The Employee Migration Begins!

June 2, 2011 - PRLog -- San Jose, California. An employee exodus has begun. As more jobs become available, employees will begin to flee from those enterprises that lowered the cost of labor by substantially downsizing and forcing every last ounce of productivity out of those who remained. This employee migration will accelerate along with economic improvement, especially for employers who are looking the other way.

The numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last month showed 268,000 private sector jobs added in April alone, the fastest hiring rate in five years.  As more and more jobs are created, dissatisfied employees will be looking for escape routes.

Employers that have used the economic downturn and the shortage of jobs to justify ignoring employees’ mental and physical well-being, cutting benefits, freezing wages, and reducing resources, their fun is about to end.  Businesses that took this tactic, can expect voluntary employee attrition to rise drastically as employees learn there are new channels available for them to use their talents. Businesses that behaved in such unpalatable ways will also most likely find it significantly more challenging to find willing new hires as word of bad employee treatment tends to spread and negatively impact reputations.

The sharp increase in new jobs bodes well for the economy. The unemployment rate will likely start to fall as more new jobs become available – then an economic upward spiral will begin – the converse of the downward spiral of the last few years. It will go a little something like this: the employed, who are more secure, will spend more money, thus increasing demand, this will spur companies to provide more services/produce more. The resulting increasing quantity of work will necessitate more employees, driving up the number of job openings, creating more employment opportunities and more security for those who are employed. As the cycle continues, the employee exodus will accelerate. It would do companies well to examine their current treatment of employees and do what they can to ensure a healthy work/life balance, authentic employee engagement, clear paths to career development, fair benefits and pay, and everything else that is known to keep employees satisfied and loyal.  For many companies who have let their economic burdens fall increasingly and unfairly on employees, it may already be too late.

Companies that have used and abused their employees over the last couple of years should be worried. Retribution is coming in the form of voluntary employee turnover!  Brace yourselves for one of the great employee migrations of our time.

Visit my corresponding blog UpMo entry at http://www.upmo.com/blog/2011/06/01/the-employee-migratio... and let me know what you think!

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About UpMo:
Employees Rule. UpMo provides the industry’s first employee-centric enterprise career management solution to emerging and large organizations. By helping people plan, pursue and manage their careers in a way that benefits both them and their companies, UpMo SaaS solutions help companies embrace employee mobility to dramatically increase productivity, reduce employee churn, and improve employee engagement. http://www.upmo.com