1 in 5 employees plans to get a new job this year
January 28, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, Retention
When a recession hits and the job market takes a turn for the worse, companies should have an easier time retaining employees, right? Not this time, a new survey says.
Almost one out of five employees (19%) says changing jobs is a priority for the new year, according to a recent CareerBuilder poll.
But what about the economy? It’s not much of a factor — 60% of employees polled say the current climate has had no impact on their career plans.
What can be done to hang on to those employees? Here are the main reasons people say they’re looking for new opportunities:
- Pay – A quarter of employees are dissatisfied with their salary. Also, 35% say they didn’t get a raise in 2008, and 25% got an increase of 2% or less.
- Advancement – A quarter of workers are also unhappy with their chances to move up the corporate ladder. One in five say they were overlooked for a promotion they should’ve gotten last year.
- Work/life balance – More than half (54%) of employees say their workloads have increased over the last six months.
Tags: CareerBuilder, new jobs, Retention
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:33 am
There are still some professions that have not been greatly impacted (yet) by the recession. But for the most part, most job candidates will find themselves vying for a small pool of positions against a very large pool of applicants. So while 19% may be planning to change jobs (meaning that 81% AREN’T planning a change), the reality might be that those positions simply aren’t available.
Generally, it seems as if companies are very cautious with finances at the moment. They are sometimes forgoing giving raises to prevent having to take more drastic actions such as lay off workers, reduce benefits, etc. I think most employees realize we are going through a very frightening and difficult time economically world-wide and, if told the truth about how things stand, will hang in there as long as the company is being fair and open with them. You can’t expect people not to look around or to forgo pursuing opportunities, but I think the reality may be that there are fewer opportunities out there and that there will be a large number of applicants for companies to pick from when those opportunities arise. Those planning a job change may not be able to make their goal a reality in the current economic climate.