30 percent of employees in the Netherlands are looking for a new job

July 2 2007

Advice to employers: ‘Stop recruiting and start motivating!’

The temperature in the labour market is rising. Figures recently published by the CBS show that the number of job seekers has fallen below 400,000. On the other side of the equation there are approximately one million vacancies. Corporate recruitment mechanisms are running at full throttle. At the same time, as many as 30 percent of all employees claim to be looking for a new job. So, besides welcoming people in through their front doors, above all organisations need to make sure that their back doors are closed.

The figures of the recent Dutch National Satisfaction Index® show a high correlation between the level of job satisfaction and the intention to leave. As many as 62.2 percent of employees who claim to be very dissatisfied with their jobs are actively seeking employment outside of their own organisation. The following graph shows the extent to which job satisfaction influences an employee’s intention to leave.

In the above graph: The horizontal axis shows the overall satisfaction of employees. The vertical axis shows the percentage of employees who have taken action to find work outside of their own organisation in the last three months.

Now that labour market opportunities are increasing, employees who are good at what they do feel more confident about applying for jobs – and are doing just that. “And it is precisely this group of promising employees that companies need to retain,” says Marc Sijtstra, Director of Effectory. For he believes that too many employers now find themselves having to fish from the same pond.

“If we have learnt anything from the last few years, it is that efforts to motivate employees pay off, both in terms of retaining valuable human resources and also in terms of attracting new personnel,” says Sijtstra. “An average organisation with 1,000 employees would be able to save more than one million euros a year simply as a result of the fact that its employees are satisfied. This is a conservative estimate. And that is without taking into account all of the other positive effects, such as higher productivity and increased customer satisfaction.”