Australian workers in rush to change jobs after Covid

Alarming new data from PwC suggests the nation is on the brink of its own Great Resignation.

Ben Hamer, PwC

Almost 40 per cent of Australian workers say they want to switch employers in the next year, suggesting the nation is on the brink of the Great Resignation, according to a new report from PwC Australia.

Its survey of 1800 workers between September 20 and October 1 supports anecdotal evidence from employers – especially in the technology sector – that workers are chasing higher wages and new career opportunities as the economy rebounds after the pandemic.

The professional service firm’s Ben Hamer, who leads its Future of Work practice, says the phenomenon will be in “full swing by March driven by market stability, increased consumer confidence, the likely softening of interstate borders, and the usual post-summer holiday recruitment activity”.

The high expectations come off the back of Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing that in the year to February, just under one million people or 7.5 per cent of employed people changed jobs, the lowest annual rate on record thanks to pandemic insecurity. Job mobility remained highest for professionals with 21 per cent changing jobs.

Logic suggests overall mobility will rise in the 12 months to February next year but Hamer points out that there is a gap between the numbers wanting a change of jobs and those who actually make the switch.

The PwC report, What Workers Want: How to Win the War on Talent, found that while 38 per cent wanted to move jobs, some workers are adopting an extremely short-term approach to their jobs: 60 per cent of those who left a job in the past year are keen to move on again in the next 12 months.

In contrast, 55 per cent say they expect to stay for at least five years.

Employers are worried: 73 per cent of senior leaders report problems attracting talent during the pandemic.

Yet about 50 per cent of companies have no intention of updating their employee offerings in areas such as training to counter the war for talent.

Says Hamer: “The balance of power has shifted from the employer to the employee. Competition for talent will intensify and those who fail to adapt will take a big hit.

“To protect themselves from the full force of the Great Resignation, and attract the right skills, organisations must identify what their workers really want and reimagine their employee value proposition. ”

Remuneration and rewards ranked the highest in a list of what workers value, with 25 per cent citing this, followed by wellbeing (22 per cent) and experience (16 per cent).

The report says that the rising interest in wellbeing could be the result of the increasingly blurred lines between work and home, stress from the pandemic and impact on job security, as well as increased instances of loneliness and isolation. Some 85 per cent of workers reported mental health challenges in the past 18 months.

The report says that while workers value remuneration and wellbeing, earning a bonus or promotion often means working longer hours.

Hamer says: “We know money talks. The remuneration lever has been somewhat lost in the future of work narrative … it’s time to remind ourselves of the importance of remuneration and the way in which it is, and always will be, a strong and tangible marker of perceived value and worth.”

He says change is happening at the fastest rate in human history and is also “the slowest that we will experience for the rest of our lives”. Nothing is changing more than work but the disruption in the workplace is not simply related to Covid-19.

Says Hamer: “We are not going back to the way things were. Because the pandemic was not the cause for this disruption. Rather, it just brought to the fore the changes that were already happening and accelerated them.”