
Tech giants struggle to retain their people, can other companies cope with it?
The length on the talent ration of tech giants of the likes of Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple will vary depend on which study you read, but the reality remains the same, no matter how well paid the roles are, the exciting benefits, rewarding work or how prestigious the company is; the average tenure is very low when compared with more traditional organisations. Can other companies cope with such fast rotation?
For many traditional organisation, is not unusual to find people in their teams with 10, 20 and even 40 years in the company, something that when compared with the fast change presented by many tech companies, highlights a significant contrast. If this trend starts to expand beyond Silicon Valley, can traditional organisations cope with it?
It is hard to say, but if there’s a key lesson to take from Silicon Valley is flexibility. The realisation of new patterns, behaviours and interest from younger working forces have become critical to their success and cultures, making them able to adapt to the challenge that might represent high rotation in an already very fast paced and competitive industry.
Moreover, this flexibility comes by acknowledging the need for it in the first place. They embedded it into their processes and operations, allowing them to keep doing what they do without major disruption in the case that someone leaves or a couple of people just joined.
The major threat for traditional organisations, would be the failure to recognise this as a reality that can affect them as well in a medium or long term; eventually facing the need to abruptly adapt when the time comes.
At the end of the day, if the most attractive companies in the world, are failing to retain their people, what would make yours the exception? But most importantly, how would you cope with it?
How would you deal with the fact of having to hire for one of your key roles every 12 months?

