About 90 per cent of Generation Y employees plan to stay less than five years with one employer, while nearly 40 per cent start a new role already planning their next career move, a study said.

 

It also revealed that more than 37 per cent plan to stay no more than two years and nearly 40 per cent start a new role already planning their next career move, and are rarely dissuaded by promotion prospects which take third place to work/life balance and organisation culture.

 

London Business School in partnership with Deloitte is set to reveal the results of the five-year survey of participants from its Emerging Leaders executive education programme on June 24 at its Global Leadership Summit in London.

 

Representing 33 countries, the high-potential Generation 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.

 

Experts believe that the findings are further evidence of the failure of baby boomers and Generation X to offer benefits that appeal to the high-potential Y.

 

Adam Kingl, director of Learning Solutions, said: “One response is to revise the employer value proposition in favour of a quicker return to the employee. This might include: assigning a senior mentor to offer executive perspective unusually early, assigning Gen Ys to quick win 12-18 month team projects and an acknowledgement that while we may not work together for many years in one go, we may reunite when the Gen Y is a seasoned manager, reaping the benefits of growth without all the costs of nurturing it.”

 

The study showed 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. 

 

Richard Hytner, adjunct associate professor of Marketing and author of Consiglieri: Leading From The Shadows, said: “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.

 

“With a later retirement age and longer working life, portfolio careers encompassing roles with ultimate accountability and roles demanding different leadership skills, those of the counsellor, coach or deputy, could be Gen Y’s best chance of securing the variety of experience and work/life balance that is so important to them.” - TradeArabia News Service