We make a promise to our people: Whenever you join, however long you stay, the exceptional experience you'll have with our company lasts a lifetime. To deliver on this promise, we take an inclusive approach.
In short, it’s not enough to focus on hiring, training, supporting and developing the people who join your organization. You must do the same for those whose career journeys take them beyond your firm.
Relationships Shouldn’t End With A Departure
HR is in the people business, and relationships are the thread that binds us in the workforce. Although investing in attrition might seem counterintuitive, it’s got a powerful return on investment that’s often overlooked.
A person's experience in an organization determines his or her desire to keep a connection to it and opinion of it after leaving. Essentially, all employees are future alumni. So instead of viewing exits as the end of the relationship, what if you viewed them as a strategic and invaluable part of your lasting relationship?
At our firm, we’ve seen the tremendous impact of supporting and championing people as they explore external career options. By investing in career transitions, it's possible to create a network of lifelong advocates, ambassadors and buyers of your services. It’s doing what’s best for your people, and it gives any organization a strong competitive advantage in the marketplace.
In today’s transformational world, it pays to deferentially invest in the career transitions of senior managers exploring career options inside and outside of the firm, and your retiring leaders looking to plan their next chapter. Senior managers are generally on the cusp of Gen X and the millennial generation, with 10 to 15 years of career experience. They’re more plugged in than any other generation before them. They want to explore opportunities and find work they’re passionate about — work that will help them develop into leaders of the future.
Not all senior managers aspire to the traditional goal of making partner. Sometimes, the experience they seek will exist outside of your organization. They’re personalizing their career paths like never before, so it makes sense to build a bridge connecting them with a world of opportunity beyond your company.
The baby boomer generation is starting to retire in droves, with one estimate stating roughly 10,000 men and women will turn 65 each day for the next 10 years. But this group isn’t just leaving the workforce — they are changing the meaning of retirement, with many seeking board appointments or consulting work, or moving on to new roles elsewhere. For retiring leaders who might have spent 30 or 40 years with the same firm, endings can be especially challenging. HR teams may realize there is more they could do to empower and equip them for what comes next.
• Help your people look before they leap: When deciding to make a major career change, the tendency is to jump right in. Instead, encourage your people to pause and think about their strengths, values, passions and career goals. Creating a vision of what success looks like in the next stage will help ensure they land in the best place.
• Make sure they’re purpose-driven: Having a sense of purpose means greater fulfillment and satisfaction, and purpose-driven leaders create a better working world. But identifying one’s purpose doesn’t always come naturally — or easily. Provide opportunities for your people to discover and activate their purpose. For example, our Future Directions program for retiring leaders includes workshops and executive coaching that help our people uncover what matters most in their lives.
• Establish the right resources: Supporting career transitions requires the right resources. Provide confidential career coaching, facilitated networking, market opportunity insight and career-planning resources to senior managers and alumni exploring career options. While creating a career center may not be feasible for every organization, it is possible to establish an environment where open, honest career conversations are the norm. Start by equipping your leaders with the skills to engage in transparent and supportive career discussions with their people.
Designing your exit models around these three principles can help create smoother transitions and lasting, trusted relationships that will facilitate continuing to do business together — regardless of whether people work under the same roof. Most importantly, you’ll be helping your people find the place where they can make the greatest contribution, which is a win for both of you.
