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A quarter of European employees are looking to change jobs

By Hugh Fort in Employment News, posted June 18, 2021

According to research from Workday and Yonder Consulting, a quarter of employees across Europe will look to change jobs in the next year. They will hope to find better career development, a more interesting role and an increased salary.

In this research, Yonder surveyed more than 17,000 workers who were below director level and employed by organisations with more than 250 employees in nine European markets.

Of those surveyed 12% say their desire to change or resign from jobs is because of their employer’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However despite the pandemic 30% of the employees surveyed still believe that they will get a pay rise this year. Employees surveyed from Spain and Italy are the least hopeful with 23% and 18% respectively believing they will receive a salary increase. This is in comparison to those from Sweden where 52% believe that they will receive a salary increase.

Across all markets it was found that competitive salary is a highly motivating factor when employees search for a new role, as 54% say they are not willing to reduce their salary in return for more flexible working conditions.

Asking about leadership qualities the survey found that employees still remain positive about leadership through the uncertain times during the pandemic, with employees in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the UK being most confident.

The survey showed that approximately half of leaders are thought to have managed 2020 well. This has been achieved by prioritising employee health and safety (59%) and also by showing empathy (55%). Almost half of employees (49%) believe their company’s leadership has dealt with change well.

Encouragingly most employees feel communication from leaders has stayed the same or increased during 2020, particularly those working in the UK (85%) and Italy (88%).

Carolyn Horne, president, EMEA, Workday said “While it’s reassuring to see that many business leaders have successfully managed through the unforeseen changes of the pandemic, the real impact will be seen in the way that organisations support employees in the transition to some form of normality as we emerge from lockdown. Critically, this should include support for employee development through skills training and the creation of new opportunities, such as virtual learning and internal mobility, which will not only contribute to an organisation’s continued success, but support employee wellbeing.”

Encouragingly nearly half of employees (46%) reported that they had rarely or never worked from home before 2020 but this change has lead to over half claiming to be less stressed (53%) and also that working from home has made them more productive (56%). However 66% reported that they were given no training on how to work from home effectively.

Source: SIA