The amount of time an employee spends at any given company will be shorter and shorter, the result of a new norm of higher frequency job switching. In fact, the class of 2022 is expected to change jobs up to ten times before age 34.
Barry Kirk, principal with Chapman and Company Leadership Institute, joined KMOX to answer the question: Is employee loyalty dead?
"I can go ahead and answer your question. Employee loyalty is dead, yes," Kirk said. "The most recent stats are 40% of workers worldwide right now are planning to at least consider switching jobs or companies by the end of this year. So not some vague time in the future. But by the end of this year."
He said one of the biggest factors affecting this change is what geographic location means when people look for jobs. With the increased popularity of remote work, people now have a wider array of options.
"A job that's 1,000 miles away is just as possible for me as one that's down the street. And so there's this overabundance now of choice," Kirk said.
He said there are about 10 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. alone rightnow, which means employees are tempted by seemingly endless options.
He also said that employee loyalty needs to be reciprocal, and people care about if their employer is loyal to them. Loyalty is no longer about a length of time for some people.
"We should stop saying tenure is a metric for loyalty and start saying other things that might be more meaningful, like, 'Am I engaged in my work? Am I bringing my brain to the office? Am I looking for new opportunities to add value?"
He said that employers who want to keep their workers around can use a few strategies, including more instant gratification for workers, whether that's an increase in money or opportunity.
Hear more from Barry Kirk on employee loyalty from Total Information AM:
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