Employers will need to rev up their retention and recruiting engines when the market begins to refuel, as most employees, according to new research, are less than satisfied with their current job.
A mere 39% of workers feel the economic situation has stimulated job appreciation, a significant decline from the 55% of workers who felt this way a year ago, according to The American Workplace Insights Survey from Adecco Group North America.
When the focus is Gen Y workers, a startling 27% love their job less than last year, nearly a 10% jump over the 16% who felt this way last year. In fact, 17% of Gen Y and 20% of Gen X employees are considering leaving the workforce altogether and going back to school.
“During the recent economic downturn, organizations have not had to spend much time or effort in retaining talent because employee have ‘hunkered down’ in their roles to try to stay employed in a market of high unemployment,” says Adam Alexander, vice president of MasteryWorks. “As the economy recovers, these same employees will begin to look for new opportunities, and with the lack of a strong retention strategy in place many organizations face the prospect of losing top talent.”
As many employers may find it difficult to simply increase salaries to ensure retention and encourage recruitment, plan sponsors should outfit or enhance employee training or career development as an employee benefit.
In that vein, a recent Wall Street Journal article shows that over 33% of companies are looking to provide or beef up their career development efforts with their employees in order to motivate and retain workers as the economy revives.
Alexander notes that an effectively planned and developed web portal can foster a useful framework for employees to think about their careers, provide them access to handy self-discovery tools, and drive them to action at a cost-effective price. Career portals can be used to:
- Communicate the importance that your organization places on people and career development;
- Give employees and managers the tools and resources to take ownership of their own career and professional development;
- Showcase career opportunities and highlight multiple ways to look at career opportunities – lateral, enrichment, vertical, exploratory, realignment and relocation;
- Highlight existing HR systems and practices that foster career development; and
- Maximize your ROI and help re-motivate employees in the process.
“And because employees can access these portals on their own time and at their own pace they are especially appealing in today’s on-demand culture,” says Alexander. “Designed properly, a career portal can be utilized as a stand alone career development resource, or can provide ongoing support to career training when training budgets are restored.”
