Staff Writer
·17 Jun 2023
A new survey from global recruiting firm Michael Page shows that 98% of respondents are currently looking for new job opportunities – pointing to a workforce always searching for the next best thing.
PageGroup’s inaugural Talent Trends survey, empowered by Michael Page, covered almost 70,000 skilled working adults across the globe, including 2,500 African respondents between 28 November 2022 and 17 January 2023.
Of the 2,556 respondents in Africa, 80% said they are active job seekers, either currently looking for a new role or planning to look in the next six months.
A further 18% are on the fence about looking elsewhere and are not ruling it out but are waiting until the economy improves or for the right opportunity to arise, reported Michael Page.
This is not just a specific development in Africa; from a more global perspective, 90% of all respondents are considering other opportunities.
This means employers can no longer confidently rely on most people in their workforce being retained this year. Adding to these concerns is that new workplace additions are almost equally likely to be open to new opportunities as their tenured counterparts, added the company.
“More than two-thirds of those who started their job as recently as 2022 considered ‘active job seekers’.”
Michael Page said there had been a seismic shift in the global labour market, and it is likely to have a considerable impact for decades.
Job loyalty is now an exception, not a rule, said Pierre-Emmanuel Dupil, a senior managing director at Michael Page.
“Even generally happy employees are open to moving on to a better opportunity. The relentless resignation cycle will not slow down — change is the new status quo.”
“No age group, country, or industry is unaffected. There’s no going back to how things were pre-pandemic; the change we see today is here to stay.”
Some of the most notable findings of the survey include:
- The Great Resignation is not over – data points to the number of resignations not slowing, with 2022 recording a resignation level higher than that of 2021.
- Over half (60%) of workers in Africa are in full-time office roles, with fully remote making up 12% and hybrid 28%, increasing in popularity.
- Although Africa’s economic outlook has been dampened, opportunity-seeking has not been snubbed.
- Seven in ten African staff (71%) said they are satisfied with their current workload, and a little more than a third (36%) are satisfied with their salaries, and a little less than half (46%) feel content in their roles overall.
- A Promotion was ranked as the top reason for resigning from a job. Yet, only 4 in 10 thought it was likely that they would be promoted, said Michael Page. Work-life balance is important, too, with 18% of respondents citing it as the top reason to resign.
- Salary remains an important traditional feature for African employees to choose an employer. Employees feel that salary should be fairly benchmarked for job satisfaction, with 1 in 2 employees saying that they feel impacted by the cost-of-living crisis.
Nicholas Kirk, the CEO of PageGroup, said that development in the African labour market mirrors those of global talent markets.
“It is clear there has been a universal reset of people’s relationships with their jobs. Work-life balance, a competitive salary, and strong career progression prospects have become non-negotiable, and professionals are willing to leave their current roles to secure these elsewhere,” Kirk said.
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