent professor leaving a university, a signature chef leaving a restaurant, and the list goes on. Imagine the havoc!


Today's youth may have different work styles, or look for different perks. What will attract the top talent? With these questions in mind, Jobstreet (Asia’s largest online job portal) has recently conducted a survey across Malaysia together with YouthSays (Malaysia’s largest youth opinion community) entitled “Understanding the Young Malaysian Jobseeker” with the hindsight that both employers and jobseekers can no longer rely on conventions from the past to shape the workforce. 3,217 youths aged between 15 to 35 have participated in this survey.
I have extracted some of the results and you might find the following interesting :

1. When do you think you can make your first RM 1,000,000? 36.4% of the youths believe that they can achieve this between 30 – 40 years of age (Good to be confident! :))

2. What perks do you look forward to get from a company? 50% of youths picked flexible working hours as their preferred benefit
3. 90.27% of youth believe in work loyalty to the company
4. 56% of youths are willing to put up longer hours for higher pay
5. 75% of youths think that they are someone who will dedicate their life to their career

What are your thoughts?


I will write about some of my thoughts regarding talent retention in my next post. Till then, take care and enjoy your current employment!

1 comment:

eitan@talentsaver.com said...

A good article and good data points. Talent wars are going to shape quite a few companies' strategies in the upcoming years.
In the short/mid term, due to the improvement in the economy, employees who just waited for the opportunity will improve their positions. The irony is that it applies to top talent which wasn't laid off.
In the long term, both x- and y- generation employees (not the mention the next gen) have less and less loyalty which increases opportunistic turnover.