Third of UK workers could quit jobs in 2024

A new survey report from Boston Consulting Group shows that more than a quarter of global employees are at risk of leaving their role over the coming year, with poor management cited as a major factor for looking for new work.

The relationship between employers and their employees has shifted fundamentally in recent years. Since the end of the lockdown era, employees have been re-evaluating their present employers, and considering whether they are getting what they need from them – from salary expectations to workplace wellness practices.

While many sources claimed that the great resignation was over in the last 12 months, new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) research suggests that employers cannot afford to rest easy just yet. The firm found that roughly one in four employees could be set to leave their current job in the coming year. As such, if leaders want to keep their best people, they need to do more than simply promising access to the infamous office table tennis facility, or beanbag chairs – and must deploy more sophisticated analytics to understand their employee needs.

To help employers understand what really matters on this front, BCG asked over 11,000 employees across the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, and India how they felt about various aspects of work. On average, 72% of employees said they would likely be at the same organisation at the start and close of 2024. But 16% could only muster a non-committal “maybe”, while 12% were clear that they were unlikely to stay in their present jobs.

That suggests that more than a quarter of global employees could easily get up and leave their employers through 2024, even as a continued war for digitally-savvy talent escalates. Interestingly, though, a number of key markets witnessed even more ominous figures.

Australian workers were the most outwardly determined to seek out pastures new in the coming year – with 36% either saying ‘maybe’ or ‘no’ when asked if they saw themselves at their current organisation in one year. This was followed by Japan, where 35% of respondents had had enough. But the UK was not far behind – with 32% of workers suggesting they were either not particularly enamoured with their bosses, or fully at the end of their tether.

Digging deeper, the researchers from BCG then applied an analytical consumer research lens to the results to better understand the decision-making process and which factors would lead to staff taking a new job. Unsurprisingly, after two years of rampant inflation during which the average UK household has been left thousands of pounds worse off, pay and compensation topped the list for 63% of respondents.

Other factors were distant in the pecking order. Benefits and perks, work-life balance and doing enjoyable work each picked up between 20% and 30%. And while BCG’s researchers suggested that when the time came to actually make a choice, emotional needs like feeling respected became more prominent, pay and compensation still remained the leading driver.

Beyond the immediate personal needs or desires of respondents, one other factor seemed to play a key role. Managers were essential for retention.

BCG asked employees a number of questions about their managers. Those who were willing to stay with their employer were more likely to have positive opinions of their organisation’s management. For example, if they strongly agreed that they were satisfied with their current manager, only 16% said they were likely to leave in the coming year.

In stark contrast, of those who were unsatisfied with their current manager, 56% said they would likely exit in the coming year. At the same time, 66% of those who did not have a senior figure supporting them in the workplace felt they might leave, and 74% of those who lacked access to resources to help them succeed – including mentoring and training – said the same. This is a correlation firms cannot afford to ignore, if they hope to improve their retention rates in 2024.

“Investing in developing better managers who can deliver the connection, support, appreciation, and motivation all employees crave is a no-regrets investment,” concluded co-author Deborah Lovich, a senior partner with BCG in the US. “Most companies think they are already investing in building their front-line leader capabilities, but what is required is a step change in thinking – fundamentally rethinking what great managers do and how they do it to sustainably build skills.”