There’s much current talk about a shareholder spring, with senior executives such as AstraZeneca’s David Brennan, Trinity Mirror’s Sly Bailey and Aviva’s David Moss all forced to leave high profile CEO roles, as a result of a rising backlash against exorbitant boardroom remuneration. However, might an employee spring be the next cab on the rank? There is a growing body of evidence of an increasingly jaundiced relationship between employee and employer.
Take the States. According to the US Labor Department, some2.1m Americans resigned from their jobs in February 2012 – the most recent available figures – the most recorded in a month since before the global financial crisis. The message appears to be coming through more loudly via a very topical piece of research into Millennials from PWC. Despite a UK employment market boasting wafer-thin confidence levels, 42% of this group are open to offers and 48% are actively looking for something new. And just 10% of those Millennials working within the financial services sector seek a long term relationship with their current employer, comfortably below the 18% cross-industry average.
This correlates neatly with recent findings from branding consultancy, Calling Brands. The report, the result of interviews with employees working for organisations such as Unilever, Time Warner, BUPA, Santander and Experian, suggests that corporate purpose is ranked the second most important driver of recruitment and retention behaviours, after pay and before progression and responsibility. The report echoes similar findings from a YouGov poll which, amongst other things, pointed to a staggering 57% of survey participants who would favour joining an organisation with a clearly defined purpose. Similarly, 64% also suggested that corporate purpose would create greater levels of loyalty with their employer.
But if, certainly across the US, large swathes of employees are quitting their jobs and, according to PWC, 25% of CEOs had to cancel or delay a key strategic initiative over the last year as a result of not having the right people within their workforce, how well are many organisations articulating and promoting this sense of purpose? Without this sense of purpose and direction, it is impossible for organisations to create genuine alignment and engagement, or even, at worst, retention. And this is a challenge set to get only more pressing – 40% of PWC’s surveyed CEOs felt that hiring in the right talent will only get harder.
These are pressing times for employers. Many are no longer able simply to create engagement and motivation through financial means – City bonuses for the current year are forecast to total just (!) £2.3bn, down dizzyingly, from £11.6bn in 2007/08 and the lowest comparable figure since 1998. So in the relative absence of remunerative largesse, how can employers ensure that they do not have to can or delay key initiatives for the lack of great people? They could certainly adopt the William Hague style of motivation – a brusque ‘work harder’. However, much more likely to succeed in 2012 is an employer’s ability to outline their unique sense of purpose, to articulate it and to promote it with verve and empathy. For TMP, this sense of purpose is a critical and hugely impactful influencer of the employer brand.
And if employers were inclined to genuine imagination and bravery, they might even raise the importance and impact of the employee engagement survey. Rather than disenchanted shareholders being responsible for toppling CEOs, wouldn’t it be interesting to see the same C-suite individuals dependent on rising employee engagement levels for their on-going tenure?
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 