Derek Irvine

Recognize This: 66% of your employees are actively seeking or open to a new job.

How wedded are you to the idea, “My employees have a job. That’s recognition enough for their work.”

If that’s your attitude, get ready to start recruiting to replace your top talent (and good luck trying to retain competitive advantage without them). TLNT reported on a recent Jobvite survey:

Quotation

“Two-thirds of currently employed Americans, roughly 77.5 million people, are either actively seeking a job or open to taking a new opportunity. An additional 33 million American adults – unemployed job hunters or soon-to-be college graduates – are also looking for work, for a total of 110.5 million job seekers looking to make a move overall.”

That’s not much better than the results reported by Right Management in a December 2009 survey:

• 60% - Yes, I intend to leave
• 21% - Maybe, so I’m networking
• 6% - Not likely, but I’ve updated my resume
• 13% - No, I intend to stay

Workplace trust is in its death throes. Employee loyalty seems to have become a quaint 20th century emotion. What does all this mean to you?

Which employees do you think are the most likely to stay? I guarantee it’s not those with the most options – your top performers. Look at it another way. The majority of your employees are distracted by thoughts, plans and actions to leave. (When do you think they’re interviewing? On the weekend?)

Think about the impact of that. It’s not just the POTENTIAL loss of those employees someday, it’s also their attitude on the job right now.

Are you ready to rethink your stance on “a job is recognition enough?” Or are you one of those 77.5 million who will leave as soon as you get a chance? Why? What could your company have done differently to keep you on board, productive, happy and engaged?