An Exodus of Workers: To Where
Robert Cenek
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A significant majority of workers are searching for new employers, according to a survey report released Nov. 16, 2005 by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Career Journal.com.
Three out of four workers who are employed and responded to the survey said they are job searching actively or passively, and a 2004 survey report by SHRM and CareerJournal.com found similar results. Spherion released a study with somewhat similar findings – i.e., that roughly 40% of those surveyed are planning on moving on to a new employer.
While these and other recently minted surveys suggesting the need for US firms to do a better job at employee retention are raising the right questions, it’s easy for the reader to jump to a variety of wild, and probably inappropriate conclusions.
The first question that should be asked is where are all of these active and passive job seekers going to go? Are there enough jobs available for them to pursue? It seems inconceivable that such a large percentage of disaffected workers will find employment elsewhere—unless the labor market turns into a game of musical chairs or employees “offshore” themselves to more exotic workplaces in the tropics. Simply put, there’s little evidence that current labor market conditions will reverse course in such a significant way that will accommodate their desires to find a new setting.
The second question that should be asked is are these folks really sincere in their intentions? The answer: probably not. Research findings have demonstrated that a meaningful percentage of employees who report that they are actively or passively seeking work elsewhere don’t move.
Presume that these disgruntled workers buy into the notion that the grass is greener elsewhere. Will this onslaught of “musical chairs” improve the average employee’s situation? Hardly. Most would be leaving one “bad” employer to join another “bad” employer if the average employer is as inept in leading its workforce as suggested by a recent Towers Perrin study. In that study, only 21% of US workers are reported to be highly engaged, and 16% are totally disengaged, with the rest being moderately engaged. This spells the worst situation for any employer – employees who are unhappy but have no place to go.
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