All Hands, Abandoning Ship?

A 2009 Management Recruiter International (MRI) survey claims that 49.5% of employed respondents were looking to change jobs within the next six months, and 80% within a year.

Yahoo HotJobs 2009 annual survey states that “only” 38% of US workers were satisfied with their current position and “not” looking to change jobs.

A January, 2010 independent survey of 5000 US households conducted by TNS, a global market and insight group, claims that only 45% of the survey group are satisfied with their job, a downward trend from previous years that crosses four distinct drivers of employee engagement: job design, organizational health, managerial quality, and extrinsic rewards. In fact, 22% of respondents didn’t expect to be in their current job in a year.

Employer wars for top talent, the best of the best, will never end. Growing employee dissatisfaction pose new threats to employers in productivity, employee engagements, and strategic business plans. As the economy improves, chances are those unsatisfied and often key personnel might very well jump ship. Gerlinde Herrmann, member of SHRM’s Corporate Social Responsibility Special Expertise Panel, cautions: “Even if you can artificially retain folks through job security, as soon as the economy turns (and it always does), we will be facing the ever-looming prospect of talent shortages.” In addition to aggressive retention initiatives, HR departments need to benchmark and set the standards for succession planning at all levels.

Key personal losses can have a disastrous effect on the strategic vision and objectives of any organization.  Replacement searches can be a long and seemingly impossible task. Developing candidates from the employee pool may not be up to the challenges. Many companies partner with specialized industry recruiters to develop and orchestrate strategic successions plans. Short term planning includes emergency replacements. Longer term plans include changing assignments, new markets initiatives, and planned attrition. Experienced recruiters understand employer’s needs and develop replacement pipelines from targeted business segments, including prospects that employers can not ethically or legally contact.

Is your organization ready to continue business without interruption during an economic recovery and/or loss of strategic personnel?