HR Insider Readers Believe Their Workforce is Staying Put

Your employees may be staying, but the odds are they are still looking

LinkedIn’s Talent Trends 2014 report provides some interesting information about what many of today’s job seekers are thinking. According to LinkedIn’s data from over 18,000 fully employed professionals from 26 countries, 85% of LinkedIn users are open to changing jobs but only 25% say they are actively looking for a new job.  Additionally, 45% of users are open to talking to someone about a new job.  Only 15% are not looking for a new job at all.

In Canada, how did the numbers break down? In a survey of over 743 respondents, 37% were actively looking for work, 8% were actively looking each day, 16% were casually looking a few times a week, and 13% were actively reaching out to their personal network. But of the remaining respondents, 43% were passively looking (meaning they were open to being contacted and speaking to recruiters).  Only 20% of Canadian respondents indicated that they were not looking for a new job.

How Satisfied Are Canadian Job Seekers In Their Current Jobs?

When asked how satisfied they were with their current roles, 31% of active job seekers said only somewhat or very dissatisfied (19% were neutral), compared to only 5% of passive job seekers (only 7% were neutral). That means that 51% of candidates who said they were satisfied or somewhat satisfied were actually still actively looking for work.

Of course, data from LinkedIn is not representative all of your employees.  Many people are not on LinkedIn.  However, this data is generally consistent with the data reported by other sources such as CareerBuilder. In a 2013 CareerBuilder survey, people were asked if they planned to seek new employment in 2014; 85% said they would actively pursue new opportunities (9% were passively looking and 8% said no or not likely).

Perhaps these results are indicative of the ‘grass is always greener’ thinking. Many people are satisfied with their jobs but that does not mean they are not looking for something different.

The Majority of HR Insider Readers Believe Less Than 20% of Their Workforces is Actively Looking for Work

In March 2014, we asked HR Insider readers to estimate the percentage of your employees you thought were actively or seriously looking for a new job outside of your organization. This is what you told us:

Question: What percentage of your employees do you believe are actively and seriously looking for a new job outside your organization right now?

  1. Under 10%
  2. 10-20%
  3. 20-30%
  4. 30-40%
  5. Over 40%

Only 10% of readers felt that many of their employees were actively searching for work. 58% of readers felt that less than 20% of their workforces were actively searching for work. 32% felt that between 20-40% of their workforce was actively searching for work.

Data tells us that even though many employees indicate they are satisfied at work, the vast majority are still actively — not passively — seeking new opportunities.

Create a Workplace Where Your Employees Want to Stay

When the economy is good and people feel more secure in their jobs, they are not as actively searching for jobs as they might be in difficult economic times.  This is partially due to the fact that when people generally feel content in one part of their lives they feel content in others. During more difficult times discontent can spread.

While your workforce may be stable for now, the seeds of discontent can be sowed one stick at a time. Although they may not leave, a discontent workforce will not be operating at their fullest potential. Even if you do not believe your workforce is preparing to leave, find time to talk to them and see if you are creating a workplace where they want to remain or one where they are staying until something better comes along.

Resources:

LinkedIn Talent Solutions Global Recruiting Trends 2014