Dive Brief:
- Making career moves within your current employer seems logical, yet, according to a recent Gallup survey, when Americans make a career move, they almost all report taking a new position someplace else.
- Gallup reported that by a huge majority (93%), the 13,510 U.S. adults surveyed say that the last time they changed jobs, they left their employer, too. Fewer than one in 10 (7%) say they took a new position within the same company.
- In fact, Gallup found this to be the case whether respondents said the job change took place three decades ago or within the past 12 months. No matter how long ago (within 30 years) the change occurred, only the same low number - under 10% - stayed put.
Dive Insight:
Naturally, this trend is not a great for employers. Apart from the high cost of turnover (up to 150% of the employee's annual salary for high-level employees), there is the added downside of losing "group rapport" as well as an employee's skills and/or knowledge. Co-authors Brandon Rigoni and Bailey Nelson wrote that losing talent means teams are squeezed until a replacement is hired and trained. Finally, they write, losing talented, knowledgeable employees can be a drain on a company's leadership pipeline, and potentially damaging to a carefully created workplace culture.
In the article, Rigoni and Nelson offer some ideas employers can use to try and stem the attrition tide, including hiring the right people in the first place, molding jobs to people (not people to jobs) and keeping managers committed and accessible, a true engagement booster.
