Managers must move fast to keep staff, writes Val Leveson
Businesses be warned: OCG has undertaken a survey of employees and found overwhelmingly that many are ready to move jobs as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
Marketing manager of OCG Peter Dallimore says that what was found to be true for New Zealand has also been the trend in the United States and Australia.
In short, people have been sitting tight, as far as their jobs are concerned, for about 18 months, thinking that was the way to survive the recession. But in so doing they have felt frustrated and many now have itchy feet.
"Last year there was no opportunity to move into a new job after leaving the one you were in. There has been pent-up frustration and anger and pressure from the top on managers - and base management styles haven't helped. This has exaggerated the determination to move on," Dallimore says.
"We found that among our clientele - those in the executive space - nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed were actively looking for a change. That's significant."
The survey was done with OCG's database of 6000 candidates, who the company have worked with in the past two years. These candidates are mainly middle to upper-level executives.
The survey is divided into sectors: financial services, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), manufacturing, public sector, retail and services.
Each candidate was emailed a link to a questionnaire, which was answered anonymously. OCG got a 35 per cent response rate overall.
According to OCG, the overall results of the survey show that:
20 per cent of all those surveyed are either unsatisfied or extremely unsatisfied with their current role.
58 per cent of those surveyed are either slightly (17 per cent), seriously (28 per cent) or aggressively (15 per cent) looking for a new role.
70 per cent of all candidates surveyed would be open to an approach to discuss a new career opportunity.
50 per cent of candidates surveyed would consider a new career opportunity if they felt there was some evidence of the economy picking up, versus 22 per cent who are needing widespread evidence that the economy is turning around.
"It appears that we are on the cusp of seeing people actively seeking opportunities, or capitalising on ones that are presented to them," says OCG.
OCG works in recruitment and the areas of attraction and retention.
"We help companies look at their recruitment audits, HR audits, and do consulting," Dallimore says. He says the company also does psych testing and looks carefully at the culture of their client's companies and whether a candidate would be a good fit.
"Perhaps because we don't only do recruitment we've survived well in the past 18 months, while many recruitments firms have disappeared."
Dallimore says his company has seen the survey results to be true with the overwhelming response to employment ads. "After we advertised recently in the Herald, we were overwhelmed with applicants. These were mainly from people who wanted to leave their current position."
Scott Freeman, associate director of OCG, says up until now the opportunities haven't been out there - but with people wanting to move again, this is changing. Jobs are opening up, even if new ones haven't necessarily been created yet.
Dallimore points out that "things are getting better in the job market. Seek [website] job numbers are up, and we're also seeing an upturn in opportunities."
He says for companies there is still a challenge in finding the best person for the job. "There are a lot of CVs to wade through. The lack of new employment last year clouded talent shortages, but they are re-emerging and it's a company's best people that are seeing the glimmers of hope in the market.
"Employers may lose their best people now, even though they've stuck around during the recession."
Freeman's advice to companies is to be aware of what is going on. "Many of our clients don't realise how high the numbers are. They need to ask themselves, how well are they engaging their people. If they have taken their eyes off the ball, their best people may very well move to other opportunities."
He also says a lot of the best workers, while not actively looking for something else, may be approached by another company. Companies can't stop these approaches. If an employee isn't satisfied with where he or she is working, the approach becomes very attractive.
Dallimore says the first two things the best employees generally look for are challenge and a good manager. Lack of these two things is often the reason for leaving. According to a Chandler Macleod study, the main triggers to seeking new employment are: limited career opportunities; feeling undervalued; loss of faith in the organisation; lack of salary increases and no bonus.
Freeman says: "Look at it this way: in areas of talent shortages, the fewer people available for a certain job, the more competitive it is. You really need to engage staff so they don't want to move on."
And it is also about the employment brand. Dallimore says: "New Zealand is a small place - how you treat your employees becomes known in the marketplace. If you have a bad reputation, it's unlikely that the best staff will want to work for you. Particularly these days where there is the internet and social networking.
"Where word of mouth used to be about telling a few people of your experiences; the internet and social networking has changed that. Thousands of people can be told things over the internet - word gets around quickly. Companies need to talk to their staff and show that they do care about treating them fairly.
"Top management need to sit down with staff and create development programmes and opportunities, so they feel there is reason to say."
In conclusion, OCG says: "What we have observed over the last 12 months is an ongoing difficulty in finding and securing high-quality talent for our clients.
"The reasons are twofold: firstly, due to market uncertainty, the majority of candidates have focused simply on retaining their role and income they have, not wanting to jeopardise it by seeking other employment.
"Secondly, when candidates have been approached or have applied for another role, we have witnessed an unprecedented number of counter offers as employers try to retain the talent they have in the business."
OCG says it now anticipates that "candidates will be more willing to actively seek or at least consider other opportunities".
"This will lead to a stronger level of activity in the employment market. As such, employers wanting to retain key talent will need to be strongly tapped into the motivators of those people in order to avoid losing them - and will have to be fast and flexible to win those on the market."
