It’s time we revaluated employee – employer relationships

By Richard Frodin, Chief Growth Officer for Ten10

The job market is evolving. Rapidly. You only have to look at the media soundbites over the last few years: The Great Resignation, The Big Stay, Quiet Quitting and the high-profile mass layoffs across huge tech giants like Google, Meta and X (formally known as Twitter) that have flooded headlines. That’s not to mention the disruption from AI, as employers evaluate the impact it will make on businesses over the next year, and employees are left wondering what it will mean for their careers as it continues to automate everyday tasks.

There are clearly many mechanisms moving that are contributing to the velocity in the job market right now, and employers may feel they’re firefighting many fires, but one of the biggest issues we’re facing, particularly in the technology sector, is talent retention. The Register recently reported that more than a quarter of mid-market organisations could only keep tech staff between one and six months.

One of the biggest gaps that’s often ignored, or at least deprioritised, is actually looking at what your expectations are with your employees and understanding the realities of the job market and the needs of your workforce.

Your employees are not ‘assets’

I hear this phrase constantly – . People are not assets, they’re nothing like it. Your office building can’t move itself up the road. Your machinery doesn’t suddenly decide it would rather be in the factory next door. Your IP can’t pick itself up and transfer to a competitor tomorrow. But people do.

This view is part of the problem. Your employees are not assets, but investors in your business. They invest their time and their expertise into your company, and at that same time they are getting, of course, paid, but also earning knowledge and experience through their work. Flipping the relationship as a synergy between employee and company recognises that as your company grows, so do they.

Why is this so important? The UK has a productivity obsession, and the stats don’t look too good: we currently lag behind several comparable economies, like the US, Germany and France. A report published by the London School of Economics shows that since the 2008 financial crisis we’ve faced 15 years of stagnation, and this is partially due to the lack of skills investment and reform.

Changing the mindset

Just like with your financial investors, the key role of the business leader is to attract, involve, engage and retain your “talent investors”. If you don’t make your company a place where your people think it’s the best place for their personal growth, then they’ll take their investment elsewhere.

Your company needs to be somewhere where people can grow their value, and in turn, they’ll keep investing in you. If you don’t make your company a place where your people think it’s the best place for their personal growth, then they’ll take their investment elsewhere. We saw how radically – and rapidly – that can occur with OpenAI last year. The Board decided to exit Sam Altman, and overnight a multi-billion-dollar business risked becoming a worthless husk as over 700 other people said they’d move somewhere else with him the very next day, causing the board to inevitably quickly backtrack.

This underscores the reason why it is important for leaders to prioritise the development and well-being of their workforce and ensure that their company remains an attractive destination for talent investment. Failure to do so risks losing these staff to competitors.

Cultivate collaboration

So, it’s clear we need to reframe. It’s not just about some fluffy directive of ‘investing in people’ but a rational, capitalist, profit-seeking act in a competitive market. Tech is a sector where innovation drives success, and cultivating a culture that prioritises employee growth isn’t just a feel-good gesture; it’s a business move.

With the current tech skills crisis, never had it been more important to make sure you are reskilling and reengaging your workforce to stay competitive. Things like leveraging consultancies can be a strategic approach. These consultancies offer specialised expertise and resources to design tailored reskilling programs that align with the company’s objectives and can provide tangible skills that staff can take on, utilise and invest BACK in your business. It’s all about reframing this as a synergy, input and output.

Make sure your organisation is somewhere people can grow their value, and they’ll keep investing in you.

It’s time we revaluated employee – employer relationships