Employee Turnover at the Top - Vacancies for Job Seekers at all Levels!

Zions Bank is exploring how to retain employees hired during the economic slump.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting a shift in the labor market trends.  Based upon last years supply and demand for top-level talent, employers were able to shop for and buy the Mercedes Benz and Rolls Royce quality at the Volks Wagon prices.   Now those employees are getting anxioius for a new garage and doing some shopping on their own.  Overall, turnover remains low but is inching up. When adjusted for seasonality, the percentage of total employees who voluntarily quit their jobs in September was 1.6%, up from 1.3% in September last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, as the job market slowly loosens up—and those overqualified hires become more frustrated—some of them are considering greener pastures.

Employers who snapped up top talent on the cheap in the depth of the recession should start worrying about defections, according to recruiters and managers. Companies that continued to hire during the slump found they were able to nab talented but recently laid-off workers at bargain salaries, or into jobs for which they were overqualified.


"Last year, the focus was getting a job, period. Now those who had little or no choice of employment before are regretting it," according to the recruitment firm East Wing Group Inc.

On a larger scale, Google Inc.'s move last week to give all employees a 10% raise underscored the risk of defections among highly sought-after talent even in a weak overall job market.

Management watchers say those low rates mask a risk of future defections, and that many companies may be caught off guard when the labor market improves more robustly.

"They'll be surprised when these overqualified folks get up and leave," says Peter Cappelli, management professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Mr. Riendeau, the recruiter from East Wing Group Inc.says about one in five candidates who call him now say that they are trying to get back to their previous salary after having been in their current job for a year or less. Last year, fewer than one in 10 candidates said that, he says.

Over the past six months, recruiter Nick Corcodilos, who also publishes jobs advice site AsktheHeadhunter.com, has seen a "significant increase" in chatter among headhunters on his site about overqualified hires looking to improve their situations. "Employees try first to pitch for higher-level roles within their companies, but if they can't get that, they're looking elsewhere," he said. Some companies are taking pre-emptive steps as the case with Google last week demonstrates.

Read the Full Story at WSJ