Do your employees feel valued? 64% have one foot out the door

The estimated current cybersecurity workforce is 2.8 million professionals, while the amount of additional trained staff needed to close the skills gap is 4.07 million professionals, according to (ISC)2. This makes retaining employees a top priority, but how can companies be successful at this?

Only one-third of employees surveyed plan to stay at their jobs this year, compared to 47% who said the same in 2019, according to a report conducted by Achievers.

Risk of turnover and underperformance

The report revealed that in 2020, up to two thirds of employees surveyed could be headed for the door. The likely culprit? Disengagement. In fact, just 19% of employees surveyed consider themselves “very engaged,” while 14% are fully disengaged. Even the 32% surveyed with “average engagement” are open to new job opportunities.

“Our data shows a substantial portion of today’s workforce already has one foot out the door. This is a huge shift from what we found last year: that despite disengagement, 65% of employees were planning on staying at their jobs,” said Dr. Natalie Baumgartner, Chief Workforce Scientist at Achievers.

“Employers must take immediate action to reverse these feelings of underappreciation and disengagement. If they don’t, the risk of turnover and underperformance in 2020 is immense.”

Leadership is falling flat on culture-building

• The perception of leadership’s commitment to culture and employee experience declined, with only 23% of employees surveyed stating senior leaders are “very committed” or have “more than average” commitment, compared to 31% who said the same in 2019.
• One-third of employees (33%) surveyed believe leadership is “minimally committed” to culture and employee experience. This raises serious concerns as it’s up by 7% from 2019.
• Twelve percent of employees surveyed believe leadership in their workplace is “not at all committed” to culture and employee experience.

Employee experience: Absence of recognition is a top driver of turnover

• “Lack of recognition” (19%) is a top-three reason why employees surveyed are looking for or considering leaving their jobs, after compensation (52%) and career growth (43%).
• Eighty-two percent of employees surveyed “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed they wish they received more recognition at work, and another 30% of employees feel “not very” or “not at all” valued by superiors.
• When asked how their company or manager is at recognizing them, the top response given by employees surveyed was just “okay” (40%) and nearly one in every five employees said their company or manager was “horrible” at recognizing them.

Employees are leaving because they (still) don’t feel heard

• Ninety percent of workers surveyed said they are more likely to stay at a company that takes and acts on feedback, but when asked how good their company was at soliciting feedback, 15% said “horrible” and 43% chose the second lowest grade—just “okay.”
• When it came to acting on feedback, nearly one in four (23%) said their employers were “horrible” and 44% said just “okay.”
• Of those who said their employer is “horrible” at acting on feedback, nearly half surveyed (44%) plan to look for a new job, compared to the 28% of those who called their company “awesome.”