Two young men graduate from university at the same time, join the same large UK company’s graduate trainee scheme and met working at one of the organisations operational bases in Scotland. After three years one seeks promotion elsewhere whilst the other stays put.
Both get married and have young families. One continues to move around the country in search of promotion and better pay. Each move provides a bigger house in a more desirable location for his expanding family. He would start work in a new post and a new location before the old house had been sold and the new one bought leaving him to live in rented accommodation only returning to the family home at the weekends.
This arrangement could go on for months adding to the stress involved in buying and selling a property. Each move involved relocating his young now school age family. The oldest child goes to three different primary schools and two different secondary schools by the time his dad reaches a senior post. In his mid fifties he is made redundant. He receives a very generous redundancy package but is unemployed for several years. Unable to find a comparable post elsewhere he takes sales work in an unrelated business which with commissions and bonuses gives him a sufficient income to get by until he retires. His savings and several different small works pensions provide for life after retirement
His fellow graduate trainee spends his whole career with the same company. He continues to work from the same base although as his responsibilities in grow he regularly visits the company head quarters in London. He gradually works his way up the company career ladder, his experience and loyalty being rewarded with significant pay rises allowing him to move from their first family home into a much grander house in a desirable location but still with in the school catchment area. He works till he is sixty then takes retirement on a generous pension based on his final salary.
When talent is in short supply there is a great advantage to organisations in retaining skilled and experienced employees. Organisations need to challenge the view that talent needs to move to get the opportunities and rewards it merits. Organisations that wish to retain talented individuals need to make it clear that they have a career structure that rewards talent and loyalty. They should also make the most of the advantages staying in one place offers the employees family in an era when the work life balance is increasingly an important consideration.
