The ‘Great Resignation’ has celebrated its first birthday. This means it has been over a year since employees in the US and elsewhere starting quitting in record numbers. The latest US figures show that 4.3 million workers resigned in May, this is down slightly from November’s high of 4.5 million.
This high quit rate has triggered a retention crisis in many businesses, and it has pushed employers to rethink their talent strategies to try and avoid sky-high attrition rates.
In light of this, HR tech vendor Paychex (with the help of executive network-focused Future Workplace) surveyed 600 workers to find out the key reasons why employees would stay in their current roles.
When asked what would prevent them looking for a new job (other than pay and benefits), 60% of the respondents ranked job stability in their top three.
30% said a stable job was their main reason for staying in their current job; this makes sense in the context of a looming recession, and the cost of living crisis.
50% of workers ranked career advancement (including skills development and internal mobility opportunities), as well as employers providing a good work-life balance, as the second and third most important reasons.
Meaningful work was in the top three for 45% of US workers, whereas one-third noted they needed to have passion for the field.
The bottom three reasons were employer brand (19%), corporate culture (19%), and products (13%).
So, for employers who are worried about high attrition, it’s time to think not only about your L&D strategies, work-life balance. Organizations must also seek to reassure workers that their jobs are stable and secure, even if a recession hits.
Each generation has different priorities
Future Workplace and Paychex dug into the data to look at the demographic differences of?
They found that job stability was least important to the youngest generation surveyed, Gen Z.
While 32% of Baby Boomers, 35% of Gen X, and 31% of millennials cited a stable job as the main reason why they would stay at their company. Just 14% of Gen Z did the same, in fact, Gen Z broke the trend and ranked meaningful work slightly higher (18%) than job stability.
The most important reason for staying in a job for Gen Z was company growth and success with 27% of the vote.
The top factor for Baby Boomers was passion for the field, and 41% said this was the most important reason for staying at their company.
Millennials were most interested in career development (39%), and Gen Z were interested in having a good relationship with their colleagues (30%).
Another generational difference emerged in terms of the benefits employees want. While mental health perks are important to 23% of Gen Z, only 14% of millennials, 5% of Gen X, and 3% of Baby Boomers agreed.
Future Workplace founder Jeanne Meister commented: “Perhaps the most compelling takeaway from this study is the confluence of factors that affect employees’ decisions to say with a company.
“Each employee presents a different intersection of the demographics outlined in the study, and the only way to really know what will keep them in their position for the long haul is to ask. Even so, employers rarely do it.
“These open conversations with employees can give HR staff insights into the unique values of their employee populations to increase retention, even in a difficult labor market.”
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