Over the past year, ANG has been very active in providing insights on WFH (AKA “work from anywhere”), RTO (all flavors), and other topics related to how employees and employers will engage in 2022 and beyond. Samples of these insights include:
- Return-to-Office Planning: Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 Changes
- Return-to-Office Planning: Anticipated Changes for Q3 and Q4
- What Will Digital Transformation Mean as Companies “RTO”?
- Future of WFH: Now That 2021 Is Here, What’s Next?
The topic of employee work location has moved from a tactical conversation involving human resources and facilities to a strategic conversation about winning the war for talent. The evolution of this conversation reveals elements of current corporate culture, capital investment, and future strategy. As we start 2022, the forces ANG has identified and followed for over a year appear only to be intensifying.
Do we need to rethink retention fundamentally? Many of us believe “long tenure is the goal of every hire” is akin to an 11th Commandment. Maybe it is not. Applicants and employees are increasingly viewing their tenure as tours of duty; perhaps companies need to start viewing new entrants as “we may only have five years, or less, with this person.”
This mindset does not mean companies can or should take “sink or swim” or other burnout approaches—exactly the opposite. Companies need to make new hires feel welcome, get them productive fast, and ensure that they have a great experience. That way, when they leave, they will make recommendations on who should replace them. They might even return in the future.
It may seem counterintuitive to many organizations, but is there any other option? Consider the source of employees for many startups: It comes as no surprise that they often come from organizations like Facebook, Uber, Google, or other trendy companies. But why is that? Shouldn’t we expect a company like Apple—which can offer brand, cutting-edge technology, “coolness,” and stock options—to be impossible to leave? Shouldn’t we expect retention rates of over 99%?
Yet people still leave, sometimes after only a few years. If a company doing everything humanly possible to motivate and retain staff loses employees for “better opportunities” or loses them for “not much at the moment” (i.e., the startup), then traditional players should have some humility when assuming they can develop a corporate plan to keep employees forever.
These are some thoughts to stir discussion, conversation, and debate. ANG is positioned to work with anyone on their unique war for talent. Feel free to reach out to me ([email protected]) if you’d like to engage on this topic.
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