On Your Mark…Get Ready…Change Jobs!

History tells us that employee turnover goes up when recessions turn to recoveries, and early data says that trend will continue in 2010. Finnegan Mackenzie, our sister company, conducted a study with ExecuNet on executive retention and found a clear and alarming pattern…that executives who are highly engaged are also eager to leave. The study found that while more than 90% of executives are engaged in their jobs, more than 70% would take a recruiter’s call. In fact, more than half are already looking and nearly 90% said they would accept or strongly consider an opportunity that was better for them in the next 30 days.

“Myopia” best describes these executives’ perceptions of their teams. The numbers for the next level down are similar to those reported above, yet CEOs believe the percent below them who are looking now is far below the actual count.

This data challenges the long-held belief that engaged employees will stay. Consider how your executives view their ability to retain key players as more jobs become available? Might you need to provide retention solutions now before you incur a 6- or 7-figure loss to get top management’s attention?

Why “Lucky to Have a Job” Didn’t Work

The recession leaves in its dust 3 data points that underscore how high-performing employees can always find jobs:

• Per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of workers who voluntarily quit their jobs in 2008 fell just 11% compared to the number who voluntarily quit in 2007; this means that your chance of losing a good worker in the depths of the recession were a full 89% as strong as they were when the economy was at full strength
• A University of Wisconsin study confirmed that voluntary quits went up after layoffs, citing that a layoff of just 1% of the workforce caused voluntary turnover to increase a full 31%
• MSNBC reported that job applicants nearly tripled in 2008, ensuring that selection criteria was high and only the best applicants were hired

This data confirms that if any employees felt lucky to have a job, it was probably those who performed less than stellar and held on while the job market shrunk. Think back to your turnover during 2008 and 2009…Did you lose good performers or average ones?