You can’t have escaped talk of The Great Resignation in 2021, it has been everywhere and was certainly a hot topic chatting to clients in the creative and marketing industry. One element of this topic we see raised time and again is why you should no longer expect your employees to grow up in one company.
Creative Resource Director Phil Cookson recently spoke to a client who had two employees resign. They has been with them for 3 & ½ and 4 years respectively, since graduation. They were upset at losing them and wondering what they had done wrong.
‘I turned it round and said hold on you’ve done so much right, if they’ve been with you that length of time straight out of uni that’s a long stint’ explained Phil. The average time spent in a role between 24-34 years is 2.8 years and we would expect shorter for a first role out of university.
Continuing his conversation with the client ‘you must be doing so much right that they felt they could stay with you for a long length of time, so that should be celebrated.’
Transiency is no bad thing; in fact, it can be a good thing. People moving between companies and roles can facilitate new ideas, new ways of working and freshen up an environment. In particular, if you’re working with the same clients for many years within the creative industry, getting new eyes and opinions on the work you do for them, can help you maintain and strengthen that relationship.
And key is knowing your employees, their motivations, and ambitions. Too many companies don’t have enough of these conversations, whether they be informal or formal reviews/appraisals. Knowing that information can help you either ensure your company meets them or help you realise that eventually that person will move on, and perhaps be more prepared for it.
Supporting an employee’s next move is important, for example: making it seamless for them and a nice experience, they might very well come back or if they’ve enjoyed their time with the company recommend other people to you in the future.
The power of referral in finding talent is very strong, having people in your corner saying you were a great place to work is very powerful. The opposite is also true and companies do get a reputation for being a bad place to work.
We’re always happy to talk about the difficult elements of recruitment and retention within the creative industries, so do reach out if you’d like to talk about how we’re able to help.