The US Department of Labor’s Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) showed the number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs reached a nine year high in December.
In addition, job openings increased by 261,000 in December. Whether from baby boomer retirements, job growth or turnover, there were 5.61 million (seasonally adjusted) openings in December.
There is a sea change in the workplace. As boomers file out the door, Xers and millennials are stepping in to fill the gap. Regardless of the overall economy’s fortunes, boomers will be continuing to retire over the next 15 years or so, leaving large numbers of job openings behind them.
The cultural changes in the workplace due to technology and the differing goals and aspirations of the younger people succeeding the boomers can easily catch unwary employers flatfooted.
What employees accepted in the past may not be tolerated by younger people.
Here’s an article that discusses the situation apart from boomer retirements, but you can see between the lines that things like being expected to work and answer emails on personal time might have been tolerated in the past, but one in four respondents in a recent poll identified it as a deal breaker. Flexibility of employers with regard to family responsibilities was another deal breaker that older workers might have tolerated.
In addition to these, however, are the more traditional shortcomings. The overall leading cause of quitting was lack of opportunity for advancement. In this regard, employers would be well advised to lift a page from Facebook.
Is management really the only possible route to advancement in your organization? Do you have positions that your employees could grow into that would improve your organization’s effectiveness that don’t involve supervision? Have you identified what your people excel at? Do you have ways to capitalize on their excellence?
The important message here is employers are in a new and changing landscape with regard to retention. The “this is the way we’ve always done it” line of thinking is likely to be the shortest route to trouble.