Nearly a quarter of UK employees plan to leave their job in the next 12 months, a survey of 4,000 workers revealed today.
The study, by market research company GfK NOP, shows that 13% of workers plan to leave “as soon as possible”, with a further 11% hoping to leave within a year.
Of those that intend to leave their organisation within the next year, 43% of staff from agriculture, 39% from transport and communications, and 39% from energy and water sectors are actively looking for work.
The desire to leave may be linked to recession-proofing measures implemented by employers, the survey suggests.
More than a quarter of employees said their organisations had introduced recruitment freezes, and 21% said a pay freeze had been implemented for all staff. Of the employees whose organisations had taken steps to survive the recession, 21% said both the recruitment and pay freezes were still in place for all employees.
The study also showed that a number of organisations were still going through re-organisation (18%) and continuing to restrict training programmes (13%) to save costs.
Around three in 10 staff claimed morale at work is worse than last year, with the public sector the most affected, while nearly a quarter said job satisfaction had also suffered.
Sukhi Ghataore, associate director at GfK NOP, said: “It’s clear that the measures put in place to counteract the recession are hitting morale, with this being most evident in the public sector.
“It’s completely understandable why organisations have put these steps in place, but to come out stronger they need to examine the impact this is having on productivity and ultimately profitability. Securing the future success of the business is vital, but key to this must be ensuring the workforce is motivated and engaged.”
The downturn has led to significant restructuring in many organisations, from job cuts to changes to working hours. As the economy gets back on track, here is XpertHR’s Q&A to ensure you don’t succumb to any legal pitfalls, plus links to a wealth of related online guidelines and resources.
