Career clarity, growth opportunities driving job changes, Lattice says

Dive Brief:

Nearly half (47%) of the more than 2,000 respondents to a Lattice survey of U.S. employees said they were looking for a new job that provided clarity and growth opportunities.
The data point provides some context during a period of high turnover in the U.S. labor market, Lattice said. The HR software company said 54% of respondents were looking to change jobs, while 43% said their careers had "either stalled or slowed to a crawl" since the beginning of last year.
Younger respondents were more likely to consider a job change because they felt their careers had stalled, Lattice said. Reasons cited for stalled career growth include lack of mentorship, lack of clarity around career paths and a reduction in one-on-one face time between employees and their supervisors.

Dive Insight:

The events of the past year have driven employees to re-assess what they value in their careers, but in many ways, the song remains the same for HR professionals looking to retain talent.

Other research provides further contextualization for the current period of turnover. In June, Robert Half found in a survey of employees that nearly one-third had had a "shift in perspective" during the pandemic. For Generation Z workers in the survey, nearly one-third of those who planned to change jobs said they were doing so due to a lack of professional development at their companies.

While the pandemic has shifted the nature of work in many industries, the findings of the Lattice and Robert Half surveys show that transparent career development strategies continue to be important. Even before the pandemic, HR strategists discussed the importance of models such as career maps, which can help align employee and employer expectations regarding career trajectory.

There is also the example of the career framework, under which employers identify skills and capabilities within different job families and, beyond this, look for where talent development initiatives can provide the most value for the organization. Put together, clear career paths can enhance the employee value proposition, sources previously told HR Dive.

Employee discontent over career trajectory is not new either, particularly for younger employees. A 2018 study by LaSalle Network found that while most millennial respondents were at least somewhat satisfied with their current roles, fewer than half were satisfied with their career paths.