TWO out of five people in work in Northern Ireland say they'd leave their job for a better career opportunity or new challenge, a recruitment survey has found.
And while a pay rise might help in keeping that man or woman in situ, the study found that if firms want to retain their best talent, they need to think about how they can improve career progression within their own companies in order to stop losing their best staff to competitors.
The findings come in the latest employment market monitor by Belfast-based recruiter Cpl Solutions International, covering the first three months of this year.
Employers, meanwhile, cited better career opportunities (41 per cent) and better salaries and promotions (33.3 per cent) as the most common reasons they believe they lost employees
They point to salaries and related employment benefits as their top business costs, followed by property and rental charges.
The findings come in the wake of official figures showing the local jobless rate to have dipped to a near-record low between December and February - below equivalent rates for the UK (4.2 per cent) and Republic (6.1 per cent) and a far cry from the figure of 8.2 per cent recorded in Northern Ireland in the wake of the 2008 recession.
The Cpl study also found that almost two-thirds of employers don’t believe robots will replace people, although automation is already impacting on a number of sectors.
Áine Brolly, chief executive of Cpl Solutions International, say: “In the present vibrant employment sector, employees can move with more fluidity than five years ago and employers know they have to incentivise their staff to stay with them.
“In terms of technology and its potential to influence the job market, it's time to start acknowledging this technological invasion and start curating roles that have long term sustainability.”
