Good morning!
It may be a hiring manager’s job market, but employers are still stressed out about how to recruit and retain their top talent. And as it turns out, they may be approaching employee loyalty all wrong.
What employees want from their companies, and what inspires loyalty, changes over the course of their tenures, according to a new report from Workday, a cloud-based software company.
Workers within the first few months of their new job are looking for organizational fit, the ability to express their opinions freely, and to be inspired by company strategy, among others things.
But a few years into the job, what motivates them changes significantly. People who have been at a company between one and four years care most about their career path. Organizational fit is still of interest, but so are things like trust in strategy. And as employees become more established, they also begin to value their pay packages more, and expect them to reflect their growing expertise and business impact.
For the employees who have committed to a company for the long haul—defined as four years or longer—their top loyalty driver is consistent: They want the money. Adequate compensation is the key to building loyalty with these folks, but trust in strategy comes in a close second. Seasoned workers now have the expertise and experience to seek opportunities elsewhere if they feel they’re not paid fairly.
Which is all to say, employers should take note: Loyalty is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. And targeting specific groups of employees could be the key for employers to unlock some critical retention numbers when they need them most.
Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com
