Working Wednesday: Are We Headed Towards Mass Job Turnovers

SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) recently released a report on higher productivity, higher skills, and preparing for a new hiring cycle now that most companies are feeling secure and consider the Great Recession basically over. The effects will of course last for a long time, but most businesses' bottom line have stabilized.

The part that caught my eye was on turnover. "The most immediate challenge -- but one many employers may not be prepared for -- is the possibility that a large number of their employees may be disengaged and looking to jump ship at the earliest opportunity. One recent study found that one out of three employees hopes to be working elsewhere in the next 12 months. The same report concluded that employers are unaware of this potential flight risk and instead believe that their organizations have maintained strong levels of employee job satisfaction and loyalty. In companies where this kind of disconnect exists, employers may be unprepared for higher than expected turnover rates if the labor market continues to improve."

In my travels I have heard people say that during the Great Recession many employees felt they had two choices: stay at their current employer knowing that more work was coming their way due to layoffs and hence a possible heart attack, or be one of those laid off and out of work and hence homelessness. Granted these are 2 extremes, but that is where many minds were. Heart attacks because of the stress and overwork(and no extra compensation) or laid off and mortgage foreclosure.

So I wasn't really surprised to see that 1 out of 3 are ready to leave as soon as they can. I think that some would anyway now that the crisis is easing up. They had to delay their plans for the usual reasons--too far from home, job didn't match newly acquired college degree as originally thought, spouse got new job, etc. These we can discount.

The ones that I am most concerned about are the ones that the employer took the economic situation and used to their advantage. They gave no motivation to the employees, no "Atta -boys/girls", no thanks for staying through the tough times, no rewards/awards/brains need a break too times. They just implied that you work or I can find someone else who will. Maybe like the report said, they truly believed they treated their employees well. I have not heard of many companies who did.

The report mentioned there were companies that did keep up training because they knew sooner or later they would get out of their slump and they needed their team to be ready and sharp. Kudos to those businesses who demonstrated respect and a panoramic view to their employees. You have got to see the big picture in order to organize and prepare the detailed one right in front of you. Best success to you in the coming months.

Is your business prepared for job turnovers? Is your business cluster going to be going through a minor/major adjustment? Are most of your employees planning to stay? As an employee are you planning to look for another job? If so, why?  Would be glad to hear what your thoughts are about this part of our economic recovery.