Great Offer. Shame About the Job
A whopping 78% of dissatisfied new hires say they plan to leave the firm within a year. Why, and is that possible in this market?
The candidate hung on the recruiter’s every word: A marquee company. Stimulating work! Access to the best and brightest. Free lunches. An office nestled in the trees. Three months later, the reality of the job proved different: Repetitive work. A cubicle nestled in concrete. Occasional sightings of top employees being ushered into cars and heading somewhere more exciting. The lunches, at least, were indeed free. By month six, he wanted out.
The job market may be brutal in many fields, but even so, unhappy new employees are eyeing the exits in enormous numbers. According to one survey, 78% of dissatisfied new hires plan to leave their new firm within a year. Satisfied or not, almost one-fifth of all workers plan to leave within the same period of time. “Seventy-eight percent is a frightening number,” says Korn Ferry compensation expert Tom McMullen. He and others question whether hiring under HR departments using new technology has actually improved candidate assessments. “Are firms really vetting appropriately, and fitting the person with the job?” ask McMullen.
To be sure, AI, by scrambling many of the duties the firm plans for new hires, is creating some of the turmoil. For positions that either engage heavily with AI or are being transformed by it, job description and role clarity are nebulous at best; in those situations, it’s not surprising that new employees are finding themselves in unexpected working conditions. But many jobs don’t fit into this category, which is why experts are suggesting that the talent and acquisition process might be failing to correctly fit candidates with jobs.
Replacing employees, of course, is costly for firms, with a price tag ranging from 50% to 200% of employee compensation. It’s also labor-intensive: HR might consider hundreds of résumés, and interview 5 to 8 people; months typically pass before a new worker takes their seat, and most new employees are not productive in their first couple of months. All that hard work pays off when fit and role are matched, because happy employees do stay. Half of satisfied new hires plan to remain with their employer for five or more years, according to the survey. Yet experts aren’t surprised that so many are looking for other options. “Of course they’re going to have their eyes on opportunities,” says Jenna Young, a senior partner and global solution architect at Korn Ferry. “Employees would rather jump than be pushed.”
One big question: Is leaving their job actually on the table for many workers? For most industries and roles, the job market is a cauldron of sluggish wage growth and scarce openings. Indeed, one-quarter of all unemployed US workers have been out of work for at least 27 weeks. Leaving is aspirational, and may or may not be connected to economic realities. “It’s dreamy thinking, unless you’re in a hot corner of the market with big demand,” says JP Sniffen, practice leader at the Military Center of Expertise at Korn Ferry. In reality, most job seekers see few opportunities come their way, which incentivizes them to settle for less-than-perfect jobs. “Then they realize that the job kind of stinks,” says McMullen. “I’m not surprised that they aren’t delighted.”
Experts advise firms to improve onboarding programs, because the first 60 days are critical to shaping new hires’ experiences, say experts. Periodically checking in with new employees can confirm that they’re getting what they need. But for permanent change, experts say firms need to evaluate their whole talent cycle, from describing roles to assessing people to onboarding to keeping lines of communication open. “If this many people are not energized, the organization needs to look at itself in the mirror,” says McMullen.
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