Conducting an executive search can be difficult but, as many human resources consulting firms are well aware of, the executive search is something that is becoming more and more necessary with the passage of time. In many ways, this need for more and more executive search endeavors can be tied back to poor rates of job retention found all throughout the United States. The concern surrounding job retention and the executive search process is very much a well founded one, backed up by the data that has been gathered on the subject.
For instance, it is not uncommon for an employee to leave their job shortly after starting it in the first place. As a matter of fact, up to one fifth of all employees will leave a new role after an average of only just 45 days, a period that is even shorter than a mere two months. And in the June of 2015 alone, more than two and a half million workers not only left their jobs, but did so voluntarily. Even in comparison to just the year before, this showed a jump of at least 25%, a full one quarter. In the years that have followed since, the issue has become even more pronounced, with recent surveys showing that more than half of the Millennial working population (around 60% of all Millennial workers, to be just a bit more specific) would be willing to leave one job for a new one, provided that the new job offered a better opportunity for them, at the drop of a hat (so to speak).
But the fault certainly does not primarily lie with the typical worker here in the United States. For one thing, many companies and places of work simply do not support their employees in all the ways that they should, especially when it comes to higher up employees supporting those that fall beneath them. As a matter of fact, this is something that is, yet again, more than backed up by the data that has been gathered surrounding it. This data shows quite clearly that the vast majority of employees found throughout the country (up to 80% of all workers, as a matter of fact) are actually less than satisfied by the support and encouragement they are given by their superiors. As a direct result, they do not feel that they are being adequately pushed to do their best work. Ultimately, this can lead to any number of undesirable outcomes in the typical workplace, no matter what kind of a workplace it might be.
Fortunately, there are ways in which the need for conducting an executive search can be avoided – and avoiding an executive search just means improving job retention rates. For instance, instituting some type of employee recognition program is something that is likely to be hugely beneficial to many a working environment, such as a typical office environment. After all, more than 85% of all companies have stated an improvement in overall employee happiness when such a program was put into place. And when employees are more happy, their quality of work is likely to be higher and more plentiful as well. As any outplacement consulting company is likely to be able to tell you, keeping employees feeling happy and recognized is a great way to avoid the need for something like an executive search or any other type of search effort to gain more employees after old ones have left.
Simply including more diversity into the field is another great way to improve the workplace levels of happiness – as well as to improve the overall quality of the work that is being produced in the first place. As a matter of fact, companies that have taken steps to incorporate measures for gender diversity have actually found that they are able to outperform less gender diverse companies by as much as a full 15%. And in addition to this, companies that take steps towards ethnic diversity can outperform like companies by as much as a full 35%, which is truly impressive indeed.