More than a quarter of employees globally, 28%, want to leave their current job within a year, according to a survey by Boston Consulting Group.
When correlating respondents’ top needs with attrition, the study found that emotional factors dominated the top five most important factors: job security, being treated fairly and respectfully, enjoying work, feeling valued and appreciated, and feeling supported.
“If companies want to keep their employees, they need to meet these emotional needs,” the company wrote in their press release for the survey. “Today, many people are on the lookout for better job opportunities, and it is time for leaders to start treating their employees like customers.”
Having great managers is associated with a 72% reduction in attrition when comparing employees who are very satisfied with their managers with those who are very unsatisfied, the study found. This was also the lever with the strongest influence on attrition risk across all surveyed countries, except for India, where it was the second strongest.
The same comparison shows that great managers can boost employee motivation more than three times and bring about a nearly 14-fold increase in job satisfaction as well as a significant increase in feelings of inclusion.
“Managers also play a key role in companies achieving their diversity, equity and inclusion goals,” Gabrielle Novacek, a managing director and partner at BCG, said in a press release.
In addition, functional factors, especially pay, were the top reasons propelling employees to search for a new job, the survey found. They were followed by benefits and perks, work/life balance and work they enjoy and care about.
Functional reasons also dominated the top two choices when employees were asked to choose between different aspects of work. Emotional needs, including feeling fairly treated and respected, feeling like they have job security and doing work they enjoy, moved into the third, fourth and fifth places, respectively.
BCG surveyed 11,000 employees from eight countries (US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan and India) between Oct. 6 and 30. In the survey, BCG tested more than 20 different needs, with roughly half being functional needs such as pay, hours and benefits, and the other half being emotional needs such as feeling valued and supported and doing enjoyable work.