Back in the day, people worked for the same employer for decades. In return for their loyalty they were rewarded with stability and a good pension. Less tangible benefits included feeling that you had a ‘family’ of people around in the business that, though annoying at times, would look after your interests.

Since people moved through the ranks, there was a lot of stability. Things have obviously changed. Workplaces no longer offer the long-term sense of permanence that they used to, ripping up the image of a stable family environment for workers and creating a headache for employers.

Although organisations know very well that people are not likely to be working there in say 20 years time, they still create many of their policies as if people will be. Holiday entitlement increases with time served, as does sickness leave and, of course, pension entitlement. Organisations want to believe that people will stick around even though this is something of an illusion. Employers genuinely try to hold onto their staff and are constantly trying to think of new gimmicks to hold onto them – however they are doing this against the tide of tenure becoming shorter and shorter.

The prevailing, probably entrenched by now, truth of the matter is that gen Z and millennials (and even older employees) are not going to stick around in a job they don’t want to occupy for any more time than they need to. For reasons ranging from needing more money to wanting a change, people are positively seeking new employment, sometimes within months of starting a role. In fact, it can be seen as a sign of being an old fuddy-duddy to stay in a job for too long.

Training people is not cheap. Frequent churn poses a big problem for organisations. People fresh into a new role take time to learn the ropes. If they then leave pretty quickly, the training and other investment that an organisation has made in them is effectively wasted. Even worse, if people go into each job thinking they will be out in a year or so, they may not actually move past first gear in the role anyway, preferring to do the minimum for the money.

There are multiple discussion groups on social media devoted to people sharing how they try and remain under the radar or try and palm off work to colleagues because their strategic plan is to get out soon. Contracting, made popular in the last century, has become a convenient way to legitimately play the short-term card. In this case you will probably have to really earn the (sometimes considerable) money though.

How organisations deal with the culture of short-termism will depend on the value of retaining employees to them. Some employers are already geared to a revolving door of new workers, those in the volume labour market such as warehousing and some admin roles, for example. The gig economy is the ultimate in short-term working for many. For higher-skilled roles, organisations will need to consider whether their best strategy is to entice people to stay, or plan work differently so that people can enter and leave without causing gaping holes in knowledge and delivery. There will probably be a combination of both.

Employers have the tricky task of trying to hang on to their people, whilst accepting the reality that they will probably say goodbye to most of them within a few years. The whole work environment is changing to accommodate this, with common ground emerging in terms of workflow platforms and reporting styles, knowledge of which move with the person. Being similar to other organisations is a good thing when turnover is rapid. The hooks to keep people become less about the work and more about the culture and it is this that the most progressive firms are concentrating on.

People need to work; they are also more prepared to move jobs than ever before. It’s essential that both employers and employees are aware of the pros and cons. Moving on can equate to progression and a degree of empowerment. However, frequent change comes with the emotional turmoil of frequent change and no amount of improved administration can compensate for the unsettling effect that a constant churn of people creates in an organisation. The acid test(s) are job satisfaction and productivity!

This article is from ‘What’s Happening to Work’.