Back in July, I referenced data from the Glassdoor Q2 2012 Employment Confidence Survey. If you’ll recall, this quarterly survey monitors four key indicators of employee confidence: job security, company outlook, salary expectations and re-hire probability. The Q4 2012 Survey from Glassdoor is out and the results are interesting.
It’s probably not shocking to anyone who reads this blog that half (51%) of employees (including self-employed people) will consider looking for a new 
job if the state of the economy stays the same or improves, with 33% looking for a new job in less than a year and nearly one in five (18%) planning to look for a new job in the next three months. We’re hearing that our employee base is not engaged and other sources have said that as much as 90% of the employed population will look for a new job in 2013.
What’s interesting to me is that, if you look at other data points in this survey, it makes perfect sense that a high percentage of employees think they’ll look for work this year. Why? Well, according to the survey, 39% of employees don’t expect a pay or cost-of-living increase in 2013 and 21% aren’t sure if they’ll get an increase this year.
So. 60% of employees don’t think – or aren’t sure – they’ll get an increase this year. I’m thinking that has something to do with the percentage of employees who will be looking for a new job this year. And guess what? The most important factor these employees say that will influence their decision on whether or not to accept a job offer is…wait for it…salary and compensation!
Employees are pretty good at connecting dots:
I don’t think I’m going to get a raise this year +
I’ll be looking for a new job this year =
The most important factor in my decision to accept a new job will be the salary and compensation
Makes perfect sense to me.
But I also think that a majority of employees will receive raises of some sort this year. Even small ones. So why do so many think that there is no soup for them?
Perhaps we’re causing this supposed exodus ourselves by not communicating clearly – at the employee level – what our compensations plans for this year are. Or, maybe we’re being extremely clear and they don’t believe us.
Either way, it’s a problem. Either way, we should never forget that our employees are smart and know how to connect the dots.
Maybe it’s time we do the same.
