Think your employees aren't looking to jump ship? Think again.

Think your employees are happy and would never jump ship? You might want to reconsider that notion.

Recent survey data from Indeed Inc. indicated a full 65% of people look for other jobs within the first three months of starting a new job. Additionally, nearly 60% of adults look at job listings at least once a month and 44% subscribe to regular job alerts. Smartphones and mobile technology have only contributed to the trend; employees essentially now carry their job search with them every hour of the day.

There is, in fact, solid logic for this never ending job hunt. While employers in 2014 gave employees an average raise of 3%, an employee who left a company during this time could anticipate an average 10-20% increase in salary. It’s clear that getting ahead increasingly means moving on.

Survey data like this all but confirm the age of company loyalty is dead. It’s a development that has cut both ways - while employers no longer hesitate to institute broad-based sweeping layoffs when things go bad, employees know true job security and advancement is best attained by always looking for another job.

The Hidden Cost of Turnover

The path to success for every business is the same - deliver the best product or service at the lowest cost - and this fact helps to explain why turnover is such a killer. Turnover is a costly process in both obvious (paying recruiters to find, select, and interview candidates) and hidden ways. High turnover results in lower productivity, overworked remaining staff, lost knowledge, and training costs.

The cost of finding replacements escalate as one goes up the value chain. It's estimated to cost between 30% and 50% of an entry-level employee's annual salary to replace them, 150% of a mid-level employee's annual salary to replace, and up to 400% annual salary to replace a high-level or highly specialized employee. No matter how you cut it, losing an employee can mean a huge anchor on the bottom line.

The Upside

The good news in all this is it's far cheaper to retain workers than to recruit new ones. While estimates vary, it's a truism in business that retaining clients is a far less costly proposition than replacing them and employees are no different. Companies can improve the bottom line just by hanging onto the good employees they have.

This may, in fact, explain the growing interest in employee engagement. Research from Gallup indicates high turnover companies that fostered high employee engagement reduced turnover by 25%. Low turnover companies were even more impressive - those who put in employee engagement programs reduced turnover by 65%.

Creating a highly engaged workplace involves a number of components but includes simple items like opportunities for advancement, regular feedback from management, and opening clear lines of communication between groups. It’s becoming increasingly clear to a growing number of companies that making a small investment in employee engagement pays big dividends.

Are you ready to increase engagement and decrease constant job hunting within your team? If so, give us a call at Vocoli at 888.919.5300 today!