Small business sea change for former corporate employees

Kevin Ward is among experienced employees joining a corporate sea change from larger to smaller companies.

With more than 12 years' experience working in data analytics, the move to a smaller company provided a greater chance to make a difference.

Mr Ward worked for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for six years in a variety of roles and he moved to CoreLogic, which has less than 1000 employees, about seven months ago.   

Happy days: former CBA employee Kevin Ward makes the switch to work for a small business. Photo: Edwina Pickles

"I felt I was becoming quite specialised," he said. "The discipline didn't really change that much even though I had a variety of roles and I really wanted to diversify my experience.

"Because it is a smaller company, you pretty much develop relationships with everyone.

"Our CEO is on the floor and he knows everyone personally."

A new report on Talent Migration Trends in Australia and New Zealand by Linked In shows that there is a growing trend of movement from larger enterprises including big banks to smaller organisations.

It shows the percentage of job switchers has grown from 36 per cent in 2012 to 41 per cent in 2015.

Mr Ward, 41, who has worked in the banking industry in Australia and the UK for more than 10 years, said moving to a smaller organisation provided benefits including work-life balance.

"It was partly to do with the size and partly to do with the experience," he said.

Being in a smaller company has provided opportunities to diversify his experience, which has been very specialised in the past.

A strong focus on personal development are among other benefits he has found working in a smaller company.

Working for a larger company provided solid experience and skills at a younger age.

Like 44 per cent of people in the study found to be moving from larger to smaller companies, Mr Ward has more than 10 years' experience.

People making the change to smaller companies also rated culture and relationships higher than those moving from larger enterprise to larger enterprise.

Jason Laufer, director of Talent Solutions at LinkedIn​, said the Talent Migration Trends report was based on data on 8 million people who have moved from larger enterprises to small- or medium-sized business since 2012.

"We are seeing a big migration of enterprise employees moving to small-medium business," he said.

"What we are actually seeing is almost half of the people moving across have more than 10 years' experience.

"We thought that was a really interesting stat because as people are getting more tenured, they are looking for different things from their career."

Mr Laufer said people were looking for better work-life balance and flexibility. The study found that among 55 per cent of respondents this was the main reason for switching jobs.

He said experienced employees felt they could make a difference and had a greater sense of purpose in a smaller business.

The report said job switchers moving from larger to smaller companies also tended to make more use of social-media marketing.