Is Employee Loyalty A Thing Of The Past?

By Stephanie Salguero

In past decades, regardless of industry, people only searched for a job when they needed one. They would stay in one place for their entire career and were incredibly loyal. However, in today’s world, people are, more open than ever to opportunities outside their existing employment. In fact, research from CareerBuilder suggests that by age 35, a quarter of workers have held five jobs or more.

So, what does this mean for the consulting industry, is employee loyalty a thing of the past?

Talent in Consulting

As we know, the UK consulting industry is battling a shortage of talent. As a result, it is an employee’s market as opposed to an employer’s market.

In addition, with the digital revolution underway, the new generation of workers bring valuable and in-demand digital skills to the consulting industry. This talent is not only being chased by your competitors, it’s also considering moving jobs frequently for the right opportunity. In this competitive context, how do you keep your employees loyal?

”The next generation of students are very digitally aware. Attracting and retaining them requires digital dexterity.”
Partner, FTSE Top 100 consulting firm (Consulting Industry Snapshot 2016)

Building Loyalty

1. Become a digital champion

Attract the new generation by transforming your firm digitally and making them part of the process. They bring to the table their ability to understand key digital trends and inspire new ways of thinking in a diverse workforce. This is the key to innovation and unlocking new ways of adding value. If you commit to being a digital champion and always keep on top of new technologies to streamline your firm, your workforce will be compelled to stay rather than leave for another company which is arguably less digitally aware with slow manual processes.

2. Give support, get engagement

”The project was coming to an end and I got head hunted.”
Employee, consulting firm (Infrastructure Intelligence survey, 2015)

Does this quote sound familiar to you?

Avoid losing your staff by involving them in project allocation right at the beginning. It’s important to empower them to make decisions about their work and train them for the new projects coming up instead of hiring ad hoc contractors. This could upset your existing employees keen to upgrade their skills to move to more complex projects. Keep them firmly on your side by planning their future with them.

3. Benefits: One size doesn’t fit all

Your workers will be more likely to stay if you offer competitive benefits and a good working environment. However, with multiple generations in the workforce, there is opportunity to further personalise this aspect of the business and engage with all employees. For example you could personalise the benefits according to the needs of the different generations – providing an ‘a la carte’ option to suit individuals.

A research study from Ultimate Software suggested 25 percent of millennials believe that staying at a job for just seven months indicates they’re loyal. Loyalty is not what it used to be but that doesn’t mean it’s a thing of the past. Consider a retention strategy and you will be rewarded with loyal employees.