| How can you keep your high flyers? A survey from employee engagement specialist Talentdrain offers some advice for employers. |
| New breed of graduates creates retention challenge for organisations
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| | Organisations are
struggling to retain a
new breed of impatient,
easily-bored and
money-driven graduates,
according to a new
survey. Employee
engagement specialist
TalentDrain questioned
1,749 graduates below
the age of 31 and found
they were hungry for a
better salary and prone
to leave their jobs in
frustration, due to a
lack of promotion
opportunities, a sense
that their reward was
not linked to their
performance and because
of insufficiently
challenging work.
“Graduates want
challenge and
advancement and they’ll
vote with their feet if
their organisation can’t
deliver,” says Ron
Eldridge, director of
TalentDrain. “Retaining
graduates is an art and
if employers don’t want
to lose their high
flyers to their
competitors, they have
to become better skilled
at this art.”
TalentDrain’s | |
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| | progression and
independence are valued
most by graduates in
managerial/professional
roles, while job
satisfaction and the
relationship with their
boss are valued most by
graduates in
sales/customer service
and administrative
roles. Furthermore, this
latter group also
expresses a
significantly higher
intention to leave.
“Graduates will leave
if there is a mismatch
between their personal
priorities and the
organisational
environment,” says
Eldridge. “But much can
be done to reduce
graduate turnover.”
TalentDrain
recommends that
organisations should
‘begin at the beginning’
by re-examining how they
seduce and attract
graduates.
“Because
organisations are so
desperate to recruit top
graduates, they often
fall into the trap of
over-selling the role or | |
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| | promising more than they
can deliver,” says
Eldridge. “A better
approach is to have an
honest discussion of
what life will really be
like at work, so a
graduate can make an
informed choice about
whether the job and the
organisation will meet
their needs. This helps
to avoid any nasty
surprises later.”
To retain graduates,
TalentDrain recommends
structuring roles and
the organisational
environment in order to
give graduates
challenging and
interesting work,
autonomy and career
progression. Individual
developmental review
sessions should also be
introduced to monitor
the extent to which
graduates feel their
aspirations are met at
work.
“Developmental review
sessions should be
separate and distinct
from performance
appraisals,” says
Eldridge. “They should
offer graduates the | |
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| | chance to evaluate the
organisation’s ability
to meet their needs.
Even something as simple
as identifying an
individual’s key drivers
and then eliciting a
1-10 rating in terms of
fulfilment in these
areas, will help to
indicate their level of
engagement.”
He admits that
competition between
employers perpetuates
the demands of graduates
and that this could lead
to a backlash.
“Some organisations
may decide that
employing graduates is
more trouble than it’s
worth,” says Eldridge.
“There are many roles
within organisations
that do not require a
degree-level education
and non-graduates can be
less demanding to
manage. By adopting a
broader definition of
talent, employers can
encourage a more diverse
workforce, which could
pay dividends in terms
of longer tenure and
higher engagement.” | |
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| | research shows that
graduates place high
value on personal
growth, job
satisfaction, their
salary, their
relationship with their
boss and career
progression.
However, demographic
differences between
individuals, such as
gender, make the issue
of retaining graduates
more complicated. Salary
and career progression
are more important to
males; whereas personal
growth, job satisfaction
and the relationship
with their boss are more
important to females.
The nature of the
role is also relevant.
Personal growth, career | |
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