Australian business advisory and coaching company Abundance Global has found that SMEs are hit with a staffing crisis as their employees tend to move jobs every six months, up from a two-year average pre-pandemic.
Abundance Global founder and former Commander in the Australian Navy David Dugan warned that such high turnover was costing businesses thousands and negatively impacting workplace culture.
“Business owners are suffering brain fog and adrenal fatigue after the last three years of disruption, and they are finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their own mental health and that of their team,” said Dugan. “People were doing reasonably well in 2020 and 2021, then mindset caught up. The vast majority of business owners are still struggling to have the bandwidth to make good decisions. And of course, the first thing to be affected as a result was workplace culture.“
He added, “In the post-COVID environment, combined with a skills shortage workforce, many businesses are not adequately ensuring employees are the right fit, and there is an increasing number of new employees effectively blackmailing their employers by leveraging the recruitment process only to seek a higher pay rise in their current role. There has never been a more important time in business to be clear on your cultural values, communicating them initially in the interview and then throughout the employee’ time with the company.“
“If businesses want to succeed in this new environment, they need to dedicate as much effort and budget to recruitment as they do marketing and leads,“ said Dugan.
Dugan said that it was estimated that Australians will have an average of 13 jobs in their lifetime, and it was about the same for North Americans. Studies from the U.S. Department of Labor found that the average person will change careers 5-7 times during their working life and approximately 30 per cent of the total workforce will now change jobs every 12 months.
Abundance Global noted that in workplaces across Australia people are applying for a job, going through the recruitment process, receiving an offer and then leveraging with another offer to receive extra monetary incentives, usually between $15,000 and $30,000.
“Now that employees are, on average, only staying for six to eighteen months, businesses must go through the recruitment process again, consistently losing money, time and resources. Plus it negatively impacts the business’ growth rate,” said Dugan.
“The recruitment and onboarding process is vital to retaining employees and creating a positive and productive workplace. Businesses need to communicate their vision, mission and values at the interview stage to ensure that recruitments explicitly align with the company. If an employee feels they align closely with the company, they will be more enticed to continue and be more productive. Therefore, it’s all about hiring the right people,” he added.
Dugan explained that many businesses were losing employees because the business leaders were not as hands-on once the staff have been recruited.
“Organisations need to ensure that their management continues to mentor employees after hiring them to ensure that all employees are aware of the common goal the business is working towards. Business founders and CEOs also need to set and communicate their clear goals for the business, so the company continues evolving and keeps staff aligned. Employees must be provided with clarity of their role and what is expected of them. Encouraging productivity and accountability from employees is also critical. Employees should have specific projects assigned to them to be delivered within a set timeframe.” he concluded.
