Need a Change

Shawnee Love   •  
February 21, 2014

Just yesterday, I had another applicant tell me that he left his previous job “because he needed a change”.  While it can happen at any time, the loss for a company increases the more tenure the employee had and this guy had a lot.

It is understandable that people will occasionally stop and reflect on their careers and wonder what else or what next.  If they don’t see a future that appeals to them in their current company, they begin to look outside.

People want challenge and opportunity.  They want to see a desirable future with their company. They want the chance to try new things, to learn, to grow.  Providing these is usually one of the goals of career development programs.  However, if you are a manager in a company that doesn’t have a career development program, consider doing it yourself:

  • Ask your employees where they see their career going and what else they want to be doing.
  • Design appealing opportunities that address their employees’ answers to those questions.

No matter how tempting it is to keep your most experienced and most talented people in their current jobs, if you don’t give them opportunities to learn, make mistakes, and be “new” again, you risk losing your top people.