“I heard you can help me reduce my employee turnover,” the executive said. “Although I’m not sure how you can help because I know how to keep people. I’ve got folks who’ve been with me for decades, it’s just these new hires who keep quitting. They have no loyalty, and frankly, they just don’t want to work.”
Our retention strategists at Magnet Culture got this call years ago and still hear the same story, told in different voices from coast to coast. Frustrated executives. Burned-out leaders. HR pros pulling their hair out. Many are seasoned professionals who suddenly find themselves leading in a landscape that looks nothing like the work world they trained for. It’s not that these leaders can’t see what’s happening. They’re just doing their best in a world that’s shifted beneath their feet this past decade faster than anyone expected.
What’s Really Going On?
The lie we often hear:
No one wants to work.
And the game-changing truth: The workforce isn’t broken – it’s just evolved. People haven’t stopped wanting to work; they’ve stopped tolerating workplaces that have forced leaders to “do more with less” for so long that they’re no longer able to be great leaders for their teams.
The real problem isn’t “kids these days.” It’s the outdated assumptions about work ethic and loyalty that many organizations are still clinging to that simply aren’t (and never were) sustainable practices.
When we asked that executive a few questions, it didn’t take long to uncover the deeper issue. Back in the day, stability and “doing things the way we always have” were attractive to employees.
But today’s workforce? They have different expectations than previous generations. They crave growth and culture more than tenure and titles. And what’s attractive to them is far different than what attracted and kept previous generations of employees.
New hires won’t settle for a “sink or swim” onboarding process. They expect leaders to know how (and have the time) to communicate clearly and lead effectively. And this isn’t just about twenty-somethings. Every new hire, regardless of age, is walking in with higher expectations—for leadership, clarity, flexibility, and purpose.
Has your culture taken a backseat to higher sales and operational priorities over the past decade? Has your leadership development budget been cut and never reinstated? Have you done “the best you can” but still can’t compete against employers down the street to attract the talent you need?
Perhaps a whole new approach is needed to be successful moving forward.
Does your leadership team know who owns employee retention? Or is the blame game running rampant in conversations as no one has time to own it?
The above excerpt comes from the Magnet Culture minibook, The Employee Retention Ecosystem™: How to Create a Workplace Where Employees Thrive, written by Cara Silletto, MBA, CSP and Alayna Thomas, MS, SHRM-SCP. To download the free eBook or purchase physical copies, visit the Magnet Vault!
