Any organisation I see today, is plagued by the problem of attrition among staff. However hard they try to retain their staff, the staff, especially the younger ones, move out to look for better opportunities. The funny thing in the microfinance sector is that, since the sector is so small, people move in circles in the same organisations. So, for example, if an employee from organisation A is leaving it to join organisation B, another employee from organisation B leaves it to join A. Both leave for better opportunities. Now, if an organisation is not good enough for one, how does it become better for another person?
And the timing of someone leaving the job is amazingly predictable. Going by trends, most people leave the organisation in a period of 10 - 14 months of joining it, and they do it every 10 - 14 months. This is soon starting to become the 'one year itch'. Looking at this phenomena, I once jokingly told my friends that our educational system is to blame for this. We move from one class to the next higher class every year, and if we do not, it means there is a failure. We have grown up with that psyche. So, even in the jobs, we try moving after a year. Does not make much sense, but the only reason I can see why people would be so desperate to leave their jobs after a one year stint.
Probably also the times we are living in plays a factor. So many options and choices for everything we do, so many television channels, so many entertainment options, our attention spans are getting lesser and lesser. We cannot focus on one channel in a TV for more than a few seconds. We get bored too soon and too often. We all need change more than the previous generations ever did. Also, the pace of life has gone so high, we burn out sooner. The pressure of work, untimely shifts and then equally exhausting and physically draining ways of partying, means we work and party in one year what the earlier generations would probably have done in three. So, we get bored of our jobs and need a change.
One more reason I see is that in these days, loyalty to an organisation pays much lower rewards than shifting continuously. You will see that you get your normal increments every year when you stick to one organisation, whereas when an offer is made, you negotiate and bargain a much better deal. Organisations also offer much higher packages and profiles to people who they are trying to poach from others than what they would pay to their own existing employees.
Times are changing.
In the earlier generations, people would join a job after college, and then retire from that job. This was pretty much the norm. At that time, it was strange for people to quit and switch jobs, sometimes even scandalous. Nowadays its just the opposite. Even when a person is perfectly happy with a job and is with a good organisation, it is common for his friends to ask him, so, how long do you plan to stick in this place, or, What? You are still with the same organisation? Its more than a year man, whats wrong? ..........
I have not added here the various other internal institutional factors that are there why people switch their jobs so frequently. There are many. But probably you all know all that already. Just though I will add on a few of my own points.
And the timing of someone leaving the job is amazingly predictable. Going by trends, most people leave the organisation in a period of 10 - 14 months of joining it, and they do it every 10 - 14 months. This is soon starting to become the 'one year itch'. Looking at this phenomena, I once jokingly told my friends that our educational system is to blame for this. We move from one class to the next higher class every year, and if we do not, it means there is a failure. We have grown up with that psyche. So, even in the jobs, we try moving after a year. Does not make much sense, but the only reason I can see why people would be so desperate to leave their jobs after a one year stint.
Probably also the times we are living in plays a factor. So many options and choices for everything we do, so many television channels, so many entertainment options, our attention spans are getting lesser and lesser. We cannot focus on one channel in a TV for more than a few seconds. We get bored too soon and too often. We all need change more than the previous generations ever did. Also, the pace of life has gone so high, we burn out sooner. The pressure of work, untimely shifts and then equally exhausting and physically draining ways of partying, means we work and party in one year what the earlier generations would probably have done in three. So, we get bored of our jobs and need a change.
One more reason I see is that in these days, loyalty to an organisation pays much lower rewards than shifting continuously. You will see that you get your normal increments every year when you stick to one organisation, whereas when an offer is made, you negotiate and bargain a much better deal. Organisations also offer much higher packages and profiles to people who they are trying to poach from others than what they would pay to their own existing employees.
Times are changing.
In the earlier generations, people would join a job after college, and then retire from that job. This was pretty much the norm. At that time, it was strange for people to quit and switch jobs, sometimes even scandalous. Nowadays its just the opposite. Even when a person is perfectly happy with a job and is with a good organisation, it is common for his friends to ask him, so, how long do you plan to stick in this place, or, What? You are still with the same organisation? Its more than a year man, whats wrong? ..........
I have not added here the various other internal institutional factors that are there why people switch their jobs so frequently. There are many. But probably you all know all that already. Just though I will add on a few of my own points.
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