Five years on from the pandemic, change remains constant in the world of work. Businesses have had to continuously adapt to challenging market conditions, while employees are expected to be constantly learning and looking to grow. But when faced with so much change and uncertainty, the default response isn’t always to embrace agility with open arms.
Our latest research found that employees are increasingly seeking a sense of security and safety in the comfort of the familiar, while leaders are struggling to facilitate mobility – resulting in a worryingly stagnant workforce throughout Europe.
What does the research tell us?
Loyalty is high, but mobility is low: Only 18% of employees have changed role in the past 5 years, while less than 1 in 5 are considering a role change within their current organisation in the next two years. Employees are reluctant to challenge the status quo and are opting to stick rather than twist, raising a pressing question for businesses: when nobody everyone is standing still, how do you move forward in pursuit of success?
Employees have passed the buck: 46% of employees believe their employer controls their career path, a misconception that a worrying majority (66%) of leaders agree with. It’s long-been accepted that the onus for career development rests with the individual, so why have so many people passed the responsibility onto their employer? Could it have something to do with the fact that only 29% of employees say suitable career development help is available to them?
Line managers face a catch-22: Supporting employee development is a key line management responsibility, and can often mean watching team members move on to new opportunities. But when faced with mounting pressure to maintain productivity and meet KPIs, many managers succumb to the pitfall of tightening their grip on the talent available to them instead of enabling growth and mobility. As such, over a third of employees now say they do not trust their manager to have their best interests in mind when it comes to career development.
Outdated views of ‘progression’: How does one climb without a ladder? With organisations now adopting flatter structures, career paths have become more complex and there are far fewer opportunities for people to move up. Many employees, however, still view career progression as being strictly vertical, and have become disillusioned with work following the realisation that not everybody can become the next CEO. Now, with only 30% of employees looking to pursue training and development in the next two years, and another 10% considering quitting work altogether, leaders need to find a way to reengage their people in a flatter world, and quickly.
To begin overcoming these challenges and build a culture of internal mobility that employees can get excited about, organisations must move away from focusing solely on short-term KPIs. Instead, they should prioritise having a long-term view of how organisational objectives can be aligned with the aspirations of their people. Only by understanding their employees can businesses create the conditions for them to move more freely, experience new things and enable greater growth both individually, and within teams.
To find out how to drive agility for your people and organisation, watch our webinar today.
