Managers, take heed:  I have come to the conclusion my truisms are universal, economic context notwithstanding.

Today’s turnover “tipping point” discussion is about The Empty Nest.  When the kids leave the home – to become independent adults, go to college or graduate from college – adults often take inventory of place.

Many professionals cannot consider a job change – especially one which requires relocation – when the kids are in high school.  Elementary school?  No sweat!  The young ones make friends like they change sweaters.  Middle school?  Okay! What middle schooler doesn’t want a fresh start?  High School?  Not happening! If not deterred by academic considerations, then most will likely be waylaid by the utter hostility the suggestion of relocation evokes in a typical teen (as if there weren’t enough ruffled feathers already!).

As a result, there is often a pent up desire for change that stirs once the shackles of high school stability unlock.  Motivations can be varied, ranging from desires to try something or somewhere new and different to very tangible needs for bigger paychecks to put the kids through college.  I’ve spoken to more than a few people who are ready to leave the suburbs and get back to the city as a lifestyle choice — something they specifically avoided with adolescents in the home.

Bottom line is, as a manager, you should stay reasonably aware of what is going on in your employees’ personal lives to understand how and why it may affect the stability of your team. The behaviors outlined in this series are not necessarily scientific fact, but I see them happen often enough, anecdotally, to postulate a bona-fide pattern.  Wisdom comes through experience.

At the time, I remember thinking that constantly looking for your next gig sounded like an exhausting way to make a living. No benefits? No career development? Was this new model a good thing?

More than a decade later, how exact was this foretelling in terms of what actually happened in A/E? In our market space, the closest we’ve come to this scenario is outsourcing, and this occurs pretty rarely. Other industries are better-suited to effectively utilize outsourcing than ours is.

However, this doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been a change in the A/E consultant’s employment paradigm; change has certainly occurred.  But, unlike the scenario proffered above, this change has been employee driven rather than employer driven.

Our industry generally hires talent for specific types of projects with the inherent promise that a machine is in place to continually “feed” the employees work as key projects pass through the funnel.  While an individual performs a functional (technical) role, they simultaneously glean skills in maneuvering the team, office, organization and market as a whole. Functional skills and organizational skills represent two different axes on the career development chart.

As organizations have become flatter and “corporate ladders” have shed rungs, employees have adjusted the way that they perceive their careers.  Employment tenures are shorter, as in the contract-for-hire scenario, but professionals’ demands for diversified experiences are what is causing this. We now look at each axis to find potential growth opportunities.

For example, Mike can bring his functional skills – highway-centric NEPA planning — to a new employer, where he will apply his expertise to passenger rail corridors.  The resulting experience serves to grow Mike’s functional domain.  Karen can move on to hold the same function in another organization – that of Manager of Traffic Engineering – yet fulfill an additional organizational role of business development lead, a role that was very competently covered at her last employer’s operation by someone else.

Career paths are now plotted in this fashion:  Employees set long-term goals and look for a mix of experiences that add to the figurative toolbox necessary to achieve those goals.  Often, this means making the choice to change employers at each juncture rather than wait out the inertia of an organization which has no desire to shake things up.

The fact is, companies don’t have the infrastructure they used to…the ladder is often very short (and broad), and you can’t ascend it in a direct fashion. Consequently, professionals have adapted. No longer is your career defined by a ladder of progressive responsibilities as you “climb” the corporate hierarchy with an ever-increasing technical or organizational domain in your purview.

Your value today and your ability to contribute to any organization is better defined by the parts in your greater body of work.  If we’ve ever talked, you know I call this your professional toolbox, and in it you hold skills developed while fulfilling a number of different — often lateral — roles that are technical, organizational, and sales related.   Your objective in this modern-day game of life is to collect the right tools to provide you with the foundation to reach your professional goals.

Often, acquiring these tools requires you to change companies and jobs.  From my view, this is the extent of “contract work” in the A/E consulting marketplace…Here YOU, the employee, are in the driver’s seat.

This third tipping point, in my experience, is at least 90% accurate. I have been reticent to mention it because it is gender-specific to men, but upon reflection, it is too important not to bring to your attention.

Without a doubt, within the AE consulting space, the pending or new arrival of a child into the family is a major contributor to job search behavior. I say this is gender-specific, because we gals are not dummies…we are inclined to “stay put” for the FMLA benefits. **

I am neither a psychologist nor a scientist, but if I had to boil it down to biology, I’d guess that this is some type of latent “provider gene” in action, the modern-day equivalent to stepping up the hunt for food to feed a growing family. It might be the first child, it might be a successive child, but when I find a candidate with a bun-in-the-family-oven, I know he has anxiety about advancing his career.

It’s not overt; he doesn’t recognize it as a factor at all. What is he thinking? If the family is considering becoming a traditional one-income household, his motivations are fairly obvious. However, I see this behavior occur equally in families with two income earners. Is he thinking about braces, summer camp and college tuition this early?

I tell these blokes it’s a lousy time to be looking for a career move. Since so much of the world as they know it is about to change, why shake things up even more? They don’t listen to me.

Male readers, look back on your own careers. What life events were in play when you made certain job changes? I guarantee that you will be able to correlate a job change, a promotion sought or another career milestone directly with the pending or recent arrival of at least one child.

The feedback is the same whenever I share this tidbit of information with managers: they were not even aware of it when it was happening to THEM! They quickly begin to catalog the life events of those recently hired and recently departed.  I smugly enjoy their epiphanies.

** Reasons why the gents are not equally motivated by this perk is a separate discussion that we can cover over a few glasses of wine, ladies.

Tipping Point 2 of 4: Change in Management/Ownership

Getting a new boss is not an automatic turnoff for most employees.  As any new manager knows, s/he enters a period of evaluation upon assuming that new office — ascertaining the strengths and weaknesses of the inherited team and deciding how best to position the same team for future challenges.

At the same time, your new employees are evaluating you as the manager: What is the new manager’s leadership style?  How does s/he communicate?  What can I learn from this person?  Do we have good personal chemistry?  Do I trust this person? Does s/he care about what I want to achieve in my career?

If there has been a recent acquisition, the process of evaluation by acquired employees is much the same, but the questions are on a grander scale, and not about a specific work relationship:  What does this change mean to me?  How will my day-to-day role/career path be affected? What changes in corporate culture can I expect, and can I (or do I want to) adapt?

All of these questions take time to answer.  Universally, I have seen that employees give themselves a one-year deadline to form opinions/answers to these introspective questions.  There is something magical about 365 days!  Many consultants predetermine this period for evaluating their new situation, and they stick to it.  On that first anniversary of the new boss’ tenure or the acquisition agreement, consultants know the answer to the question, “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”

For some, the milestone marks the beginning of their next job search.

I’ve tried it both ways, and my preference squarely rests on the side of working out the kinks before an offer is on the table. But does it work that way when a third party like myself is not involved? When I advocate this approach, am I asking for a marked departure from the usual offer process? How are negotiations handled in your consulting firm?

A written offer seems so final and official (it is) and perhaps this is why some firms prefer to make their offers on paper without a lot of discussion before hand. If yours is one of them, please explain (and you can do so anonymously) why it works for you. Is there some data “out there” which supports the notion that an individual is less likely to negotiate a written offer?

As a recruiter, I am trained to take care of the details before the offer arrives. Still so, it’s not always possible or preferable to do that. However, I’ve never had a first volley written offer accepted without some type of amendment. I tend to believe it’s naive for a firm to expect that a written offer will be accepted at face value. [Serious caveat: I am speaking of offers to experienced professionals, not entry level or junior level candidates].

What do you think?  If you’re in the candidate’s chair, how do you feel about this process?

When the backlog is looking light, your employees may begin seeking higher ground. This tenet is true in any economy. Why does this happen? Reason number one is that a trickling pipeline threatens a person’s needed sense of security.  Invariably, it causes him to ask himself, “Where is my future work coming from?” In quest of an answer, he will look inside and outside his own organization.

This anxiety is amplified by the conditioning a consultant undergoes as he is indoctrinated into the business. If a billable employee becomes incapable of reaching his target utilization rates, he knows he is not meeting expectations. That lousy feeling eats away at his morale.

Down time means more time for hand wringing. Consultants will look through that big career picture window and worry that a lull in the business cycle means their careers have stalled. Maybe this is true, or maybe it just feels that way.

What does this all mean in the current employment market? I can assure you that there are not a lot of unemployed civil engineers walking the streets today (with the exception, perhaps, of new grads or those entrenched in a few market segments tangled up in the bubble).

However, there are many individuals willing to look at new opportunities. Why? The simple answer is “insurance.“ There are some terrific people in our market finding themselves in situations for which they have no recent benchmarks: light backlogs, delays of contract execution due to funding difficulties, peers losing their jobs, etc. These individuals are more receptive than ever to investigating opportunities. However, this doesn’t mean, once the dialogue culminates, that they truly want to go anywhere.

What is your firm doing to make sure they won’t?

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Explore the other three events which make it likely a consultant will be willing to change jobs here.