With the new year ahead, workers and employees around the country are taking an assessment of where they are in their career, figuring out what they want to do to get to the next level. Based on a recent poll, a number of Americans believe that their long-term happiness could be in a different line of work, which may be cause for concern for employers who want to reduce turnover.
Roughly 4 in 5 employees in North America intend to pursue a new career opportunity in 2015, according to a new poll from staffing consulting firm Right Management. Approximately 660 workers from both the U.S. and Canada were interviewed. Approximately 86 percent agreed with the statement that they planned on actively looking into a new position over the next 12 months, up from 83 percent when a similar survey was done heading into 2014.
Clearly, the average worker has every intention of not staying where they are now. The survey also found that just 5 percent of respondents concurred with the statement that they were fine with where they were presently in their profession.
Bram Lowsky, Right Management executive vice president of career management, indicated that this poll should sound the alarm for employers who want to retain their talent, whether that's accomplished by making employee benefits more generous or addressing workers' specific concerns.
"The improving economy brings about a renewed job confidence, which results in increased interest in career mobility," said Lowsky. "This requires employers to rethink how they motivate and challenge their employees to keep them engaged."
Employers must foster career development culture
He added that one of the best ways to keep workers happy and loyal to the company is by establishing a culture of career development, where individuals understand what their role is and how they can grow, become more firmly established and gain a greater sense of fulfillment.
At one time, it wasn't uncommon for workers to stay with the same company for the length of their careers in the workforce, though responsibilities and status typically change. This may be more of the exception to the rule now, however, as so-called "job hopping" is no longer viewed as a resume killer, according to recent survey data. More than 57 percent of employees 18 to 34 years of age believe changing jobs every few years helps their career pursuits, staffing firm Accountemps revealed in a survey. Job hopping isn't viewed quite as favorably by middle-aged consumers. Just 22 percent said that it was something they weren't averse to.
"Conventional wisdom about the perils of job hopping has begun to shift, but professionals still need to look carefully before they leap," said Bill Driscoll, Accountemps district president. "Changing jobs every three to four years is one thing; more frequent moves could indicate the inability to dig into a role and put employers on guard."
Men tend to be more inclined to job hop than women, as 47 percent to 37 percent, respectively, believed it to be a boon for their careers.
