Beat the Competition at Retention

Give your Talent Reasons To Stay

Millennials, GenY, Me-me-me Generation, Generation We, Global Generation, Generation Next, Net Generation…many different names have been assigned to the latest generation of graduates entering the job market. Nonetheless, despite how we may want to call them, by 2025 members of this generation will make up 70% of the global workforce (source Financial Times) and companies, in order to remain competitive, must quickly understand how to best attract and retain this pool of graduates. But how can companies face up to the challenge?

With the 2014 London Employer Partners’ Breakfast, EDHEC Business School has once again helped companies to shed light upon key issues in order to sustain long-term competitiveness. The event, held at EDHEC’s London campus on Friday 6^th June 2014 united recruiters and HR professionals from some of EDHEC’s top employers such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Nomura in order to create a forum of exchange around what is new at EDHEC and talent acquisition topics that are front of mind.

The event kicked off with welcome speeches by Associate Dean, Corporate Relations & Global Careers, Director of the European Apprenticeship Track, Anne Zuccarelli and EDHEC Career Centre Manager Fernanda Diaz. Then, Monique Valcour, PhD, Professor of Management at EDHEC, highlighted the importance of increasing managers’ developmental competency and employees’ ownership over their career development , and discussed a variety of approaches for improving these skills. Monique also provided detailed insights from Google’s Project Oxygen on increasing managers’ positive impact on retention. Following her presentation, Monique facilitated break-out sessions and the guests split up into groups to discuss in depth more specific aspects of how firms struggle to retain their most valuable talent and how to be a good coach.

To conclude the event, the guests had the opportunity to exchange further ideas and network with Fernanda Diaz and Anne Zuccarelli while enjoying some early morning refreshments. “It is so important to have direct engagement with our corporate partners and understand their needs as we all have the same challenges” Fernanda Diaz.