Your “tragic” digital workplace means the best young people just don’t want to work for you.
Here is a conversation I was told about:
Kelly: “Hi Dave, I’m going to have to leave my new role at Zeus Auto.”
Dave: “But you only started here yesterday. What’s happened? You can’t leave.”
Kelly: “Yes, I know, it sounds nuts, but to be honest, it’s just too hard to get anything done here. Zeus Auto is a great brand and has terrific values and the role could be wonderful but your tech sucks – and not just a bit – a lot. It’s like being thrust back into 2002 and I just can’t be bothered trying to make an impact here when the systems are so awful. Anyway, got to dash – thanks for the opportunity, but I’m done.”
Dave: “Nooooooo.”
OK, so I am masking the names and have adapted the words to protect the innocent, but this conversation did happen and was retold to me by someone on the receiving end.
The best young talent you want and need in your company no longer view a modern advanced digital workplace as desirable – they see it as essential. They will either not join you at all or will quickly leave if your digital world of work doesn’t purr like a Ferrari in the same way they experienced at “Start-up X” or when doing their own freelance gigs while still at college.
Unemployment for decently skilled people in the US and UK, as well as other major economies, is at historic lows, so while all we hear is that “those robots are taking our jobs”, the reality in 2018 is actually the opposite – too much work for too few people. Young skilled people can afford to be very choosy.
So, if you can’t offer a digital workplace of which you can be proud, all the HR efforts around recruitment and retention are just wasted time and money, because even if they do come on board, the best ones will leave.
And it gets worse. The people who will stay are those you wish you hadn’t hired in the first place – you know who they are! Having a digital employee experience that is smooth, efficient and even pleasurable is crucial for talent retention.
Take the next step
Knowledge Management lessons for digital workplace practitioners:
How to avoid reinventing the wheel
Categorised in: Digital workplace
