Citizens Bank says that today’s workforce is redefining career success.
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I have a mantra that I’ve shared with clients and audiences for years:
What’s happening inside an organization is felt on the outside by customers.
In other words, if you want a great customer experience (CX), start with a great employee experience (EX). Engaged employees are more likely to engage customers. And when good employees leave, the cost goes far beyond replacing their salary.
Companies obsess over customer churn, and they should. But companies should also be just as concerned, maybe even more so, with employee churn, especially when the employees who are leaving are younger people with the potential to become the organization’s leaders.
I recently interviewed Mark Valentino, head of business banking at Citizens Bank, on Amazing Business Radio. I thought we were going to talk about Citizens’ marketing and CX strategy, but I was pleasantly surprised when Valentino shifted the conversation to how he keeps his best employees. We discussed what younger employees want and what leaders need to do differently to keep them. Valentino’s commentary is important for every leader to understand and accept: The workforce has changed and employers must change with it.
The Next Generation Is Redefining Success
A traditional career path used to be predictable. Someone goes to work for a good company, they work hard, they get typical raises and promotions, and if everything goes well, they stay for many years, if not a full career.
While job hopping has always existed, younger employees are looking at their careers differently. According to Valentino, what was once considered job hopping is now how younger employees build their careers, moving up the ladder with different companies, rather than just one.
Citizens’ Next Gen: Future of Success Survey polled 2,309 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 34. The findings support Valentino’s commentary. The research found that this age group defines career success by financial independence (52%), work-life balance (50%) and building new and valuable skills (44%). In addition, 67% are pursuing entrepreneurship.
Valentino said, “We as leaders need to figure out how to make the work meaningful for them and not the other way around.”
If you look at successful leaders promoted within the same company throughout their careers, the findings aren’t all that different from what employees have always wanted. However, the shift to more job hopping, the focus on work-life balance and the interest in entrepreneurship can’t be ignored.
Create a Gig Economy Inside Your Company
Speaking of entrepreneurship, Citizens has experimented with what Valentino calls “gig roles inside the company.” An employee working in one area can participate in a short-term project in another part of the company.
That’s a powerful employee-retention strategy worth considering. Google has done something similar since the early 2000s with its 20% Time program, which allows engineers to work on projects of their choice. When you let people spend a portion of their work week on projects they want to do beyond their day-to-day responsibilities, it helps retain the best people.
Back to Valentino’s comments, if younger employees want new experiences, new skills and new challenges, why force them to leave the company to get them?
His point is that giving talented employees new opportunities outside the jobs they were originally hired to do is motivating. This gives a young employee a way to discover a new career opportunity without ever leaving the organization.
Money Isn’t the Only Thing that Matters
Valentino knows compensation matters, but it isn’t the entire employee experience. The younger generation in particular values meaningful work that supports the career goals mentioned above. At Citizens, the focus is on three areas: colleagues, customers and community. Valentino knows that you start with colleagues. When employees find their work meaningful and they are valued, the result is a more engaged employee and a better outcome for customers, which takes us back to where we started:
What’s happening inside an organization is felt on the outside by customers.
Final Words
Employee churn is a very real problem, and eventually, it can become a customer experience problem.
Every time a potential rock-star employee leaves, the company loses more than a person. It loses the time, money, training, knowledge and experience invested in turning that employee into someone who can perform like … a rock star.
Valentino’s point is that the current and next generation of employees may not want to work the way previous generations did. Leaders must understand what motivates them. Valentino says it’s up to leaders to “figure out how to create meaningful opportunities for this generation to participate.” Companies that figure this out won’t just keep more of their best employees. They’ll also keep their best customers.
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