A recent Gallup survey found that 51% of employees are watching for, or actively seeking, a new job! Eeek!
Even worse, a poll by Monster found that 93% of respondents are either looking or plan to look this year! Here is another indicator of employee dissatisfaction.
What is going on? Gallup finds that the four top reasons for considering a new job are:
- Greater work-life balance and better personal well-being
- Improved income and benefits
- Greater stability and job security
- Better fit with personal skills and interests
I suspect these do not change very much over time. However, Gallup also identified five current organizational issues that are contributing to the Great Detachment:
- Rapid organizational change due to Covid, evolving business conditions, team restructuring, budget cuts, and additional job responsibilities
- Hybrid and remote work growing pains. Gallup found that remote workers are consistently less connected to the organization’s mission or purpose
- Post-pandemic changes in customer expectations-more demanding
- Employee expectations-reevaluation of work-life balance
- Dissatisfaction with performance management practices
Of course, these are highly complex issues. However, Gallup recommends two broad strategies for improving engagement. Each, involves a number of underlying actions and specific steps.
- Reset expectations-Engage in two-way conversations between employees and managers to clarify roles and expectations.
- Connect individual contributions to mission and purpose. Managers should focus on building intrinsic motivation for high performance.
This lack of job satisfaction is occurring at a time when there are scattered signs of softness in the labor market so actually changing jobs may become increasingly difficult. So, it is incumbent on both managers and their employees to have open, frank, and meaningful dialogue on these critical issues.