Employees increasingly looking for a “Job for Life”
Global professional services company Towers Watson has recently published an interesting survey on employee attitudes and workplace trends. The study covered over 20,000 employees and was conducted at the end of 2009. We have pulled out some of the findings below.
- Employees have dramatically lowered career expectations. Advancement now takes a back seat to a desire for workplace security and stability.
- 62% said they are willing to put a great deal of effort beyond what is normally expected to help their organisation be successful and only 12% are actively looking for another job.
- Only 39% believe their senior leaders are trustworthy and 30% believe their organisations did not treat their employees fairly in the last 12 months.
- Eight out of ten employees want to settle into a job, with roughly half saying they want to work for a single company their entire career and the rest wanting to work for no more than three companies.
- The study also highlights how a redefinition of career advancement has become embedded in the UK workplace. It is now more about acquisition of new skills, and less about a traditional progression through the ranks of the organisation. For example, 53% of employees define career advancement as being about acquiring new skills to do their current job better and to make them eligible for other jobs.
To read a more detailed summary of the study, please click on the link below (from the Towers Watson website on the 16th of March 2010).
