People born in the 1960s and 1970s, when they first started working, their parents would surely tell them to work hard at the unit and must stabilize, even if they had to endure some anger or hardship, they had to bear it, so they could work until retirement. Now bosses have the same idea, hoping that after employees join, they will stabilize, ideally like the legendary Japanese companies with lifetime employment, unless the boss no longer wants the employee. In the boss's view, if employees are unstable, it's troublesome to change them frequently: recruiting new employees, teaching from scratch, re-establishing team cohesion, and handover issues. Moreover, once an employee leaves, at the very least, the training costs invested in that employee are wasted; at worst, an employee trained by the boss might jump to a competitor or start their own business and compete with the old employer. But what the boss thinks is one thing, and what employees think is another. For the post-90s generation, working for one company for life? Doing repetitive work for a lifetime? That thought is terrifying. Youth means infinite possibilities: different jobs, different companies, different cities, domestic or international, working or entrepreneurship—they want to try everything. Their families aren't waiting for their paycheck, so there's no need to cling to one job, especially after losing the novelty and fun of the work. Objectively speaking, the average tenure of employees is getting shorter. Previously, ten years qualified someone as a veteran employee; now, three years makes you a veteran. In some economically developed cities, the average tenure has dropped below two years. Even divorce rates are rising; if marriage can't last, how can bosses expect employees to be loyal to the company for life? On this issue, bosses need to adjust their thinking:

  1. Why do employees come to the company? Not to work for money, but to enjoy life. So it must be fun, interesting, and relaxed; employees won't do hard work for money.
  2. What is the company in employees' eyes? Just a stepping stone. They come to work today to jump to the next company tomorrow.
  3. Whether it's stock ownership, options, or career planning, at the root, it's about hoping to retain employees, or rather, fearing they'll leave. Whether it's fact or trend, with average tenure shrinking, bosses might consider proactively setting an average tenure for employees, suggesting six months as the standard, and then set or adjust related HR management accordingly: 1 When someone leaves, you need to recruit. Recruitment should be planned in advance, and if necessary, make recruitment a regular activity. Small companies can also introduce reserve recruitment, where internal employees refer candidates, but they don't join immediately; instead, they go through a trial period with single-point assistance to test compatibility and overall capability. 2 During new employee interviews, proactively ask about their job orientation—why they came to this company, what they're after: money? learning? passing time? or to take care of family? Also, ask about their initial expected tenure—how long they plan to stay. Additionally, what reasons might cause them to leave? Money? Team integration? Loss of novelty? 3 Provide objective explanations in advance. When introducing the company to new employees, besides positive information, some issues and situations should be objectively explained, such as current difficulties and problems, internal culture, various irregularities and loopholes, market background and competitive landscape, shortcomings in operations and management, and even the actual level of salary and benefits in the local market. 4 Promote internal job rotation or an A/B system to ensure one person can handle multiple positions, or one position has multiple people, so temporary gaps can be filled by internal staff promptly. 5 Set up pre-job training, meaning self-study before starting work. Make full use of the period between the notice of employment and the actual start date, when employees are in a good learning state and the company doesn't incur learning costs. 6 Establish standardized onboarding and job training. No more slow learning or old-employee-mentoring-new-employee approaches; they're inefficient and time-consuming. Traditional methods take two to three months to get new employees up to speed, but with shorter tenures, they might leave right after learning, so the boss won't even recover training costs. 7 Improve job descriptions and work execution manuals, focusing on helping new employees get up to speed quickly and providing complete references and execution standards for actual work. 8 Clarify the resignation handover process, and provide it during the onboarding phase. This facilitates quick handover when employees leave and prevents resentment due to handover issues. 9 Implement a transparency project. Transparency means displaying the company's overall operations, each position, each project, and each time period's work plans and progress through kanban boards or OA systems, so everyone can see what each department and person is doing daily, what they plan to do tomorrow, and the progress of each project and client, facilitating rotation and handover. Born into a private business owner family, I have managed a family-owned distribution company for many years, during which I also served as a business manager and trainer in several manufacturing companies. My research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend setup, and transitioning military veterans into private enterprises. I continuously break down over 400 topics related to private enterprise internal management and keep updating material collection and solutions. -END-