Editor’s Note: ‘Happy Hour’ is an HR Dive column from Editor Ginger Christ. Follow along as she dives into some of the offbeat news in the HR space.
Let's talk regrets.
Two months into a new year, workers may find themselves reflective: Should I have applied for that job? Should I have tried for that promotion? Should I have pursued my true passion of running a combination cat rescue-wine shop-bookstore-bakery?
A survey by Resume Now found that 66% of workers globally have career regrets. Chief among those regrets? Not asking for a pay raise.
The thing with regrets is they can fester.
Early in my career, a former co-worker was struggling to get by on our salary. She had received a significant raise to work for the company, yet we still made far below the median income for the region.
One day, she passed a male colleague’s desk and saw his pay stub out in the open; he, who was doing the same job and was less experienced by years, was making significantly more. She quit within months.
As report upon report finds that workers are increasingly concerned about their wages failing to keep up with inflation, more workers say they are looking for new jobs. A January report by Bartech Staffing put that number at 57% within the first half of the year alone. Another report by Zety found that stagnant salaries and rising costs are keeping workers from achieving their life goals.
Here’s the thing: Of the 1,000 workers surveyed by Resume Now about regrets, 58% said they regretted staying at a job too long and a similar number said they wished they had negotiated their salary when they took their job. Less than 40% regretted quitting.
The report found that the top career regrets “centered around inaction … For the majority of participants, there were fewer regrets associated with actions they did take.”
I can say this: Of the jobs I’ve been in that I knew weren’t the right fit, I never regretted leaving. Whether it was due to an unkind boss, a cultural mismatch or just a bad fit, staying in a place because it was familiar never worked out in the long run.
Of the workers surveyed, 55% said they had a professional resolution for the coming year, with the top goals including learning additional skills and finding a new job.
For HR pros, this can be an opportunity, too, to empower workers and — potentially — reduce turnover.
Photoroom, an AI photo editor, for example, offers workers negotiation training. Every six months, employees can receive training on salary offers and the negotiation process. Through the training, workers not only develop skills, which can make them more productive, but they also are empowered, which strengthens trust and helps with retention, CEO and co-founder Matthieu Rouif told HR Dive.
And of course, this applies to you, too. If you’re looking for a sign to make a change: this is it. Take that artificial intelligence training. Ask for more money. Open that bookstore. YOLO, as we millennials say.
