Distance grows between employers and employees as 45% of workers plan career change by 2010

UK business may face huge staff turnover problems over the next three years as links between employees and employers are becoming increasingly stretched. Existing attrition rates show 45% of employees expect to change employers over the next three years, but existing gaps in employee management suggest this figure could increase.

According to new research announced today by Adecco and the Institute of Employment Studies, fundamental changes in the way that large organisations tackle employee management and motivation, coupled with changes in the recruitment landscape can result in new and potentially damaging disparities between employers and employees, bringing a new set of challenges for workforce management.

Surveying over 1000 employees and 150 HR directors from large UK organisations the report found:

Revolving doors ñ Nearly half (45 per cent) of current employees will leave their company in the next three years. Top reasons for leaving were better salaries, more security and better progression/challenges

7-week window of exposure ñ On average it takes seven weeks to replace an employee once they have left the organisation. Five weeks for standard employees and rising to 15 weeks for management positions and above

Employee Vs. Board Value ñ54 per cent of HR directors state the they believe the board values the role of HR, however only 39 per cent believe that employees see HR as valuable

Whose job is it to motivate? ñ 64% of HR directors believe line managers should be the primary source of employee motivation, however only 18% of employees agree. Employees reject the idea of external motivators, with six out of ten believing they alone are responsible for their own motivation

Ren Schuster, Adecco Group Country manager, Adecco commented, ìThese findings should provide a serious wake up call for many businesses. Employee attrition represents a serious cost to business, not just in financial terms, but also in reduced employee productivity and loss of knowledge.î

Schuster continued, ìFor the first time we are able to clearly quantify the attrition problem. The labour market is changing and self-starting employees are demanding more from companies and it is up to businesses to realise this and close the gaps in employee management. We know from past research that 40% of UK employees surveyed have applied for a job or registered with a recruitment agency in the past 12 months. If businesses donít start engaging with their employees on the issues central to them, they will ultimately vote with their feet and leave.î

Findings suggest that businesses are in clear danger of letting vital factors in staff retention slip between various layers of management. When asked how they keep track of employee motivation the majority of respondents appear to have little process in place with crucial direct dialogues with employees absent from the majority of businesses.

Only 37 per cent of businesses undertake employee satisfaction audits to gauge motivation and only 25 per cent appear to examine vital attrition data. However awareness of the issues is high with 68 per cent of HR directors acknowledging high workforce churn as a key risk to their business.

Peter Reilly, Director of HR and Research Consultancy, Institute of Employment Studies, commented, ìHR has been seeking to move away from direct people management. However if line managers do not fulfil their responsibilities, the quality and consistency of people management can suffer. A strong labour market creates choice and freedom for employees. This leaves employers vulnerable, if people management falls through the management cracks, to increased turnover and labour costs, unproductive workers and the risk of not quickly replacing highly valued employees,.î

Further gaps between employees and employers appear when appear when comparing opinions on what is considered de-motivating at work. Whilst employers believe that lack of support, lack of leadership and stress are the biggest motivation killers today, employees put lack of recognition and poor management communication far higher.

This apparent disjointedness between HR and employees appears to be creating a certain lack of confidence with many HR departments. When asked the best way to improve HRís value to the business the majority placed their faith in standardising internal processes (56 per cent) rather than striving to effect significant strategic changes, i.e. outsourcing recruitment (18 per cent) and training (13 per cent), or consolidating the activities (23 per cent)

Reilly, concluded, ìThis apparent focus on processes and lack of appetite to take on transformational change to the function itself poses the question of whether HR is being too complacent. Taken with its relative lack of interest in finding out about what makes employees tick, this is particularly worrying given the changing work environment ñ more regulated, more diverse and with greater employee choice of employer. There is much for HR to do. Is it in a position to respond?î

The Work IN Progress: Corporate Warming Report, published by Adecco is available from today. To obtain a free copy of the executive summary visit: