Goldman Sachs’ Got Talent: How Goldman Will Win the War for Millennial Talent
On the way to becoming more productive, Goldman Sachs has found the key to hiring and keeping the best young talent in the financial industry. Wouldn’t you like to know how? Have you been seeing the most talented millennials you want to hire turning down your job offers? Even if you have hired great new associates, what’s going to stop them from leaving your company to go work for one of your competitors? After all, millennials get restless quickly and are more likely to seek out another job if they’re not feeling satisfied at your company. If anybody knows the secrets to drawing in the best millennial talent on the market and retaining it, Goldman Sachs does.
Why is this war for millennial talent so critical today?
These days, top executives are searching for new ways to combat the problems of low interest rates and difficult trading conditions that are weighing down the banking industry. As a result, millennials are now beginning to dominate the banking workforce especially due to the growing trend of “juniorization,” the investment-banking practice of replacing senior executives with younger employees and better technology resources to cut payroll costs. Business Insider goes on to detail how:
“Within Goldman Sachs specifically, the number of junior employees is up 17 percent in the past four years, while the more senior managing director and partner population is down 2 percent.”
Meanwhile, new associates throughout the industry have been quitting faster than ever before. In 1995, new recruits used to stay in their positions for an average of 30 months. By 2015, the entry-level associates average tenure went down to just 17 months. This drastic change forces CEOs to re-evaluate how to convince new employees to stay with the company.
With the shift toward a millennial majority comes demands for frequent feedback.
Director of human-capital management Edith Cooper sent out an internal memo recently to Goldman Sachs’ staff describing the reasons behind this new shift. The results of this year’s internal employee survey clearly showed that the current mix of team members wants more feedback more often than they’re getting it, so the new performance review system is very much a direct response to this key finding. Furthermore, it’s not just the increasing millennial majority of staff in the banking industry that want more feedback either. In a white paper written by The Center for Generational Kinetics, LLC, studies prove that 42 percent of millennials desire weekly input from their bosses, which is more than double the amount of feedback than any other generation has ever wanted from management before. Additionally, the Training Journal reported that:
“While 62 percent of millennials would like developmental feedback monthly or more frequently, i.e. daily or weekly, only 29 percent say they get feedback that frequently.”
Here’s how Goldman Sachs is stepping up to win the fight for the most innovative millennials:
Employees will be able to deliver feedback as well as solicit feedback themselves when needed through an app. Managers will start delivering written review summaries on each of their employees with ratings on whether their work needs improving, is good or stands out as outstanding. Together with their accelerated promotions program for junior staff, these changes will bring more positive motivations for the younger generations to reach their full potential in the workplace.
Edith Cooper elaborates more on the importance of frequent feedback by saying:
“It’s constructive feedback that people are looking for, specific things that you can do to improve performance. It’s the purest form of investment into another individual. Feedback is made for two purposes only: to improve employees and to become more effective. We have total confidence that as we pay attention to our people, the return will be enormous. That’s why feedback matters. You give someone feedback; they think about it. They internalize it; they probably stress a little about it, but at the end, it will improve their performance.”
By transforming traditional performance reviews into a continuous performance management process, feedback that is exchanged becomes much more timely, constructive and actionable. This new system of ongoing coaching for employees will help everyone get and give feedback all year long. This factor is transforming the working experience of the company into a more engaging and dynamic atmosphere where young minds can thrive, thereby allowing Goldman Sachs to win the battle of recruiting the brightest minds in the millennial generation.
Whenever you’re ready to take the next step in attracting the best young talent for your business, contact QuercusApp for a software solution that keeps up with the fast pace of ongoing feedback. We’re a lightweight solution focusing on continuous, real-time feedback among employees and frequent conversations between managers and employees. The result is a powerful process that engages, empowers and aligns employees to deliver on the organization’s top priorities. Thanks to our powerful tool, you’ll never look at performance reviews the same way again.
