Saba Software : One-Third of the U.S. Workforce to Change Jobs within the Next Six Months: Preventable Pitfalls for Employee Retention

Survey suggests companies are not doing the right things to retain top talent

Redwood Shores, Calif., September 29, 2015 - Saba, a global leader in cloud-based intelligent talent management solutions, today released its Employee Development Survey along with WorkplaceTrends.com, looking at 2,000 U.S and U.K. employees' and HR leaders' thoughts on their workforce - showing that the planned attrition rate of employees on both sides of the Atlantic is consistently about one-third of the workforce, within the upcoming six months.

Almost half (49 percent) of HR leaders agreed that retention and leadership development programs were the top priority among talent management goals, but companies continue to suffer from significant retention challenges.

Sixty percent of HR leaders believe that their companies provide employees with a clear career path (advancement) while only 36 percent of employees believe this to be true.

Forty-one percent of employees said they would leave their company for better career options - with a sizable amount of those polled (31 percent) stating that background skills and talents were not being recognized.

When the workforce was asked if they would be willing to share more context about themselves for better career advancement in their current companies, people agreed they would like to share more. About one-third (31 percent) of employees polled would be happy to share their goals, background talents and what motivates them to ensure more accurate workforce placement; but the right questions are not often being asked.

'Saba and Workplace Trends research shows that HR leaders want to know what inspires and motivates the workforce, but they don't seem to be asking them,' states Adrienne Whitten, VP of Product Marketing. 'The problem could be a lack of the right tools or experience for gathering the data, as HR ranks workforce analytics as the lowest in effectiveness across the talent processes. '

The misunderstanding of employee wants and HR needs, funnels down to a lack of staff insights and analytics:

Twelve percent of HR managers say that 'workforce analytics' and 'planning' are their companies' best function.

Fifteen percent of HR managers say that having up-to-date risk assessment of losing high potentials would be the 'most impactful' insight for their business.

Low importance for workforce analytics bears a strong correlation with the resulting low impact of risk assessment plans. Lack of proper employee analytic tools can be blamed for low retention especially when employees are willing to share details that would prevent them from leaving. HR leaders who have the proper tools and insight on what employees really want, can successfully combat rising employee migrations.

More information on Saba and WorkplaceTrends.com's Global Workforce Leadership Survey can be found here.