More than 75% employees are looking for new jobs, according to the 462 employees and 367 HR professionals surveyed in the 2006 U.S. Job Retention Poll released last week by the Society for Human Resource Management and The Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal.com.  According to HR professionals, 12% of their organizations’ workforce had voluntarily resigned since the beginning of 2006.  Non-management employees were the most likely to resign.

These numbers are astronomical and show that by and large, people are not happy in their jobs.  What are human resources professionals doing about it?  Well, according to the research, the use of employee retention strategies, which include things like promoting qualified employees, offering competitive merit increases/salary adjustments, and providing career-development opportunities, is up 15% from 2004.

But is it making a difference?  SHRM believes these strategies are the way to go, since the top three official reasons people voluntarily leave their organizations are for better compensation elsewhere, career opportunity elsewhere, and dissatisfaction with the potential for career development.  Or at least that’s what people say in exit interviews on their way out the door.  I personally believe, though, that burnout, inflexibility on the part of managers, and a general lack of work/life balance are big contributors to resignation decisions.  After all, even if the situation at the next job turns out to be just as bad, at least you’re giving yourself the opportunity to take a short breather and jump-start your energy and enthusiasm in a brand new environment. 

Why do you think that employee retention is so poor, and have you heard about any companies doing something truly innovative to keep their employees happy, satisfied, and on board?