In June, Visier, a global leader in people analytics, conducted a poll on 2,010 employees - finding that 71 per cent of British respondents said their employers failed to keep up their pay with inflation.
In addition, 43 per cent of respondents stated that they felt they could be forced to find alternative ways of making money if their workplace did not do more to support them, with 17 per cent saying that they plan to hand in their notice at work to take on a new role offering a higher salary - and 14 per cent hoping to increase their value with their own employer by showing them they could get a job somewhere else.
The findings suggest that increasing living costs have led to a ‘reverse retention’ tactics - where employees would consider attempting to get an employer to improve their employment package by threatening to leave. When asked what percentage increase they would expect to receive when negotiating a pay rise, 25 per cent of respondents stated that they would want 9-10 per cent.
Despite 94 per cent thinking that it was not possible for salary packages to keep up with the rising cost of living, 79 per cent felt that their employer has a responsibility to support their employees in managing it.
Ian McVey - Managing Director EMEA at Visier - commented that “an increasingly competitive labour market, ongoing economic uncertainty and the rising cost of living” is more likely to mean that employees will leave a company if their pay rate is not satisfactory.
When asked if they would feel guilty about handing in their notice to improve their pay, 58 per cent of the respondents said they would not - with 45 per cent giving the competitive recruitment market as the reason.
The survey also revealed the concerns of the respondents as 75 per cent were worried about paying their energy bills; 53 per cent with paying their rent or mortgage and 57 per cent paying for food.
In addition to these concerns with the rising cost of living, employees highlighted the financial benefits to working from home - 79 per cent cited saving money on commuting and 47 per cent on buying lunch at work.
Ian McVey stated:
“An increasingly competitive labour market, ongoing economic uncertainty and the rising cost of living are likely to continue to fuel employee’s confidence in threatening to go elsewhere if their workplace package is not up to scratch. To get ahead of this trend – and support employees during these particularly turbulent times - business leaders must find the answer within the people data the business is operating with. For example, keeping abreast of employee sentiment and implementing robust employee experience strategies can create a picture of what it is like to work at a company, and how employees are feeling. Empowering line managers, and HR teams with these insights can help businesses to not only place more emphasis on improving their retention strategy based on what the data is telling us that employees expect, but in supporting employees with the things they need in order to stay at the company.”
