Why are you losing your top talent to up and coming start ups

Are talented employees quitting your organization to take their chances working for promising start-ups? Then perhaps it’s time to rethink your approach to talent retention.

Why are you losing your top talent to up and coming start ups?

“Start-ups, which generally tend to have lean teams, can sometimes face the brunt of employees quitting their jobs very early on due to a number of reasons.

Are talented employees quitting your organization to take their chances working for promising start-ups? Then perhaps it’s time to rethink your approach to talent retention. We’re happy to share our advice below.

The start-up magnet

Young professionals and high potentials find working for a start-up attractive for several reasons:

  • Start-ups offer various jobs in dynamic sectors such as digital marketing.
  • Start-ups brand themselves as hip and trendy employers and always encourage their employees to help them discover ‘the next big thing’. Often, its employees feel that they are creating a great deal of added value.
  • The corporate culture at start-ups tends to be young, open and flexible.
  • High potentials believe small enterprises offer more and faster growth opportunities.
  • Working for an up-and-coming start-up looks great on your resume, because it is an indication of entrepreneurship.
  • “Start-ups can sometimes face the brunt of employees quitting their jobs very early” – Sheha Banerjee, entrepreneur

The above-mentioned factors explain why talented professionals love the idea of working for a start-up. But while start-ups excel in talent attraction, they often experience problems when it comes to talent retention. Sheha Banerjee describes the problem as follows in The Entrepreneur:

“Start-ups, which generally tend to have lean teams, can sometimes face the brunt of employees quitting their jobs very early on due to a number of reasons. One of the major reasons cited by entrepreneurs has been the lack of patience and a prolonged hangover of a multinational ambience.”

One of the major reasons cited by entrepreneurs has been the lack of patience and a prolonged hangover of a multinational ambience.

Sheha Banerjee in The Entrepreneur

Talent retention: nurturing top talent

Retention involves more than the qualities that make start-ups so alluring in their early stages. The best methods to retain talented employees are:

  1. Create a new role pattern. Forget the traditional boss-employee relationship. Be quick to give young people more responsibilities – just like a start-up would – and reduce hierarchy within your organization.
  2. Cultivate your employees’ sense of ownership. Helping employees feel connected to their job is not only crucial to ensure quality, it also increases job satisfaction and employee retention.
  3. Reward your most promising employees for their excellent performance, while also offering them incentives to continue to grow. Create personalized career opportunities. Every company offers training programs these days, so make sure yours are perfectly attuned to each individual employee’s competencies, desires and ambitions. Offer your employees plenty of opportunities to develop skills that they might not need right away, but which will come in handy for future projects.

Are you looking for more advise on your recruitment- and retention strategy? Let’s get in touch. At Batenborch, consultants are specialized in Sales, Marketing, and Digital propositions from mid- to top management level. Performing by a candidate-driven, pro-active process. Building on an extensive, international network of top professionals. Operating within the branches Consumer, Industry, Services, ICT or Healthcare. Domains within which we are the benchmark.

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