Losing your marketing superstar is a nightmare no one wants to wake up to. You may defend with a counter offer, but you know chances are they’ll be gone again before you’ve let out your sigh of relief – or found time to make good on all the promises you made them. Word in the recruitment profession is that they’ll leave within the year regardless. On the whole, we’ve found this to be the case though as with everything, there are exceptions. It shouldn’t be an excuse not to properly address their reasons for leaving should they accept that counter offer.
So why might they have chosen to leave?
New research* conducted by CEB, a Washington-based ‘best-practice insight and technology company’, could shed some light on not only WHY employees leave but crucially WHEN this is likely to happen.
The Why
You probably know many of the most common reasons already. Many haven’t changed over the years – an employee doesn’t get on with their boss or colleagues, they don’t see room for growth or promotion, and/or are offered a more exciting (and usually higher paid) opportunity elsewhere. So far, so logical.
CEB’s study has discovered a couple more interesting psychological factors. First off, people are much more affected than you might think by what their peers are doing and how they compare. This can motivate them to make career changes to proverbially ‘keep up with the Jones’. In terms of timing this point is a little light, would the move of a peer, say, to Senior Marketing Communications Manager, make a person immediately throw themselves into a drive for a similar promotion? Unlikely. But in the long term, they might realise it’s something they too could be capable of and could achieve. If they don’t see the possibility at their current company, while their peer group are climbing the career ladder elsewhere…well, you know how this story ends.
The When
The part of the study that really provides the When came in another factor – people also tend to think about where they planned to be at key milestones in their lives. When you were 21, where did you think you’d be at 30, 40 or 50? At these key transitional moments, people are more likely to reassess their career and act to make changes happen. It can be something akin to what happens in a midlife crisis, but positive and professional! Just before birthdays, especially turning 40 or 50, job search activity jumps up by 12% say CEB, class reunions are even more impactful with a jump up of 16%. Beyond age markers, you can also count work anniversaries – both joining the company (+6%) and moving into the current role (+9%). These are actually much more rational in a world where being in one job (one position/level, one company) for too long can make a candidate look stagnant and ineffectual to outsiders (why aren’t they being promoted?), though they may be continuing to achieve an excellent performance in role. It may look good for HR’s staff retention rates, but from their career perspective, these years focused on the same specific skillset could mean they appear to have less flexibility to adapt to new roles in future. It might be worth keeping these personal and professional milestones in mind when predicting when you may be in danger of losing a star employee. That way you’ll be able to take steps to re-engage and re-motivate them before the bell tolls (that’s a little dramatic – before you lose them).
* The Research: “The New Path Forward: Creating Compelling Careers for Employees and Organizations,” by CEB (white paper)
If you do end up in the unsatisfactory position of losing a highly valued member of your marketing team, don’t panic. Take a close look to assess the gap in sector knowledge, skills and networks that they have left behind. Then prioritise, which are the must-haves? The only nice-to-haves? There may not be a long lost marketing twin out there to replace them, you may have to – dare we say it – compromise. It might work out for the better. With the increasingly collaborative nature of marketing projects, consider team compatibility. Who’ll set new creative sparks flying, rather than rubbing people up the wrong way? For specialised skillsets and networks, it may take a little longer to find the right person, you may need an interim marketer in the meantime, you may need to try for expert help to speed up the process.
To find the right marketer faster or for marketing contractors to fill skills gaps in the interim, contact us on +44 1932 253 352 or email Melvin on mday@marketingmoves.com
