Is Your Biggest Competitor Already Working For You?

Employers worried about staff being poached by rivals should be looking closer to home says new research…

In a survey of 3,000 UK employees, of those intending to leave their current employer and find a new job this year, a third (33%) said their ideal job is to work for themselves, compared to 25% who are looking to move to another company.

In fact, the research by employee communications and engagement specialists Synergy Creative, found that being self-employed is a dream for many. Nearly half of the employees surveyed (47%) said that they’d love to be their own boss, compared to 53% who would prefer to work for a company, showing that entrepreneurial aspirations are now commonplace in the UK workplace. 

“The challenge for UK employers who want to keep their people is to try and create an entrepreneurial, high performance culture within their organisation, where people feel empowered and in control of their own destiny, within a larger setting. This is no easy task of course but starting by engaging employees to understand how they want to work is an essential first step. Many large organisations have successfully created projects, conditions and micro cultures within their ranks to foster innovation and empower people to work outside of some of the traditional confines of larger businesses, ” said Gemma McGrattan, director, Synergy.

Embracing Change

Despite the past few years being full of political and economic uncertainty and workplaces changing rapidly with digitalisation, the research also found that employees aren’t as unsettled by change as many employers believe. 

When asked why they’d leave a job, ‘constant change’ did not even make the 3,000 workers top ten reasons of why they might jump ship. 

The top five reasons were:

1. Unpleasant work environment (70%)
2. Not trusted to do their job (67%)
3. Unsupportive line manager (57%)
4. Poor leadership (55%)
5. Overlooked for pay rise/bonus (54%)

“The results of our research reinforces the fact that you can never underestimate how rapidly the world of work changes, the key to success for organisations is to have an employee-first mindset. Employers who have the deepest understanding of the needs and wants of their employees to do their best work, and use this to make changes, will be the ones that thrive. The good news is that employees don’t fear change – and can actively embrace it when the organisational culture is right. In fact, these ‘agents of change’ can be the best brand ambassadors your organisation can have,” added Gemma McGrattan, Director, Synergy. 

View the full report here.