More employees in New Zealand are applying for new jobs. According to a major workplace survey by Leadership Management Australasia, the number of workers looking for alternative employment has doubled in the last six months.
One in 3.5 employees have applied for a new job in the last 6 months. This compares with 1-in-7 in November, 2009. In Australia the ratio is 1-in-4 compared to 1-in-8 over the same period.
In New Zealand, there has also been a 25% increase in those actively looking for a new job, and a 15% increase in those considering looking for a new job.
According to Adrian Goldsmith of Leadership Management Australasia, the ‘staggering’ jump in job applications was due to management ignoring their employees and concentrating on getting their businesses back on track post financial crisis.
“Employees are looking to jump ship because they feel they have been overlooked. They’ve received no recognition or reassurance about their futures,” Goldsmith said.
“These are the same people that management asked to accept salary freezes, to work unpaid overtime and change working hours as the financial crisis took hold. They’re being ignored in the upswing so they’re discontented and on the move.”
New Zealand business leaders need to move very quickly to secure their good people or face the consequences of a talent war where they could be forced to pay 25% to 30% salary premiums to find or, just keep high quality people, he added.
The survey has also revealed employees are disillusioned with management’s attempts to inject balance between their personal and private lives. Thus, it is not surprising that work-life pressure ranks number one as the area not to have improved as expected, nor is it anticipated to improve over the next two years.
Less than half (41%) of New Zealand respondents thought their work-life balance was better than 10 years ago. Looking ahead, 45% believe they will be better off in 10 years time while 21% believed they will be worse off.
Goldsmith said, “Work-life balance is a key part of (being an) Employer of Choice, a key influence on an employee staying or leaving an organisation, so it is imperative employers create environments and conditions conducive to affecting a worthwhile and effective balance.”
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Charles van Heerden on
06 Jul 2010 02:17 PM
Having worked in NZ for a decade, managing workforces across Australasia, it was always evident that labour turnover is much higher, typically double that of Australian figures.
There are probably two major and interrelated reasons for this:
(a) Most companies in NZ are much smaller, which results in more frequent moves to get experience and promotions,
(b) Due to the smaller size of NZ a higher level of willingness to relocate to other cities including migrating to Australia.
I find it surprising that NZ employers would be that much worse in recognising the contribution of their employees. If anything, bigger employers are more likely to struggle with talent retention.