Recognise This: More people are quitting than being laid off – and it’s not a new trend.
Even after reading my posts from Monday and Tuesday this week, do you still, deep-down, think that your employees won’t quit (either out of loyalty to you or because of the lousy job market).
Give up that false hope. TLNT reported on Bureau of Labor Statistics results:
“2 million people left their jobs voluntarily whilst only 1.8 million were laid off. That’s right, more people voluntarily left their jobs than quit and it has been trending that way for some time.”
TLNT reports this has been the trend for the last year. You can only push people so far before they leave to potentially join your competitor. Think of the double impact of that – you’re out a star employee and your competitor just got information and skills you’d rather they never had.
TLNT goes on to say:
“With the economy in doubt, employees have been hesitant to be the squeaky wheel and complain — and you can’t necessarily blame them. So when they find a competitive job and move on, the employer is surprised.”
“Surprised” seems a bit disingenuous to me. After rounds of layoffs, extra work, pay freezes, pay reductions, and a general atmosphere of fear, no one should be “surprised” when good employees decide to leave for a hopefully better environment.
The bigger question is, what are you doing about? Yes, they’re really looking for other work. Yes, they really will quit and leave you for your competitors. So what are you going to do right now to stem that tide?
