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Employee loyalty is low, churn is high

A good media friend of mine posted the below today, and I love the debate it throws up. Have a read of his thoughts, my response, and let me know what you think.

 

As the cost of tech continues to fall to zero and access to adtech becomes ubiquitous, talent will become the true differentiator between agencies.

However employee loyalty is low, churn is high. It doesn't make sense for agencies to invest a huge amount in their staff unless they get a return on their investment which is hard if people up sticks every two years.

Could agencies develop optional amends to contracts that allows employees to sacrifice 5-10% of salaries in exchange for investment in external training. If the employees stay at the agency for 5 years. They would then recoup the money in a lump some. And the scheme could start again.

Internal training would be made available to everyone.

I would find this very compelling

Fabio Labate - 17th Apr 2018

 

That would make for an incredibly interesting debate Fabio, but I think the low loyalty & high churn can also be sourced from deeper within, and not solely hung on the employee.

We recently carried out a confidential study of 2018 graduates, and when asked how long they intend to stay in a role, over 50% said they would stay forever if they were happy. We could go on forever about what contributes to “happiness”, but that’s for another time. What was striking though, was the contrast to what most believe to be true about Generation Z, and the snowflake effect.

I fear the low loyalty & high churn is a sad reflection filtering down from the short-termism view coming from businesses in general over the last 5-10 years. The average CEO tenure is now 4.8 years, down from 8.3 in 2010. A junior exec certainly isn’t going to stick around if they don’t see his SLT in it for the long term. Where is the belief & direction?

It’s a similar story with Marketing Directors, and managers of football teams

Everyone has quickly forgotten the most successful manager in recent years is Alex Ferguson. He was in it for the long haul, and continually built a solid team from the foundation up, peppered with senior talent when the odd position wasn’t covered by a talented youngster.

I think media, and business in general can learn many lessons from his model, but my fear is whilst CEO’s tenure are getting ever shorter, it takes a brave person to make a bold step to actually invest in the business/talent in the long term, and carry out your suggestion.

I would love to see it happen!!

Richard Willis -17th Apr 2018

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