Now that the calendar has turned to 2012, employers and employees alike are taking stock. Will the new year bring relief from a long recession? Will layoffs slow down and hiring speed up? Will discontented, overworked employees have a chance to recharge?
The answers are specific to individual employers and employees, but survey data provide some insights.
A survey from Right Management, the talent and career management segment within ManpowerGroup, shows widespread employee discontent. But other studies show how employers can capitalize on opportunities today’s workplace presents.
The Right Management survey of more than 1,000 employees in North America, polled between October 15 and November 15, 2011, provides a wake-up call for employers that think that their employees are just grateful to have a job and aren’t looking to move on.
Eighty-four percent of the employees polled said they plan to look for a new position in 2012. That’s the same level of discontent in the workplace reported in the survey a year ago. Like the previous year, only five percent plan to stay in their current position.
Responses to the 2011 and 2010 surveys are quite different from the 2009 survey, which showed that 60 percent of employees intended to actively look for a new position and 13 percent said they planned to stay in their current job.
The findings show worker distrust in management as well as diminishing job commitment, according to Right Management Executive Vice President Bram Lowsky.
“It’s a workplace equivalent to whether or not ‘the country is moving in the right direction.’ Sometimes called ‘flight cognition’ by behavioral psychologists, intent to leave is far from an unusual phenomenon, but when it applies to four out of five employees for two years running, it has to be of top concern to senior management,” Lowsky says.
Employers should be on notice, Lowsky says, because when the job market picks up, employers should expect to lose some top contributors, and “top management can’t hope these challenges will go away on their own.”
Lowsky urges management to identify top performers and have constructive career discussions with them. “These kinds of people always have career options. It’s your job to know who they are, to let them know you know who they are, and to tune in to their individual motivators in order to hold onto them.”
Even though the Right Management survey shows discouraging statistics for employers eager to hold on to top performers, other surveys reveal a glimmer of hope related to the workplace. A study released on November 30 by staffing company Randstad shows that 74 percent of U.S. workers believe their companies have great futures. That’s in spite of the fact that 48 percent of those surveyed believe their companies will cut benefits and 41 percent believe their employers will lay off workers in 2012.
Like the Right Management survey, the Randstad Employee Attachment Index shows many workers are looking to change jobs. The quarterly Randstad index measures employee engagement and retention. The latest index indicates that a few more employees claimed to enjoy going to work in the most recent quarter, but slightly more also would accept a new job offer in the next six months.
The Randstad index also shows an increasing gap between the most and least engaged employees. “Companies want to successfully engage as many employees as possible to maximize productivity, and they need to particularly focus on those workers who are most engaged and, thus, most valuable,” says Joanie Ruge, senior vice president and chief employment analyst for Randstad U.S.
Ruge says the Randstad research shows that 33 percent of the most highly engaged employees are likely to leave their companies if offered an enticing new job, and 30 percent would seriously consider another job offer. “This is a serious threat to employers as the economy recovers and as more jobs become available,” she says.
Another recently reported study, this one from the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, reports that employees 40 years old and older are the most engaged and demonstrate the highest level of organizational commitment. Employees 50 years old and older are the most satisfied with their jobs, according to the study.
The Generations of Talent Study gathered data about work experiences from 11,298 individuals working for seven multinational companies at 24 worksites in 11 countries.
“A higher percentage of employees in the United States are aged 40 and older as compared to those in both old-developed and young-developing countries,” says Dr. Natalia Sarkisian, principal investigator. “In both old-developed and young-developing countries, workers in this age group report higher levels of engagement, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction than younger employees.”
The study also shows that while job satisfaction is highest among employees who are 50 and older, it’s nearly as high among those who are younger than 30. Employees between 30 and 39 show the least satisfaction with their jobs.