30th July 2008

Salary number one: Why employees look for a new job

Salary is the number one reason employees seek a new job, reveals a survey by specialist recruiter Hays.

Hays asked candidates why they were looking for a new job; 39% said they need to increase their salary or similar, 32% simply want a change and 29% feel their manager doesn’t value them highly enough.

“In a candidate-tight market retention is more important than ever,” said Chris Mead, General Manager of Hays in Singapore. “By identifying the common reasons people decide to look for a new job, businesses can focus on preventative strategies to work towards keeping their existing talent. “

As our survey shows, a big part of this is ensuring current market salaries are paid to all staff as this is a key motivating factor for employees in remaining in their current role.

“Employees also need to feel valued from above. This can be as simple as a manager saying a public ‘thank you’ for an employee’s successful result and talking to staff about plans for the business and their place in those plans. Formal job descriptions also enable you to link achievements to career progression and rewards. These rewards should be personalised to the employee – ask them how they would like to be rewarded as each employee often values different things. “

In addition, training or development opportunities, direction and empowerment, room to grow and develop careers and new challenges to remain motivated are important in minimising the chance of your employees looking for a new job,” said Chris.