Over Six Million Brits Plan Job Defection

UK Bosses Must Act Now To Retain Key Workers

London, 1 June 2010 - UK businesses face a staff backlash against ongoing pay and recruitment freezes (1) with around one in four employees planning on leaving their company in the next year. (2) The period of employees ‘battening down the hatches’ is beginning to end and could leave organisations vulnerable to the loss of highly skilled key workers at a critical time for economic recovery.

A study of more than 4,000 employees by leading market research company GfK NOP has revealed that around 13 per cent of workers claim they plan to leave as soon as possible, with a further 11 per cent hoping to leave within 12 months. Staff in the agriculture, transport and communication, energy and water sectors are the most likely to be actively looking for a new job (3).

In addition to continued pay and recruitment freezes, the study found that many organisations are still going through re-organisation (4) and continue to restrict training programmes (5) in order to save costs.

Sukhi Ghataore, employee engagement specialist at GfK NOP, says: "High attrition rates can be disastrous for any business, contributing to disengaged staff as well as higher operating and recruitment costs. Improving retention is vital for business stability and growth and ignoring these warning signs could hit the bottom line in the long run.”

Recession proofing has also taken its toll on workplace morale and job satisfaction, undoubtedly contributing to employees’ decision to leave. Around three in ten staff claim morale at work is worse than last year with the public sector the most affected. (6) Around a quarter said job satisfaction has also suffered. (7) 

Ms Ghataore adds: "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 in order 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.”

About the survey

The survey was conducted online by GfK NOP between 30/04/2010 and to 11/05/2010 among 4,231 UK employees.

1. In order to survive the recession, 26 per cent of employees said their organisations introduced recruitment freezes and 21 per cent of employees said a pay freeze was implemented for all employees.  Of the employees whose organisations took steps to survive the recession, 21 per cent say both the recruitment and pay freezes are still in place for all employees. 
2. According to the National Labour Force Survey, there were 28,829,000 employed people (aged 16+) in the UK during Jan-Mar 2010. Therefore, according to GfK NOP analysis, there are approximately 7 million people intending to leave their job in the next year (23 per cent), about 3.75 million who plan to leave asap (13 per cent) and about 3.2 million within the next year (11 per cent).
3. Of those that intend to leave their organisation within the next year, 43 per cent of staff from agriculture, 39 per cent from transport and communications, and 39 per cent from energy and water sectors are actively looking for work.
4. Of those employees whose organisation took steps to survive the recession, 18 per cent state that their company is still going through re-organisation.
5. Of those employees whose organisation took steps to survive the recession, 13 per cent still have in place reduced training.
6. 37 per cent of public sector employees say their morale at work is worse than last year.
7. 24 per cent of all employees said job satisfaction is worse than last year, compared to 18 per cent who said their job satisfaction was better.