The years of employer dictatorship are slowly becoming a thing of the past. The imbalance between the demands of entrepreneurs and employees is becoming more and more favourable to the latter. Unemployment is constantly falling and there are indications that this trend will continue in the coming years. Already today, many entrepreneurs complain that there is a shortage of labour. Instead of unemployment, wages are rising, and so is competition for good workers. The biggest hunger for specialists is in the still unsaturated IT industry.

All this makes the recruitment costs in the companies operating in our country constantly increase since 2011. The greatest influence on this situation has a high degree of employee turnover. More and more people, especially young people, are not particularly attached to the workplace and are constantly looking for better conditions. The first step in effectively tackling these unfavourable changes for employers is to understand their causes. ASPIRE & AG TEST Salary Tracker report prepared by AG TEST HR and ASPIRE Association provides new data on this subject.

Main reasons for employer changes

61 companies from the SSC/BPO/IT sector took part in the survey, which became the basis for the report. The vast majority of them are companies operating in Kraków. It turned out that in 2015 as many as 17% of Kraków's employees in the above-mentioned industries changed their jobs. Thanks to ASPIRE & AG TEST Salary Tracker we also learned what were the most common reasons for changing employer. Turns out it's not a salary at all. As many as 34% of the respondents indicated that the search for a new job was motivated by the willingness to search for development opportunities, which they did not see in the previous company. This is contrary to the popular belief that wages are the most important thing, but it is in line with the analyses of specialists who, also in other industries, consider this reason to be the most influencing factor in the employee's behaviour. The second place was taken by respondents for personal reasons (29%). The third place on the podium for the most frequent reasons of employment changes in the SSC/BPO/IT sector in Kraków was taken by higher remuneration. Analyzing the results it should be remembered, however, that some people do not admit that the main motivation for looking for another job is money and prefer to give another reason for it.

What else influences the decision to change jobs?

Other factors were of much lesser importance. Between 1 and 4% of respondents decided to look for a new employer due to a bad atmosphere at work (4%), monotony of tasks performed (2%), bad relations with the direct superior (2%), unclear rules of remuneration (1%), underestimation by superiors and co-workers (1%) or work overload (1%).

Employers are aware of the importance of wages, even if they do not rank first in the list of reasons for changing jobs. As many as 93% of employers indicate that this year the average salary in their company will increase regardless of the position held, on average by slightly more than 3%. The smallest increase was expected for board members (2.6% in Kraków, 3.1% for the whole of Poland), and the largest for managers (3.3% in Kraków, 3.1% for the whole of Poland).

It is not surprising, however, that the highest level of rotation was observed in the group of employees with low job tenure. Most often, those who have worked for one or two years have changed their jobs. The rotation rate gradually decreases with increasing seniority.

The competition with the highest turnover of personnel

Customer service employees, especially those working in hotlines or helpdesks, were looking for a new job. On average, as much as 25% of employees in this area change employment before the end of the working year. The position with the highest turnover rate is in most companies the junior customer service specialist/assistant (28%). However, with the promotion to the position of specialist, this indicator decreases quickly. Only 15% of the employees in this area decide to change their job.

Employers more and more often meet the expectations of employees. They try not only to attract the best candidates to work, but also to keep those who have already proved themselves in a given position. The number of enterprises using the services of professional consulting companies is growing. the basic motivation that manages the managerial staff is to reduce the costs of recruitment proceedings, including in particular the reduction of employee turnover.

Counteracting employee turnover, more and more companies are opting for an extensive system of non-salary benefits. In Kraków's SSC/BPO/IT companies these are usually: additional health care (95%), fitness / gym tickets (92%), subsidies for cultural and entertainment purposes (86%), training (84%) and additional insurance (85%). In the context of research, which shows that the most frequent reason for seeking a new job is the lack of prospects for professional development, it is strange that the training offer is quite low. It offers it to its employees "only" 84% of companies. Although these data concern companies operating mainly in Kraków, they can be successfully extrapolated to the whole of Poland (this is proven by independent research). There is definitely room for improvement here, although it should be remembered that a significant part of SSC/BPO/IT employees treat the above mentioned non-salary benefits as a standard. It is not their presence that motivates employees to change jobs, but rather their lack of motivation discourages them.

What can an employer do?

Two of the three main drivers of employee turnover are strongly influenced by employers. They can improve both the material situation of the employees and their satisfaction with their professional development. Therefore, it seems that we can expect a further increase in wages in the coming years. This is indicated by both macroeconomic factors and the fact that entrepreneurs place greater emphasis on the offer of employee training. Only in this way will they be able to reduce staff turnover and the costs associated with recruitment processes.