Nomadic employees - UK workforce set to give Britains bosses an employment nightmare

A staggering 42 per cent of the UK workforce plans to change jobs within the next year according to the latest workplace survey by leading recruitment website totaljobs.com. With almost a quarter citing career advancement as their main reason for leaving their current job, Britain’s bosses are facing an employment nightmare.

It would seem that employers’ failure to keep their workers motivated has resulted in the development of the nomadic employee. This is especially noticeable in workers aged 20 and under where half of the workforce have already had between two and five jobs since leaving full-time education.

The problem shows no sign of slowing with 35 per cent of respondents saying that they felt it was acceptable to stay in a job for less than three years. There is some good news for bosses in Northern Ireland though, with 19 per cent of the workforce there believing that over ten years is an acceptable amount of time to stay in a job. This is
in stark contrast to those in the East Midlands who are least likely to stay in one job for ten years or more.

Keith Robinson, commercial director for totaljobs.com, says: The results reveal that the UK workforce no longer believe in the concept of ’a job for life’.

Surprisingly, it isn’t salary and flexitime that is keeping workers motivated in their jobs despite recent Government attempts to promote flexibility in the workforce. Just 2 per cent cited work-life balance benefits such as flexi-time as a motivating factor in their job.

Today’s workers are more interested in the variety and challenge of the role (46 per cent) and promotional and career advancement opportunities (20 per cent.)

Keith continues: Companies need realise that they must offer employees consistent career advancement if they are to attract and retain this new breed of worker or risk losing their best talent to competitors.

Eugene Burke, a leading occupational psychologist at SHL (the world leader in psychometric assessment) says: Aligning the motivations of individuals with those of the organisation is now a key issue in retaining talent. As totaljobs.com’s research shows, an individual’s motivation, and thus commitment to a job, has a number of drivers.