By: Dana Manciagli
An 11-year marketing veteran of a fast-growing technology company, Ron has a great job. He gets to travel, works with great people and gets stock options as well as a competitive salary. However, even though he’s employed, he’s looking. He invested in his own laptop for his job search, hired a job coach trainer and started taking interviews.
Most importantly, he started networking in the community, researched his market value and brushed up on his job search skills. Yes, he’s still with his current company, but it might be his “old” company soon.
What’s driving Ron to go on the job hunt? His managers are just so-so, there is no promotion on the horizon, he’s been in the same role for three years and he doesn’t see career growth in the near future. His overall impression of his own career is “meh.”
Rising Trend
By now you’ve all heard the news that, according to a recent Gallup poll, employee engagement is at a whopping low of 31.5 percent. In 2014, about half of employees said they were “not engaged” and 17.5 percent were “actively disengaged.”
The news gets worse with a new survey, Jobvite’s annual Nation Jobseeker Study, a comprehensive report that provides insight on the tools people use to job hunt, the characteristics of different types of workers and whether job hunters are more or less confident this year than last. The study also reveals some interesting insight into mobile use and how job seekers are leveraging devices in their job search and application processes.
The biggest and most surprising finding is around employee loyalty and workers’ willingness to jump ship for better opportunities: 45 percent surveyed are satisfied with a current job, but are open to a new job.
Eye-Opening Stats
Other results of Jobvite’s study include:
♦ Reflecting on the past year, 60 percent of job seekers are equally or more optimistic about job opportunities, up significantly from 45 percent in 2013.
♦ Job seekers are surfing the wave of career opportunities. Technology has the highest short-term turnover, but no industry is exempt.
♦ Fifty percent of employed job seekers see a current position as a placeholder, 28 percent view a current position as a stepping stone and another 22 percent view it as entry-level. These are indicators that people see their jobs as growth experiences rather than an endgame.
♦ Money is still the most influential factor both in deciding to leave a job and in choosing a new one. While money was ranked highest, location and work-life balance came in at the second and third spots respectively, for both men and women.
Here’s a way to sum it all up: Minimal pay and lack of growth make leaving a job inevitable.
While I wouldn’t say that job seekers are in the driver’s seat, they are getting more comfortable with leaving a company for a better overall opportunity. After you read Jobvite’s data, ask yourself: “What am I doing to keep and motivate my best employees?”
Dana Manciagli is a career expert, speaker and consultant. She has spent more than 30 years as a Fortune 500 sales and marketing executive and is now retired after more than a decade at Microsoft. Dana is the author of the book, “Cut the Crap, Get a Job!” and a prolific blogger. She sits on the worldwide board of Junior Achievement and has her MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
