New year, check. New job, check. Same company?

New Year, new job - a typical new year’s resolution and one that will lose employers over a quarter (27%) of their employees during 2023. But HR leads and business leaders don’t have to accept the inevitable January blues and can implement achievable retention strategies to retain valuable talent. 

It’s not all about the money: many factors drive employees to leave

A recent LHH survey found that 45% of responders would be motivated to change jobs for a better salary. This is no surprise as financial challenges such as interest rate rises and the cost-of-living impact on disposable income.

However, it’s not all about money. 31% of workers say their primary reason to leave is a lack of progression, re-skilling and upskilling opportunities with their current employer. 45% of responders wanting to stay with their current employer want to progress and upskill for a new role.

Additional survey data shows more reasons why employees are unhappy:

• 27% want to try something new
• 25% are unhappy in current roles
• 25% can’t see a future career path.

When it comes to hires, there is an expectation among 66% of employees and managers that internal hires should be prioritised, yet only 16% of employees believe they have career progression opportunities with their current employers.

This disconnect highlights an opportunity to create and implement an effective retention strategy based on understanding reasons for leaving. This could convince one in three potential leavers to stay if their career aspirations were met with greater internal choices. 

Understanding and supporting employee career aspirations

Businesses need to be proactive in supporting employee career development. Only 35% of employees are asked what training they need to progress, and 34% don’t have a personal development plan or work objectives. 

Our research reveals another factor that organisational leadership and HR must consider. Only 48% of employees agree their line manager has helped them progress in their career, and far fewer believe their line manager is sufficiently trained to support career progression.

The core factors that should underpin a progress retention strategy include:

• Having employee conversations to understand their aspirations 
• Creating a clear path for promotion with development plans
• Investing in career progression and internal mobility of talent
• Supporting line managers to engage with employees about their internal options
• Empowering HR to identify and offer opportunities that exist across the organisation.

A January action plan to retain talent in 2023

HR and managers can tackle their employee’s January blues and desire for something new by offering them fresh internal opportunities. Here is a five-point checklist for talent retention in 2023:

1. Have meaningful and structured career conversations with employees to understand their aspirations and motivations (aside from salary increases). Multiple factors play a role, including learning and development, reskilling, internal mobility, working conditions, benefits, and support. 
2. Update, or create retention strategies that align business and employee needs, securing input and buy-in from organisational leadership, HR, line managers and employees. 
3. Build frameworks supporting internal mobility, accepting that employees often want to stay, but lack clear pathways and structures to do so.
4. Re-shape organisational culture to identify potential and think internal first, ensuring the default option is not external recruitment. 
5. Train, support and incentivise line managers and HR to implement retention strategies, recognising potential and responding to employee needs.  

2023’s new year resolution: new year, new job, same company.

For more information on employee views on career progression, salary and wellbeing, download our latest research based on the response of 30,000 global workers: Global Workforce of the Future report