The events of the last couple days have gotten me thinking about employee loyalty. Not mine – things at Infy are going pretty well. No, I was thinking more about how loyalty changes and remains the same no matter if you’re at the bottom of the pile as a new recent graduate or, say the head football coach at your alma-mater.
Young employees often come to a company, gain all the experience they can and then suddenly move on to better pastures. The company provides some free training and gets very little in return (ROI on new employees sits at around 18 months if my tired memory serves correct. And, the average time of a first time employee leaving a company – yup 18 months.
We get older.
We advance through the stages with an occasional stop off for an MBA. Leave grad school, return to the work force – and once again 18 months and we’re they’re gone. For whatever reason, a year and a half is the time for a proper calibration of interests.
So, let’s move time along shall we? Let’s say your the head football coach of your alma-mater. Your irritating southern accent is everywhere from bank commercials to Coca-Cola ads. You make roughly 12 million dollars a year and have built the program into a near powerhouse one win (guh) away from a National Championship game. Things are going pretty well, eh?
Most of us would say so – the stadium is sold out, he’s a hero to a small state that loves it’s football. So, does this mean that once you get to where you say you want to be – The Head Football Coach of the WVU Mountaineers – the desire to move would lesson?
We already know the answer to that question today, now don’t we?
Great article on Yahoo Sports Today: