What Everyone Should Know About Job Retention In The United States

What Everyone Should Know About Job Retention In The United States

As anyone who works for an executive placement agency, human resources department, or HR executive search firm is likely well aware, the issue of job retention is a prominent one – and not just in some fields, but all throughout the country as we know it. Job retention rates have, as a matter of fact, been very poor indeed. Already by the June of 2015, more than two and a half million people had left their positions on a voluntary basis – and all within the course of that one lone month. This marked an uptick in such things happening by very nearly one fourth in comparison to the same month from the prior year and, in the time that has passed us by since, this is a problem that has only continued to escalate.

Much of this problem has been attributed to workers who are a part of the Millennial generation, as anyone working for just about any given executive placement agency is likely to be all too aware of. After all, Millennials are far more likely to move from job to job as they see fit, with more than half of them (around 60%, to be just a bit more exact) will to take a brand new job and leave their old one immediately, should the new job offer them better options. This has led to their labeling as the “job hopping” generation. But though it’s true that many people are looking to find a better place of employment and a better job in general, it is not fair to put the blame for this on the shoulders of the employees. As a matter of fact, the problem all too often lies with the company or place of business employing them, something that many an executive placement agency has seen with high levels of frequency.

One issue that a good executive placement agency might pinpoint is that of no motivation or support within the workplace – or at least very little of it, for that matter. Unfortunately, only just one fifth of all current employees in the United States (two out of every ten, to be just a bit more precise) actually feel that they are being fully supported in their place of work, encouraged by their superiors to do their best work. For the vast majority of employees in all kinds of roles, this is simply just not the case, meaning that overall work performance and engagement is likely not nearly as high as it could be. Therefore, employee retention rates are also likely to be lower than ideal, as many employees at an executive placement agency have seen and have tried to rectify within many a company or other such place of work.

Fortunately, however, this is not a problem that is unsolvable. In fact, even small steps made are likely to be able to bring about considerable change. For instance, the implementation of some kind of an employee recognition program is something that can be hugely beneficial, to say the very least. As a matter of fact, more than 85% of all companies and places of business that have instituted such a program have found themselves with positive results, particularly in the overall levels of employee happiness. And when employees are happier in the work that they are doing, other aspects of the office space are likely to change and improve as well. The quality of work is likely to improve, as too will levels of productivity. Therefore, the importance of overall employee happiness is most certainly not something to be avoided in the slightest.

At the end of the day, there is no denying that the issue of employee retention is a hard one to tackle. Anyone working for an executive placement agency is likely to be quite well aware of this indeed. Fortunately, however, there are steps that can be taken to improve such poor retention rates – no matter what line of work it is that you might be discussing. Even something as simple as an employee recognition program can lead to positive changes in the workplace.