More than half the workers in North America are fed up with their bosses and ready to give notice, according to a report from Right Management, the consulting arm of staffing giant Manpower Group.
After being squeezed with heavier workloads, longer hours and fewer advancement opportunities, a whopping 84 percent of employees in the United States and Canada said they plan to look for a new job in 2012.
“People are frustrated right now,” said Stephen Repka, co-founder of Advanced Benefit Strategies Inc. “The majority of my clients haven’t given their workers a raise in several years.”
Repka operates a benefits consultancy for roughly 250 small business clients from two offices in Unionville and Wallingford.
Repka said he doesn’t see any changes on the horizon two years after the Great Recession officially ended. Nevertheless, local workers are ready to plan long-term goals.
“People are going to start looking elsewhere for the jobs that can pay them what they need to earn,” said Repka.
“People want to work for stable companies that appear to be growing,” said Repka. “And they want to feel valuable and rewarded for their contributions.”
This year’s survey reflects the same level of discontent in the workplace as the 84 percent reported in 2010. Like last year, only five percent of those polled said they intend to remain in their current position.
“The survey findings reflect a lot of employee dissatisfaction across North America,” said Right Management Executive Vice President Bram Lowsky. “Employees are restless and feel they are lacking in options.”
“The prolonged period of economic uncertainty has meant much less job mobility than usual, and employees understandably believe they have fewer career opportunities, either internally or via a new position,” said Lowsky.
Right Management surveyed 1,077 workers in the U.S. and Canada via an online poll that ran from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15. Its report said employee angst has surged over the past two years.
In 2009, the consulting group reported that only 60 percent of the workers it surveyed planned to find a new position while 13 percent said they had no intention of looking elsewhere.
It’s not easy to stay positive during the current economic downturn. A combination of extra work, stagnant wage growth and low employee morale are at the root of workers’ dissatisfaction.
Issues with career development, job training and performance management are also driving down employee satisfaction, said Lowsky.
Consultants like Repka recommend — and have observed — employers who offer personal and professional development, training and certification courses to help enhance a worker’s knowledge.
“Anything they can use on the job, whether it’s now or in the future, adds value,” said Repka. “And it helps them to feel positive about the future.”
Also in the report, Lowsky suggested that management identify star performers and have constructive career discussions with them.
“These kinds of people always have career options,” he said. “It’s your job to know who they are, to let them know you know who they are and to tune in to their individual motivators in order to hold onto them.”
Jason Gutcheon, a principal of Professional Business Insurers in West Hartford, said an energy-based client he works with recently doled out raises to four of his 12 employees out of his own pocket.
“He hasn’t given them a salary increase in years and has actually had to let people go,” said Gutcheon. “But he really feels like these four people are critical to his business. He wants to make sure they know that.”
Gutcheon, who handles about 400 clients, says small business owners in Connecticut have cut all they can without shutting down their operations.
“I think a lot of owners have cut about all they can and still be in business,” he said. “One thing I’ve seen businesses do is to offer their employees voluntary benefits like disability and life insurance or additional vision that they couldn’t otherwise access or be able to afford on their own.”
“Do I think the additional benefits by themselves are going to make an employee happy? No and not right away,” said Gutcheon. “But every little thing helps.”
With so many workers claiming to eye the job market, local hiring and benefits experts wonder how much the talk of finding a new position is ambitious planning or just blowing off steam.
Even though people say they intend to leave, it doesn’t mean they will actually follow through. But a study that reflects a high level of dissatisfaction should still serve as a wake-up call for hiring managers and business leaders.
“Intent to leave is far from an unusual phenomenon but when it applies to four-out-of-five employees for two years running it has to be of top concern to senior management,” said Lowsky.
“When you have 84 percent of the workforce saying they’re going to look for a new job in 2012, that’s a lot like saying you plan to start going to the gym after the New Year,” said Gutcheon.
“The idea is a great one, but the reality is, there’s no real huge job creation in Connecticut right now,” said Gutcheon.
In fact, the way Gutcheon sees it, unhappy workers don’t have a lot of options to choose from right now.
