90% Gen Y-ers just won’t stay put in job

The vast majority of Generation Y employees plan to stay less than five years with one employer, according to a new survey conducted by London Business School, of which 30 per cent survey participants come from the GCC region.

Representing 33 countries, the high-potential Gen Y respondents were asked what they value in an employer, how long they want to stay with one and how they will lead when they eventually reach the C-Suite. A startling 90 per cent said they planned to stay no longer than five years with one employer.

The business school reveals that more than a third (37 per cent) plan to stay no more than two years with their employers.

A good number – almost 40 per cent – start a new role already planning their next career move and they are rarely dissuaded by promotion prospects which take third place to work/life balance and organisational culture.

According to experts in executive education at London Business School, the findings are further evidence of the failure of baby boomers and Generation X to offer benefits that appeal to the high-potential Y.

The study also shows that only 12 per cent of emerging leaders aspire to emulate CEOs who focus on how the business is trading. Developing and promoting innovation is a top priority for Gen Y, 34 per cent of whom want to be CEOs, who take an entrepreneurial approach to company management. An even higher percentage (39 per cent) say they want to be CEOs whose aim is to make the company and the world a better place.

With a later retirement age and longer working life, Richard Hytner, Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing, London Business School and author of Consiglieri: Leading From The Shadows, believes portfolio careers could be the answer.

“Leaders with ultimate accountability have to endure relentless dissatisfaction from shareholders, employers or customers and frequently all three. Always in the limelight, making and justifying often public and sometimes unpopular decisions, these leaders occupy a twilight zone of professional and personal trade-offs, leaving little time for the flexing of creative muscles and a more entrepreneurial approach,” Hytner says.

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