New research from the CIPD and the University of Birmingham reveals that more than 6.5 million people in the UK expect to quit their job in the next year.
The research also shows that those reporting the poorest job quality are the most likely to have itchy feet. Better pay and benefits are the main motivator to leave, but people are also looking for increased job satisfaction and better work life balance.
In response, the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, is calling for employers to not treat pay increases as a ‘silver bullet’ for attracting and retaining staff, but instead look at overall job quality by being more creative with job design and people management practices.
This year’s CIPD Good Work Index, a survey of more than 6,000 UK workers, found that one in five workers (20%) say it’s likely they will quit their current role in the next 12 months, compared with 16% in 2021.
Addressing job quality has never been more central to getting the most out of the employer-employee relationship including supporting better work-life balance through improved workplace flexibility and employee well-being.
The CIPD Good Work Index measures job quality across seven different dimensions and finds that at least six of these influence workers’ intention to quit: pay and benefits, employment contracts, work–life balance, job design and the nature of work, relationships at work, and health and wellbeing. When considering job quality, employers need to consider all dimensions of working life, recognising that employees across their organisation will face different challenges and opportunities. For instance:
Melanie Green, research adviser for the CIPD, said: “Too often employers focus on roles that already have higher job quality when they look to improve job quality and retain people, and quite often the focus is on pay alone. While pay is the main motivator for job moves, there are many reasons why people leave roles, and numerous barriers preventing people from being able to leave.
“All jobs have the potential to be better and we should aspire to make good work a reality for everyone in the workforce. This means going beyond pay to think about how people’s roles are designed, how flexible their role can be – in location or hours – supporting good health and wellbeing, and investing in employee development so they have the means to progress in their career. The pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities and many issues still persist. By taking a holistic look at the dimensions of good work, and bolstering people management practices, managers and employers can make a real difference to people’s working lives.”
Dr Daniel Wheatley, of Birmingham Business School, said: “The last two years have been witness to unprecedented change in our working lives including the large-scale expansion of remote and hybrid working, growing uncertainty from periods of shutdown and furloughing of workers, and recent evidence of employees quitting their jobs captured in the moniker the ‘Great Resignation’ or ‘Great Rethink’. While we find support for arguments that some recent job movements are a product of delays in job changes due to freezes on hiring during the pandemic, in our analysis of the CIPD’s latest UK Working Lives Survey data we find that one-fifth of workers surveyed stated that they may quit their job in the next 12 months, and that the presence of lower job quality acts as a key driver of this intention to leave. Addressing job quality has never been more central to getting the most out of the employer-employee relationship including supporting better work-life balance through improved workplace flexibility and employee well-being.”
Director of Undergraduate Programmes
Dan Wheatley is a Reader and Director of Undergraduate Programmes at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.
