Recently I’ve been seeing numerous comments about employee turnover. This is good news and bad news. The bad news is that hiring managers are at risk of losing some talented people. The good news is it means employees are feeling more confident about the economy and are willing to take the risk of moving to a new company.
According to a survey of U.S. workers released by Right Management, many workers are unhappy with their present jobs and 60% of employees intend to leave and an additional one-in-four are networking and updating their resumes. Only 13% of employees say they intend to stay.
“Employees are clearly expressing their pent up frustration with how they have been treated through the downturn,” said Douglas Matthews, president and chief operating officer at Right Management. “While employers may have taken the necessary steps to streamline operations to remain viable, it appears many employees may have felt neglected in the process. The result is a disengaged and disgruntled workforce.”
Information is power and there is still time to act. As a hiring manager myself, my experience is that you can definitely change employee discontent into content. The number one reason employees changes jobs is unhappiness with their manager. And often that can be as simple as “my manager doesn’t recognize my work”, or “there’s no work/life balance” at my company. These are problems that can be solved quickly and the results are immediate. So take a look around, and make sure your top talent is happy and engaged. We all know it’s much easier to retain talent than replace them.