Four in 10 B.C. workers ready to quit jobs
B.C. employers are becoming more comfortable with business during COVID-19, but about 41 per cent of their employees are ready to quit, according to a new survey by the recruiting firm Hays.
That figure isn't as high as the national average of 49 per cent, but with those numbers of people considering a move, despite an uncertain job market, it's “a big problem,” said Hays Canada president Travis O'rourke.
“When you're in the employment market, where we are every day, I'm not surprised,” O'rourke said. “We're hearing the pulse of the labour market every day and employees aren't happy with their current situation.”
It's the accumulation of stress from suddenly being forced to work from home — the isolation and loss of interaction, combined with the impact of COVID-19-RElated cuts that leave remaining employees overloaded with extra work.
“When you go through layoffs and cutbacks and salary freezes, or in some cases salary rollbacks, that's where a lot of the distaste is coming from,” O'rourke said.
On a national basis, the Hays executive said the number of people considering changing jobs is 25 per cent higher than in the firm's 2019 survey, a substantial increase.
The data was compiled as part of Hays' 11th annual salary guide, which surveyed a representative sample of 1,946 employers across Canada between July 29 and Aug. 25. Some 55 per cent of companies reported being “back to business as usual,” and 19 per cent back into “growth mode,” the survey found,
The survey counted about one-quarter of B.C. employers who were putting a hold on raises during the pandemic, so for employees doing more work for the same money while feeling isolated, “that's a terrible combo,” O'rourke said.
With so many businesses focused outwardly on simply surviving the pandemic, employers have also lost sight of the tensions that are building within their workforces.
“They've assumed that if the business succeeds, employees are going to be happy that we're reaching stability,” O'rourke said. “What proactive employers should be doing is reaching out to employees to say, `Thank you, how are you doing?' “
Showing appreciation and asking how the employer can help employees can go a long way to alleviating employee dissatisfaction, although social interaction is the more important factor in improving employee well-being.
“Safety has to be Priority 1,” O'rourke said. “You should only consider ( bringing staff back to the office) if you have an environment where you can bring your staff back where they're going to feel safe.”
For the moment, Hays hasn't seen a lot of employees acting on their desires to make a job change, O'rourke said, but that's likely to change in 2021, if the arc of the pandemic looks more stable.
Although companies are hiring, O'rourke said that outside of travel and tourism, the economy has regained about 75 per cent of the jobs lost during the pandemic, but employees are wary of rising COVID-19 case counts. If there is a new round of workplace restrictions, they don't want to wind up being the first to lose their jobs if they take on new roles.
“The actual number of people quitting isn't quite there yet,” O'rourke said. “If we listen to medical experts (to bring down the case numbers), early 2021 is going to be moving season.”