Page 18 - Retaining Top Employees

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6 Retaining Top Employees

Understand the Reasons for Job Mobility
The increase in voluntary employee turnover is in large part
the result of an increase in job mobility—in essence a
reduction of the friction involved in switching jobs—and is caused by a
number of factors coming together,primarily:
• More information about job openings elsewhere,through TV,radio,
newspapers,magazines,and the Web.
• Dramatic reductions in the cost of travel and relocation.
• A shift in personal values as the global economy moved out of post-
war austerity.
• An increase in skills development opportunities and cross-training,
making people more “employable.”
• The decline of the industrial conglomerate,breaking up old hiring
practices.
• The globalization of manufacturing competition,requiring more
mobility of skills.
• Large-scale layoffs,reducing the loyalty employees felt toward their
employers.
• The rise of small and medium-sized businesses as competitive employ-
ers,providing viable employment opportunities in most urban areas.

aspirin for the headache—a straightforward response to the rise
in employee turnover: how can we stop people voluntarily leav-
ing this organization at the rate they are doing?
However, as we’ve already seen, the root cause of voluntary
employee turnover—increased job mobility—was a complex
amalgam of trends and events (see sidebar on mobility), not
any single, simple thing.
Because of the complexity of the changes happening in the
industrial and commercial environment, it took some time for
employers to understand that, in essence, the power in the
employer-employee relationship was shifting from the employer
to the employee.
Eventually, it became clear that trying to maintain the old,
paternalistic “status quo” employer-employee relationship was
not going to reduce the growing rate of employee turnover from
which many organizations were suffering. Employers had to do
something to staunch the flow.