LP #005

Companies have a knack of perceiving what is in the best interest of their employees. In most cases, it might not match with what the employee had in mind or would have even considered. This is where the “amazing opportunity” becomes an ultimatum.

So was the same in my case.

I was given the unbelievable opportunity to be transferred to my HQ in Beijing, China and work in the core team there. I on the other hand had no intention of leaving Dubai. The reasons for not leaving were many including the time and money I had already spent in building a life here in Dubai to the extreme difficulty I would have to go through in establishing myself in a city where 1 in 100 people spoke English.

I decided it was time to pack my stuff and leave. Not the country, but the company.

I have heard of many companies losing out on high quality staff because they did not agree with some of the career advancement plans that the company has chalked out for them. They did just what I did… They left!!

When it comes to career advancement plans or career mapping, the employee needs to be actively involved from the start to the end so that both parties involved have an equal say and manage to define the best or the most amicable way forward. A one sided decision is never a good approach. It might work if that particular employee does not have an iota of a plan as to what he wants to do in his career not otherwise.

Employees who are highly productive or are the star performers already have a draft in mind as to how they intend to progress in their careers and it is in the best interest of the management to keep that in consideration. Some ways they can ensure that the packing of bags is kept to a minimum are

1. Define 2 year career plans on the date of joining

2. Involve the line manager/division head in quarterly reviews

3. Yearly objective (non corporate) setting meetings with the Career Enhancement Team

4. Set up a career enhancement team comprising of an HR representative, an in house mentor of the employees choice and division head.

5. Introduction of “Cluster HR Managers” who will be in charge of a section of the employees and will oversee multiple Career Enhancement Teams.

These might seem too much of an investment of time and money for an organisation, but in the long run it will reap rich rewards as they will have a set of completely motivated and productive employees working for them. The employees will be happy that they are being taken care off and the management will not have to worry about employee retention and induced training costs.

There is a saying that goes.. “Employees do not leave companies, they leave managers.” I would however like to put a twist on it… “Employees do not leave bad companies, they leave indifferent ones.

The author is a seasoned marketer with experience over various platforms and marketing functions and is currently employed with one of the largest internet/mobile application companies in the world. Degrees apart, lessons learnt from the School of Hard Knocks and the University of Life has defined his professional and personal outlook.