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Along with houses going on the market and the rise of divorces, January can be a time of job re-evaulation and quitting. Cue panic stations in HR as you worry you might lose staff, as well as face a hiring nightmare to begin your own new year.
As the calendar turns again, it's natural for individuals (you included, perhaps) to reflect on their personal and professional goals, and, as a result, to re-evaluate their current job and prospects with the company where they work. And while it can feel like a New Year's Day game of sorts, the tradition of setting resolutions can run deep, with employees scrutinising their job satisfaction, growth prospects, and overall happiness in the workplace.
The result is that many may well come into work on January 2nd or sometime in January and hand in their notice. Others will turn to our old friend 'quiet quitting' and begin a go-slow where they're not so much hitting the ground running for you in 2024 as hitting the LinkedIn job scroll button while finishing off those final chocs.
Dominic Joyce is a Head of Talent Acquisition and Career Expert, and is clear that proactivity is the essential course of action. He says: "To reduce the risk of employees looking for new opportunities during the Christmas period and potentially resigning in the New Year, HR managers can instruct and guide Hiring Managers and colleagues to implement several strategies and initiatives to drive engagement and retain employees."
"If you treat your employees well enough and make them feel supported, heard and valued the only new year resolutions will be to typical “lose weight, get fit, travel more, learn a new language” but NOT a new job."
Persuading staff to stay vs collaborating on their future
New research has found that a fifth of workers in the UK are at high risk of leaving their jobs within the next 12 months, with a further 12% seeing themselves leaving within two years, unless their employee experience improves. Interestingly, the research, from Culture Amp, was focusing on 'commitment to stay’ data gathered from responses to 9 million questions answered by employees across 1000 organisations across the UK.
It's a good place to start, because this issue of a big January 'quit' is less about staff wanting to hand in their notice, and more about what you might have done or be doing to encourage them to want to stay and grow in your business.
