More than four in ten UK employees are considering quitting their job in the next year, YouGov research for Investors in People suggests. In a report published in April 2008:
A lack of motivation at work is cited as a major problem, with unreasonable workloads, feeling underpaid and a lack of career path being blamed.
About half of staff said they had not been supported beyond their initial induction at work.
Meanwhile more than a quarter felt unsupported by their managers.
Nearly one in three (30%) UK employees is de-motivated in their current role, according to research published today by Investors in People UK. Significantly, 43% are considering taking action and leaving their job in the next 12 months, with those that have been in their job for one to two years most likely to want to do so (48%).
The research carried out by YouGov on behalf of Investors in People UK, found that the top three de-motivating factors for employees were:
- unreasonable workload (18%),
- feeling underpaid (18%) and
- lack of clear career path (17%).
Overall, nearly half of employees (44%) claim their organisation has failed to continue supporting their career development beyond their initial induction period.
Over a quarter (28%) of employees also said they felt ‘unsupported’ by their managers.
De-motivation is highest within larger companies with 39% of people in organisations of 5,000 or more say that they are either not very or not at all motivated compared to 30% in organisations of between 50 and 250 people.
Motivation is lowest amongst public sector workers, with 41% saying that they are either not very or not at all motivated and 44% claiming to be less motivated than they were a year ago.
Employees in the public sector are also the most likely to be thinking about leaving their job, half (50%) said they were considering a change of job.
Employees in the North East are the least motivated in the UK, with 38% saying they are either not very or not at all motivated and 52% thinking about leaving their job in the next year.
In an earlier report (November 2007) similar YouGov research for IiP showed:
Less than a third (30%) of UK employees have complete trust in their manager, with almost eight in ten (78%) believing that their manager has let them down in the past.
Over half (55%) of employees believe that their manager only has their best interests at heart when it suits them.
Managers are most likely to let down employees by failing to provide the support they need to do their job (49%), failing to respond to concerns expressed by employees (48%) or withholding information which impacts on them (45%).
Sharing information in confidence with another member of staff was cited by over half (55%) of employees as the worst possible type of betrayal by their manager.
Employees’ lack of trust in their managers is most apparent when asked who they would confide in regarding a sensitive work-related matter: less than one-quarter (21%) would look to their boss, with 55% turning instead to a colleague or contemporary in times of trouble.
Alarmingly, this lack of trust in managers can have serious consequences: respondents said it can lead to lowered employee morale (68%), destroy team spirit (46%) and result in people looking for a new job (42%).
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