A global war for talent is underway as millennials redefine expectations for what incentives employees want from their jobs, said Jennifer Ives, senior vice president at Top Employers Institute.

Employees used to stay with companies for 20 years or “sometimes an entire lifetime,” but tenures are usually limited to two or three years, Ives said. In the Greater Washington region, tenures average as low as 11 months, surveys have shown.

Since millennials are aged 37 and under, “these are now your directors, your managers, sometimes the founders and cofounders of companies,” Ives said.

The Top Employers Institute (TEI) is a global organization dedicated to aggregating and disseminating information to help business leaders with employee relations.

Recent reports from TEI show that hiring replacements are increasingly expensive. On average, it costs about 150 percent of an employee’s salary to hire a replacement and get them up to speed, Ives said.

Young people are changing jobs fast because they’ve learned they don’t want their careers shaped by their employer, Ives said.

“Research shows that the number one reason that millennials in particular leave a job is because of lack of leadership development,” she said.

Millennials were raised to be supported and encouraged.

“If companies aren’t coaching and nurturing their talent, they’re going to lose them,” Ives told What’s Working in Washington.

According to a Forbes monthly study, D.C “has the most jobs available, and the least amount of talent to fill [the vacancies],” said Ives. The solution is to get workers engaged with the company’s mission, she said.

Ives said the “companies that embrace this new way of working– the coaching, the nurturing” completely outperform other companies.

With sites such as Glassdoor, employees have the tools to talk anonymously with current employees of potential future employers and get a better sense of the company culture.

“There are many resources for talent to take a look at a company well before they even start engaging,” said Ives.

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