What makes employees stay

In a word, training. Olesen talked with new graduates who were about to ent er the workforce armed with top technical skills. She asked them why and ho w they chose from among their many job offers. To a person, The new recruit s went with companies that promised to let and help them learn-and not just the skills they needed for the jobs for which they were hired. Those eager grads knew that it's easy for one's skills to become obsolete quickly in t he current technology-oriented marketplace and that there's no longer a gua rantee of company loyalty. So, they asked for all kinds of training, and th e companies were happy to oblige. One candidate got her new boss to promise to be her mentor and to not laugh at any of her questions, even if it was to ask how to send an overnight package. The article's personal, firsthand accounts related by the grads bring home the point better than all of the analytic literature: New entrants to the l abor force want and plan for learning to be an ongoing, lifetime process. T hey admit that they have no idea what the business world is like or what wo rking for a company entails. Contrary to GenX stereotypes, these young, Gen Next workers have no intention of slacking: They want to inhale knowledge a nd have some control over what they learn and how.