Are You Experiencing Any of the Five Primary Reasons Employees Change Jobs?

Compensation Issues Are Important, But Seldom Rank Number One

If you randomly ask some younger workers about the number one reason people seek new employment, many will answer insufficient compensation as their belief. However, should you ask more experienced employees for one overriding reason to change jobs, not many will name compensation as the primary reason.

Few observers, even the top experts, maintain that compensation level is unimportant. Obviously, all employees want to earn as high a salary as possible for all the usual reasons. The same focus applies to benefits. Everyone wants to receive the best benefit package available.

Yet, hundreds of studies and surveys show that better compensation seldom, if ever, ranks at the top of the reasons for changing jobs. In the opinion of most seasoned employees, there are simply more important reasons for being happy at one’s job, or changing employers.

Five Common Reasons Employees Seek New Employment

The five most “popular,” common, and important reasons for changing jobs are more subjective than objective. Think about these issues for a moment.

• Spending one half of your waking hours in a place that doesn’t “feel” right is often the most common reason for a job change. Although a very subjective issue, everyone knows that feeling of being at the “wrong” house, school, car, party, activity, or job. In business, this condition is typically a result of a negative corporate culture and atmosphere or an employer’s shaky reputation for quality products and branding mistakes.
  
  
• Have you had the feeling that your employer wouldn’t miss you if you were kidnapped by aliens and never returned? If you’ve had these feelings, you know how totally destructive they can be to your daily performance, regardless of how dedicated you want to be. A negative, unsettled corporate culture often contributes to this outlook, but there is also typically an added “stimulus.” Management typically fails to tell employees that they are appreciated and welcome. Feeling expendable and considered nothing more than a “spare part” by their employer, is consistently demoralizing to staff.
  
  
• Do you believe that you’re not receiving sufficient support to perform your job? Whether this feeling originates from your perception of unnecessary rules, complicated procedures, management incompetence, or a refusal of supervisors to properly explain their expectations, this can become a pervasive destroyer of your confidence, motivation, dedication, and workplace enjoyment. A strong driving force to have you consider changing jobs, you should also understand that it may be challenging to get good feedback from new prospective employers about their dedication to supporting employees. Try to learn all you can about a potential employer’s commitment to support their employees.
  
  
• Do you believe there are few, if any promotion opportunities and no ability to learn new skills at your current employer? This major reason for changing jobs has been a consistent “leader” in employee unrest for decades. It is a valid reason to consider new employment. Unless you are fervently happy with your current position and uninterested in future advancement opportunities, believing that you lack the ability to move up your employer’s organization chart can seriously change your formerly positive and motivated approach to your current job.
  
  
• Do you feel you are underpaid? Finally, we come to the compensation issue. But, notice where it falls. The last of the primary reasons for job changing, insufficient compensation tends to become a major motivator only when combined with one or more of the first four problems. Most employees are satisfied with fair, not necessarily overly high compensation. However, when combined with one of the other top reasons, even higher than market compensation is often not enough to convince employees to stay with their employer.

Should you experience one or more of these issues, you might want to explore new employment opportunities. You should keep in mind, however, that only compensation considerations are often easy to analyze. The remaining, more important, issues require a bit more research and diligence.

Be sure to evaluate the branding efforts of potential employers. Those that are successful may have a corporate culture and management team that create a positive and comfortable workplace environment. Try to learn about employee turnover rates. You can safely equate low turnover rates with fair compensation and a positive workplace. Again, there are no guarantees, but these are positive indicators.

To further improve your odds of finding the right job, examine the top employment professionals, like Kelly Services. When you see an opportunity that sparks your interest, these experienced professionals can offer you solid insight into their clients’ corporate culture, employee respect level, and general workplace atmosphere. Also, these firms often have exciting opportunities at all times, even during down economies.