Why good people leave good jobs and how you can prevent it from happening to your company

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By Nicole Saunders, Product Marketing Manager

As I sit here at San Francisco International Airport waiting for my flight, I can’t help but be amazed.  Thousands of passengers and hundreds of planes come through this airport every day, they all have a plan of where they are going and how they are going to get there. 

Can your employees say the same about their careers?

Imagine what would happen if planes didn’t follow flight paths.  Mass chaos would ensue in the skies and passengers would no longer choose to fly.  Similarly, when employees don’t have a career path to follow, they struggle to achieve career growth and envision a future with their current employer, leading them to jump ship to look for career advancement opportunities elsewhere. 

Career advancement is a top priority for today’s employees. 

Today’s employees are looking for better jobs, titles and salaries.  According to a recent survey, the number one reason employees left their jobs was for greater opportunities for advancement, followed by better leadership from senior management and better compensation and benefits.¹   

In fact, there is a growing trend in employee turnover with most industries experiencing a year-over-year increase.²   One study found that nearly 40% of turnover occurred within six months or less of hiring, costing employers valuable resources in the process.³  But there's a silver lining, over half of annual employee turnover is voluntary and preventable.⁴

So, how can you engage and retain your top performers?

Make sure your employees are aware of internal talent mobility programs. This may seem like an obvious solution, yet, many HR and talent acquisition professionals overestimate employee awareness of their internal mobility programs by more than two times.⁵  The reality is, many employees perceive a lack of promotion, advancement and career opportunities, leading to dissatisfaction, low employee engagement and high turnover.

Drive better employee engagement

Having the tools, processes and programs to support employee career development don’t automatically guarantee employee engagement and retention. These tools need to be accessible, easy to use, and tailored to the individual. 

We’ve recently added several enhancements to SuccessFactors Succession & Development that do just that! 

In our continuing effort to drive better engagement, we’ve added a suggested roles feature that automatically recommends potential roles that would be a good fit for an employee based on their unique set of talents. The suggested roles are automatically and immediately visible on the suggested roles tab in the employee career development worksheet – making it easy and quick for employees to view and assess.  Simply click on a suggested role to add it to the career worksheet as a future target role. 

Image 1: Suggested Roles

Despite the priority employees place on career advancement opportunities, many companies are not leveraging the power of a clearly defined career path to engage and retain employees.  The hierarchies that once made straight career paths simple are disappearing - organizations are becoming flatter, and traditional linear “corporate ladder” career paths no longer cut it.

Just as a flight path is unique to each plane and its journey, career paths must be tailored to employee interests, skills and career goals. 

With the SuccessFactors November 2014 release, we’re helping employees visualize their future within your organization. The SuccessFactors Succession & Development solution now allows employees to view career paths for various career tracks within your company, such as managerial or technical career paths.  You can view the entire job profile by clicking on a node in the career path, as well as create or update a career path by replacing or deleting a node, and permission who can see the career path to target groups, such as high potentials, business units, or teams.  You're sure to enjoy this added flexibility and control!

Image 2: Multiple Career Paths Designate Unique Career Tracks

These are just a few of our recent enhancements.  For a complete list and more details, please visit the SuccessFactors Customer Community (Login required).

References

1.  LinkedIn Exit Survey, 2014.

2. Bureau of Labor Statistics

3. Equifax Workforce Insights, 2013.

4. LinkedIn Exit Survey, 2014.

5. LinkedIn, 2013 Global Recruiting Trends Survey.