This employee retention speaker and employee retention expert has always felt that organizations with a mix of short- and long-term employees were somehow more in tune and did better than those without. It was just the feeling of this employee recruitment expert…until recently. A recent WSJ article actually pointed out some things that validated my observation. The article talked about the fact that those organizations that had longer-tenured employees were more profitable…which most organizations want! Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer organizations out there like that.
Recently, while working with an organization’s leadership team on employee retention, this employee retention author asked the leadership team who was under the age of 37. Almost half raised their hands. Then I asked how many would be retiring in the next three years and another four raised their hands. There were 20 leaders in the workshop. This organization will have almost 75% of its leaders under the age of 40 in three years. This is scary when you think of the WSJ article.
All too often organizations are anxious to see older people retire. I have seen it repeatedly. There is a preconceived notion that as you get older, you are less productive. Perhaps we older people are…I’m in that older category. However, that is balanced out by the wisdom, the tribal knowledge we possess, and the knowledge of how the organization functions and how to work in that system to get things done. Those attributes come with tenure. I also look at the hours I put in now because I’m able to do so because my kids are grown and out of the house. I could never do that when my kids were at home. The other thing that is benefit is that the “older” person is generally not inclined to leave because they think “the grass is greener” somewhere else. Most have been elsewhere and know better. They are content with where they are. Content does not mean coasting. If they are simply coasting, that’s material for another blog!
It’s time for organizations to look at how to keep older employees from retiring early from an employee retention strategies perspective and from a profitability perspective. We tend to focus just on the new employees when it comes to employee retention strategy. We also can’t forget about employees with longer tenure even if they are not nearing retirement. After all, if you want to be more profitable… “tenure matters.”
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager or an owner of an organization, call me of email me at jeff@jeffkortes.com to learn how the C.R.A.P, (Caring, Respect, Appreciation, Praise) process can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
