Risk appetite of employees see sharp uptick, open to new job opportunities

Loyalty has lost its lustre for many workers as a significant percentage of employees in India are now open to being tempted away with the promise of better pay, flexibility and conditions, says a report.

According to leading global recruitment firm Michael Page India's annual Talent Trends 2023 report, the talent market is in an universal flux as 98 per cent of all employees are open to new opportunities.

"Companies can only confidently rely on fewer than 1 in 10 people in their current workforce to be retained this year," the report titled 'The Invisible Revolution' said.

The report, which focused on critical trends and developments in the employment market, is based on the survey conducted on 70,000 participants globally, including 4,000 Indian respondents.

The report highlighted the "cultural revolution" in the workplace in the last 12-18 months and said that 98 per cent of the skilled, white-collar professionals surveyed are open to new opportunities.

"It is quite a staggering number," Michael Page India Managing Director Ankit Agarwala said, adding, "In the last 12-18 months, there has been a very strong cultural revolution... a big shift in talent power dynamics. By this, we mean that the talent or employees have choices."

The report found that 75 per cent of the respondents are active job seekers, which includes employees currently looking for a job (64 per cent) and those who are planning to look for a job in the next six months (11 per cent). The remaining 23 per cent of respondents are sitting "on the fence", waiting for the right opportunity.

In pre-pandemic times, the employers were largely in control but now control has shifted towards the talent's side, Agarwala said.

The report revealed that about 63 per cent of the people who changed their jobs in 2022 are also open to new opportunities.

"In the last three years, the value attached to personal well-being and time has gone up as people have faced difficult circumstances. Clearly, loyalty has lost its charm in the minds of the workforce," Agarwala said.

"It has to do a lot with people's ability to take more risk now," said Varsha Barooah, Regional Director of Michael Page India.

The risk appetite has swelled up among the employees as there are more opportunities available in the market to back it up, Barooah added.

Beyond job satisfaction, the report has drawn a work-life equation consisting of fairly benchmarked salary, career growth, and the recently acknowledged flexibility at work.