CRO Sales – Let’s Talk About Turnover in Our Space

An assumption that is often made about people who forge careers working in the sciences or drug development field is that they are highly educated,
conservative and dedicated to the cause of curing cancer and hundreds of other diseases. However, one would think that they would be the last people to break out of their commitment to “XYZ” Research” and move on to the competition…

Not always the case- Loyalty in today’s employment landscape is only sometimes a reality, due to cultural and financial contributing factors.

Cultural
Employees in the last decade or so have become less likely to stick around at one company. This is due to the stigma of changing jobs, for example, five times before hitting your 30s, is starting to become less damaging as it becomes more of a workplace norm. According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor, the median number of years that workers have been with their current employer is 4.6 years. There’s a divide between ages, too: Employees between the ages of 55 and 64 had a median job tenure of 10.4 years, while workers between the ages of 25 and 34 had only been at their current job about three years.

Financial
Top sales professionals are more likely to leave their positions in a robust economy due to more job opportunities and that they can leverage higher market demand to move into a position that pays better, comes with a promotion or career advancement, or another benefit they are not receiving in their current position.

Here are some things we (recruiters) have observed first-hand with some of our clients:

1. Nowadays technology is helping us get better at doing our due diligence – helping recruiters and employers alike to make the right hires. With these hires come commitments and plans that incentivizes the employees with a combined career upside, should they be successful.
2. Some companies will make promises that will most likely be unkept, due to changes in the market and the economy.
3. Salespeople don’t always tell the truth on their resumes and during interviews- and this is where you need to do heavy due diligence and work with a recruiter whose livelihood and career depends on it…Thankfully we live in an at-will country, where changes can be made at any time.
4. Companies need sales teams, and sales people will want to work for the companies that are watching out for their people. So under-promise and over-deliver.
5. Under-performers will always exist, and 2 out of 10 will be loyal (to a fault).

How to decrease turnover at your company
While managers should be careful in matching the higher earnings potential of rival companies, it would be smart to consider preemptive measures that might reduce the chances of top performers job searching in the first place. Employee engagement, such as career advancement and organizational reputation, of course come into play here. But when a company is worried about losing its top sales performers, they should also exploit the benefits that drive these employees to succeed, such as sales contests, bonuses, and leader boards. These can be relatively inexpensive ways to direct short-term financial rewards to let top employees know they are valued.

Let’s face it, there are no guarantees in life and in employment. You can only hope that your relationships with your employees are sustainable, long-term ones. I will leave you with this analogy: Sometimes the only difference between getting married and accepting a sales role is that you don’t get to have kids and we don’t feed you dinner every night!

-Gerry