The recession has resulted in a disengaged workforce waiting to change jobs at the first opportunity. Over three-fifths (62%) of employees are looking to change jobs, and most of these (86%) are intending to do so in the next 6-12 months.
While most employers recognise retention as a key challenge in the next 12 months, the majority believe that rising market confidence will result in a low turnover of staff: 86% of employers range from being quite confident to very confident that their staff will stay once the upturn takes off. This suggests that there is a very clear mismatch between employers and employees, and the impact of the downturn has affected employees far more than employers realise. As the market picks up, employees are more likely to move away from their current role and look for alternative positions. The security of simply still being in employment will no longer act as a retention aid for employers.
For employers, almost three-quarters of whom (71%) are expecting to increase headcount in the next 12 months, this news will come as a stark reminder of the continuing war for talent that has beset the banking and financial services sector. Employee engagement has always been a key tool in the retention of staff, and never more so than during a recession. While our research shows that employers have improved their methods on how they engage with staff, with three-quarters (75%) of employers communicating with staff about strategic changes at least once a month, it is clear that there is still much work to be done.
The recession has clearly had a detrimental impact on employee loyalty and motivation. Almost half (48%) of employees have seen one of the main challenges to their role as maintaining personal morale levels, and a further 39% have struggled with increased workloads due to redundancies. Despite confidence being on the increase, a third of employees still think morale is low, and this is backed up by almost a quarter (23%) of employers who suspect that morale will not return to pre-recession levels.
In this context, it is no wonder that employees are hoping for new opportunities to come their way. The question is how employers will tackle this situation. Without being able to offer attractive remuneration packages, a fact that almost two-thirds (64%) of employers believe will impact staff retention, employers are going to have to come up with alternative tools to retain their staff if they are to avoid a mass exodus.
