WorldTalk
WORLDTALK
Job Mobility Creating Attraction and Retention Challenges for Employers, Survey Finds
With hiring and turnover levels on the rise, employers are now experiencing challenges with both attracting and retaining employees, especially top performers and high-potential employees.
Adding to the challenge is that many employers don’t understand the important reasons that employees join and stay with a company, according to two major surveys conducted by global professional services company Towers Watson.
The Towers Watson Global Talent Management and Rewards Survey, a study of 1,637 companies globally shows there has been an uptake in labor market activity. Globally, nearly half of employers (48%) said hiring activity has increased compared with last year. For 15%, hiring has jumped significantly.
Additionally, more than one-third (35%) indicated that turnover was rising. Nearly two in three respondents are experiencing problems attracting top performers (65%) and high-potential employees (64%), an increase from two years ago. Further, more than half reported difficulty retaining high-potential employees (56%) and top performers (54%).
“With talent mobility on the rise, employers need to understand what employees value if they are to succeed in attracting and retaining employees. Unfortunately, our surveys reveal a significant disconnect between employers and employees,” said Laura Sejen, managing director at Towers Watson, who led both surveys.
“While employers recognize the importance of pay and career advancement as key reasons employees choose to join and stay with a company, they don’t place the same importance on another top attraction and retention driver: job security, or a key retention driver: trust and confidence in senior leadership.”
Indeed, the Towers Watson Global Workforce Study, a survey of 32,000 employees worldwide, including 6,014 from the United States, revealed that job security is the second most important reason they join a company and the fourth most important reason they stay.
Employees also ranked trust and confidence in senior leadership as the third most important reason they stick with a company. However, employers did not rank any of these factors as key attraction and retention drivers. Not surprisingly, less than half of employees think their company does a good job when it comes to attracting and retaining the right workers. Only 46% said their organization hires highly qualified employees, while 42% said their employer does a good job of retaining talented employees.
The Global Workforce Study also revealed that many employees feel blocked in their current position. Four in 10 employees (41%) said they would need to leave their organization in order to advance their careers. Even worse, the same percentage (41%) of employees who have been formally identified as high potentials by their organization said they would need to leave their organization to advance their careers.
From the employer perspective, less than half of respondents (49%) believe they are effective at providing traditional career advancement opportunities, while 35% said that compared with last year, career advancement opportunities are improving.
The Global Workforce Study found that leadership is the top driver of sustainable engagement i.e. the intensity of employees’ connection to their organization. However, less than half of employees (48%) agree that senior leadership is effective.
10 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST SEPT 2014