Almost Half of Workers Want to Switch Jobs in 2024: Tips to Maximize Your Employee Retention

According to research from Microsoft and LinkedIn, 46% of Americans are looking to switch jobs in 2024. While you might think the layoffs in tech and the slowing economy would be a deterrent, the economy may actually be the reason many are looking to make a move. 45% of survey respondents on the job search website Monster were looking for more money from a career move in 2024, likely because of the rising cost of living. 

Knowing this trend, you may want to examine new strategies for employee retention, especially if you are seeing an increase in turnover. Complacency is costly; the cost of training a new employee to the point where they are a fulsome part of the team is estimated at between six to nine months of their position’s current salary.

The VIP Job Switch Motivator: Compensation

The prime mover behind having a job for the vast majority of people is money. If your business has peeled back at all on raises, performance bonuses, or other forms of compensation, you may be encouraging your workers to leave. 

This is a particularly tricky tightrope for management to walk. On the one hand, employees will leave if they don’t feel they are being compensated fairly. On the other, senior leadership will not be happy with huge pay raises during an economic contraction or downturn. 

If the answer is to let people who are unhappy with their pay packets move on, consider this: they may be your most valuable employees who help your business create growth. The better answer is to develop reward-based, personalized compensation plans that meet the needs of the employee and the company. A larger performance bonus can be offered in place of a significant raise, but smaller raises should still be on the table if this strategy is implemented. 

Base pay should also be reexamined to ensure that your team members will not get a better package elsewhere. Look at what your competition is paying for similar positions and make sure you are offering at least slightly more. 

Additionally, needs-based benefits can be introduced to personalize plans. For example, a childcare supplement can be offered to parents, while something like a mileage reimbursement for commuting in-office workers can be offered to people with lengthy commutes. If you let your team pick from a menu of these benefits, they will be more satisfied and feel like you are really listening to them.

Culture is Another Important Consideration

For the past decade, many companies have been guilty of promoting culture over compensation, particularly in the technology sector. But there is a reason - how your employees feel about their work and your company is critical. In 2019, a survey by Glassdoor found that 77% of job applicants consider a company’s culture to be important. 

Employees are unlikely to stay at a business with no cohesive culture or where there are significant interpersonal problems. Comprehensive diversity, equity and inclusion policies are attractive to most new workers, as are clear Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) policies. 

How your company treats its employees is equally important; if your business has negative reviews on Glassdoor or similar sites, leave a public response as to how your organization has changed policies or practices to address the former staff member’s complaint. In exit interviews, ask your employees to leave a review for you on these job rating sites if the split is a non-volatile one. 

Culture is having a bounceback moment due to more workers returning to the office, for better or for worse. In-person collaboration and communication really do count for a lot, but it also introduces the opportunity for personalities and egos to clash. This can be safeguarded against with clear and up-to-date HR policies plus a plan for tackling challenges before they become a major problem.

Other Employee Retention Strategies

Negotiate For More Remote Work Days

While fully remote options are waning, one thing you can try to negotiate for your team is more remote days. Working remotely, even in a hybrid environment, is still seen as a huge employment benefit and offering one day less in-office than the competition may be enough to tip the scales in your favor if an employee is considering leaving.

Actively Work On Consistency In Employee Engagement

Employees are far less likely to leave if they are “engaged” with their jobs, suggesting they enjoy what they do and who they work with. Engagement will vary over time, depending on factors like the employee’s mental health, workload and their stress levels. You aren’t aiming for consistently high employee engagement since doing so could lead to burnout. Instead, you are looking to build consistent, steady engagement - which is actually much more productive over the long term than high-engagement bursts. Read more about how to do that here. 

Don’t forget the value of feedback from your team. Without getting too personal, make sure you are having individual one-on-ones regularly enough that they feel free to express any discontent or ask for improvements in certain areas. Remember that while culture and feeling supported are important, money is the main motivating factor for switching jobs, so see what you can do to pay them what they deserve. 

Do you want to measure how engaged your employees are, and discover which ones may be heading towards the door? Prodoscore is an employee productivity management solution that lets you monitor staff activity non-invasively while offering them real-time feedback. Contact us for a demonstration today!