AT&T used to compete for the best talent in the country. Today, it feels like we’re competing for the best talent willing to relocate to a handful of hub cities and accept five-day RTO.
The people walking out the door aren’t just headcount. They’re decades of institutional knowledge, technical expertise, customer relationships, and experience that can’t be replaced by posting another job opening.
“Leadership” seems to think talent is interchangeable. But we know it isn’t.
You can backfill a position in a few months. It can take years for someone to become truly effective in many of these roles, and by then they may already be looking for their next opportunity.
A real market-based culture works both ways. If you expect employees to compete in the market every day, then the company has to compete for employees too. That means offering a compelling reason to stay, whether that’s compensation, flexibility, culture, career growth, or meaningful work.
Right now, it feels like the strategy is to shrink the talent pool through geography, push experienced people out, and hope everything works out.
Hope isn’t a strategy and neither is assuming talent is infinitely replaceable.