Recently, a newly hired 23-year-old employee said to me, "in college we're taught if you don't get promoted within two years of taking a job, you won't advance and need to find a new place to work."
I was saddened to hear that, as it seemingly underscored the notion that millennials have little loyalty and are always on the move. But I smiled when he said he was drawn to FM Global because – like many of his peers – he wants both stability and the opportunity to have multiple careers within one company.
It was music to my ears. In my 36 years at FM Global, I've had a dozen careers – in engineering, underwriting, operations and management. They've given me the opportunity to develop my expertise and my personal relationships across the company and with our clients, so today I can make decisions based on first-hand knowledge.
People are an organization's most valuable resource, and if you don't start from that premise, it can fall apart. As a mutual company, owned by our clients, we look out for their long-term interests by looking out for the long-term interests of our employees.
Knowing everyone has different interests and paths, we invest in a way that allows our employees to develop technical expertise and skills needed to make them individually successful. In turn, they become valuable contributors to the larger team. When our people succeed, everyone wins, especially our clients.
Validation comes in the form of a 95 percent client retention rate and a 14-year average employee tenure. •