About 70% of workers in Colombia desire to change jobs and are actively looking for a new one

The labor world is undergoing a major transformation, with more and more people willing to change jobs. Adapting to retain talent represents a challenge for companies, which must evaluate the productive and economic impact of the changes, as well as their viability in the respective line of business.

Part of this controversy was expressed in the discussion generated by the labor reform promoted by the government of President Gustavo Petro, which in recent days was in the news due to its collapse in the Congress of the Republic.

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Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Labor to reach an agreement on the labor reform with businessmen, unions, and workers, experience showed that it was not possible to reach solid agreements on fundamental points such as overtime and night surcharges, and the breakup of the government coalition finally put an end to one of the National Government’s flagship reforms.

After its collapse, President Gustavo Petro said on his Twitter account that he will ask for it to be reintroduced, and production unions recognized the need to change the labor legislation, although they insisted that a new bill must be drafted to respond to the concerns of the different actors involved.

A study by Michael Page PageGroup, an expert in the specialized recruitment of professionals worldwide, found great dissatisfaction among employees with the world of labor and pointed out several aspects that companies will have to rethink if they want to retain talent and thus prevent their best employees from deciding to change jobs.

The first point that stands out has to do with the job search. According to the multinational company, “In Colombia, 98% of workers are open to new job opportunities and 70% consider themselves to be active job seekers, that is, they are currently looking for work or plan to do so within the next six months”.

This suggests that workers are increasingly open to exploring new job opportunities and are less reluctant to leave the company where they work and change jobs if they do not feel comfortable there, or if they think that they can find better options in the labor market.

For companies, changing employee preferences at work means having to think about what aspects of the organization need to change and what new measures need to be taken to retain talent.

When the economy is in decline, job searches increase

The PageGroup study found that in Colombia “83% of workers surveyed said they were more likely to look for a new job when the economy is in decline”.

To the above, the company adds that, while resignations were thought to have peaked in 2021, they have been on the rise since that year. As a result of this trend, 30% of people changed jobs in 2022.

Although there is still no clarity about the labor dynamics in 2023, we can expect that more people will be looking for new jobs, as the economy declined in April for the first time in two years.

According to DANE, the annual growth rate of the Indicador de Seguimiento a la Economía (ISE) index had a negative variation in April 2023 and fell -0.78% compared to April 2022.

Information plays a key role in the decision to change jobs

Since accessing information today is much easier than in the past, employees have more tools than before to define whether they are being well compensated, whether their working conditions are adequate, and whether it is time to change jobs.

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The PageGroup study found that the workers surveyed base their decisions on two fundamental aspects.

First, the inclination towards hybrid jobs, a modality that allows a company’s employees to maintain a balance between life and work. Fifty-eight percent of the people surveyed in the study said that work-life balance is “the most important thing for job satisfaction”, the study said.

Another element of great importance when deciding whether to change jobs is information on remuneration, a factor that showed 54% of relevance.

“With people determined to put their self-worth first, fair compensation becomes a key factor. Not only is work-life balance more tangible than ever, but people now constantly evaluate their jobs with a clear equation: Compensation + Professional Development + Flexibility”, explained Lopez.

In relation to this factor, the study points out that remuneration must be competitive to achieve talent retention. “Today people are very aware of their value and will act accordingly”, highlights the PageGroup study report.

This is shown by the results of the study, which showed that 62% of the people analyzed said that salary information is the most influential factor in a job advertisement.

Job preferences: flexibility and professional development are highly valued by corporate talent

The Covid-19 pandemic showed that another world of work was possible. Discovering this led to job preferences being strongly influenced by flexible working conditions and guarantees for professional development.

In particular, the behavior of workers in Colombia reflects that 72% of those surveyed said that having flexible working hours is essential for them, while 76% prefer a hybrid work mode.

“One of the great challenges for companies in this aspect is to change the way they evaluate the performance and value of employees, because this is no longer reduced to counting how many hours they went to the office”, says the study.

On the other hand, the professional development that workers may have in a company has an important weight in the decision to change jobs. In fact, 2 out of every 3 workers resign when they realize that the work they perform does not allow them to progress within the company.

The study

Talent Trends 2023 is a study that took into account the opinions of 70,000 workers in several countries, including Colombia, with the aim of understanding “how employees really feel about the labor market”, explained Eliana Lopez, director of Michael Page Colombia.

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