Global Talent Monitor: Update on Workforce Activity That ...€¦ · Global Talent Monitor: Update on Workforce Activity That Occurred in 4Q18 Overview Each quarter, our Global Talent

Global Talent Monitor:Update on WorkforceActivity That Occurredin 4Q18

Overview

Each quarter, our Global Talent Monitor sources data from over 22,000 employees inover 40 countries and regions to offer the most authoritative look at the latest globaland country-level trends so HR leaders know what attracts, engages and retains talent.

Key Findings

■ Employees’ confidence in the business outlook decreased in the fourth quarter of2018, along with employee perception of job opportunity.

■ The number of employees who are actively seeking new employment decreasedin the fourth quarter — the only time in 2018.

■ Employees’ discretionary effort increased globally and in all regions.

■ Employees’ intent to stay at their current organizations increased globally and inall regions.

■ Compensation, work-life balance and stability remain the top job attributesemployees look for in a new employer.

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Table of Contents

■ Employee Business Confidence and Job Perception

■ Active Job Seeking in the Workforce

■ Top Job Attributes Attracting Talent

■ Discretionary Effort and Intent to Stay

■ Top Dissatisfying Job Attributes Reported by Departing Talent

■ Compensation Expectation Trends

■ Conclusion

■ Recommended by the Authors

■ About This Research

Employee Business Confidence and JobPerception

Employees’ confidence in business conditions decreased toward the end of 2018.Indexed at 55.3 in the fourth quarter, the business confidence index is at the lowest ithas been since the fourth quarter of 2017. However, it remains higher than any pointin 2017 (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Business Confidence Index

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The business confidence index uses four survey questions tomeasure employees’ confidence in the near-term businessconditions and long-term economic prospects in their industry.

Global Job Perception Decreases

According to our job opportunity barometer, employees globally and in most regionsperceived fewer job opportunities in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter.This decrease demonstrates a decline in employees’ perception of options for otheremployment in their respective locations, functions and industries. The only regionwhere employees reported an increase in their job opportunity perception was NorthAmerica (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Job Opportunity Barometer

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The job opportunity barometer uses five survey questions tomeasure employees’ perception of the availability and qualityof other employment opportunities in their current locations,industries and functions.

Active Job Seeking in the Workforce

Fewer employees actively sought jobs in the fourth quarter of 2018. Globally, only27.2% of the workforce was actively searching for a new job, a 2.1% decrease from theprevious quarter. Neutral job seekers also decreased from 31.2% to 29.8%; however,passive job seeking increased (see Figure 3).

Job-seeking activity by country mostly decreased. India, Indonesia and China remainthe countries with the highest active-passive scores (i.e., the most job search activity),with Japan, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands reporting the lowest levels ofjob-seeking activity (see Figure 4).

Italy, one of only two countries to see an increase in job seeking, saw significantchange, with a 13.0% quarter-over-quarter increase. Employees in Italy are activelyseeking new employment more often than in the third quarter of 2018. The only othercountry to see a significant quarter-over-quarter increase was China. Six countries hadsignificant quarter-over-quarter decreases in job seeking behavior, including Germany,Spain and the U.K. (see Figure 5).

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Figure 3: Percentage of Employees by Job-Seeking Behavior

The active, neutral and passive categories group employeesaccording to the extent of their inclination and demonstratedeffort to look for a job.

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Figure 4: Active-Passive Score, 4Q18

The active-passive score uses eight survey questions to measurethe extent to which employees are inclined to, and demonstrateeffort to, look for new jobs.

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Figure 5: Changes in Active Job Seeking, by Country

Top Job Attributes Attracting Talent

Our data provides three primary take-aways about what factors drive an employee’sdecision when considering a new job:

■ Globally, the top three drivers of attraction remain the same as in the third quarterof 2018: compensation, work-life balance and stability in the workplace (see Figure6).

■ Regionally, of the top three global drivers, work-life balance was the only attributeto be in the top three for each region, with only the U.S. and China prioritizinganother attribute (compensation) above it (see Figure 7).

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■ Attributes in the U.S. were the most stable in the fourth quarter of 2018, with onlytwo attributes — vacation and retirement benefits — changing rank. Employees inthe Island Southeast Asia region reprioritized attributes the most; only work-lifebalance remained the same from the previous quarter.

For more information on these attributes, please download the additional material inthe About This Research section.

Figure 6: Percentage of Employees Ranking Drivers Among the Top 5 Attributes InfluencingEmployer Selection

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Figure 7: Top 10 Attraction Drivers for Select Countries and Regions, 4Q18

Discretionary Effort and Intent to Stay

Employees’ discretionary effort and intent to stay increased in the fourth quarter — theonly time in 2018. Breaking the five-quarter downward trend, the global percentageof employees with high intent to stay rose to 32.5%, and the global percentage ofemployees exhibiting high levels discretionary effort increased to 14.4% (see Figure 8).

Discretionary effort, or employees’ willingness to go above and beyond, increased in allgeographies. Following notable decreases in the second quarter, discretionary effortincreased most sizably in North America, Australia and New Zealand (see Figure 9).

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Employees’ intent to stay increased in all regions, most significantly in North Americaand Europe (see Figure 10).

These increases in employees’ discretionary effort and intent to stay indicate thatmore employees are highly engaged than in the previous quarter. Our fourth quarterdata shows 14.4% of employees display high discretionary effort, and 55.4% of theseemployees also report high intent to stay. The engaged workforce — those reportingboth high discretionary effort and high intent to stay — increased to 8.0% in the fourthquarter (see Figure 11).

Figure 8: Percentage of Employees Reporting High Levels of Intent to Stay and DiscretionaryEffort, Overall

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Discretionary effort refers to employees’ willingness to go aboveand beyond the call of duty, such as helping others with heavyworkloads, volunteering for additional duties and looking forways to perform the job more efficiently.

Intent to stay refers to employees’ desire to stay with theorganization based on whether they intend to look for a new jobwithin a year, frequently think of quitting, have actively beenlooking for a new job, or have taken steps such as placing phonecalls and sending out résumés.

Figure 9: Percentage of Employees Reporting High Levels of Discretionary Effort, by Region

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Figure 10: Percentage of Employees Reporting High Levels of Intent to Stay, by Region

Figure 11: Percentage of Employees Reporting High Levels of Discretionary Effort

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Top Dissatisfying Job Attributes Reported byDeparting Talent

Our data on what factors drive an employee’s decision to leave an employer providesthree primary take-aways:

■ Future career opportunities, compensation and people management maintaintheir rank as the top attrition drivers for employees globally (see Figure 12).

■ Work-life balance moved into the global top five attributes in the fourth quarter of2018, replacing manager quality, which moved to No. 6 (see Figure 13).

■ Future career opportunity now holds the top rank in four of our sixselect geographies. The U.S. and Southeast Asia are the only regions wherecompensation was a more common source of dissatisfaction to departingemployees.

For more information on these attributes, please download the additional material inthe About This Research section.

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Figure 12: Percentage of Departing Employees Ranking Drivers Among the 5 Most DissatisfyingAttributes at a Previous Job

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Figure 13: Top 10 Attrition Drivers for Select Countries and Regions, 4Q18

Compensation Expectation Trends

Our data on compensation expectation trends provides three primary take-aways:

■ Employees expect larger pay increases to switch jobs; expectations for job-switching premiums increased to 15.5% in the final quarter of 2018 — the highestit has been since the fourth quarter of 2017 (see Figure 14).

■ Merit pay expectations remain the highest in India, Brazil and Indonesia (see Figure15).

■ Only employees in Australia showed a significant change in merit pay expectations.Employees in Australia expect a higher change in base pay compared to both theprevious quarter and the previous year (see Figure 16).

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Figure 14: Global Compensation Switching Premium

The compensation switching premium measures departedemployees’ anticipated compensation changes at their neworganizations.

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Figure 15: Merit Pay Change Expectation, by Country, 4Q18

Merit Pay Change Expectations measure the percent change inbase pay an employee expects in the coming year.

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Figure 16: Changes in Merit Pay Expectation, by Country

Conclusion

While employees’ confidence in the business environment decreased in the fourthquarter of 2018, they are more engaged in their work. Breaking the downward trend,the increase from the third quarter of 2018 in employees’ discretionary effort andintent to stay demonstrates that, globally, employees are becoming more engaged.Employees perceive fewer available job opportunities, coinciding with the decline inthe percentage of employees actively seeking new employment.

Organizations looking to attract talent should note that, globally, fewer employeesare seeking new opportunities and those who are will expect higher compensation.The top drivers for attracting talent remain the same as the previous quarter:compensation, work-life balance and stability.

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Organizations looking to retain talent should note that future career opportunities,compensation and people management were the top causes of dissatisfaction fordeparting employees. It is also important to note that merit pay expectationsincreased in the final quarter of 2018, with employees desiring higher increases in basepay in the coming year.

Recommended by the Authors

■ "Employee Engagement Benchmarks"This interactive platform helps you to assess how your organization’s engagementlevels compare to the benchmark and will be useful for organizations evaluatingtheir current engagement levels.

■ "Ignition Guide to Designing a Compelling EVP"This guide is designed to help HR leaders create a compelling EVP that will helptheir organizations attract and retain top talent and choose the core EVP attributesto inform HR strategy and employment branding.

■ "Engagement Strategy Playbook"This playbook provides guidance, tools and templates for planning and executingan engagement and retention strategy, from making the business case foremployee engagement to supporting the line in driving engagement and retention.

■ "Open-Source Change: Making Change Management Work"Research highlights from our webinar capture how the best organizations use theworkforce’s frontline expertise to make decisions that improve business outcomes.

About This Research

Each quarter, our Global Talent Monitor draws data from over 22,000 employees in40 countries and regions to offer the most authoritative look at the latest global andcountry-level trends so you know what attracts, engages and retains talent (see Figure17).

© 2019 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

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Figure 17: Demographics

Download additional information about the attraction and attrition attributes in ourEVP model.

CountryView Workforce Insights by Country

Asia-Pacific Europe and Africa North and South America

Australia Belgium and theNetherlands

Argentina, Chile andColombia

China Eastern Europe Brazil

India France Canada

Island Southeast Asia Germany Mexico

Japan Italy United States

New Zealand Nordic Region  

Singapore Russia  

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CountryView Workforce Insights by Country

South Korea South Africa  

Taiwan Spain  

Vietnam and Thailand Switzerland  

  United Kingdom  

IndustryView Workforce Insights by Industry 

Construction Manufacturing Real Estate

Consumer Goods Media Restaurant

Education NonProfit Retail

Financial Services &Insurance

Oil, Gas, and Mining Technology

Government Pharmaceuticals Travel and Transportation

Health Care Professional Services Utilities

Leisure and Hospitality    

FunctionView Workforce Insights by Function

Human Resources Information Technology R&D & Engineering

Administrative Support Finance and Accounting Quality

Communications Manufacturing Retail

Corporate Marketing and MarketResearch

Sales

Customer Contact Operations Supply Chain and Logistics

Educator Procurement Technician

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