Nearly 1 In 2 Workers Feels Stuck. Here’s How To Change That

This article, written by Kit Eaton, was originally published on Inc.com.

If you sometimes look around the office, on a boring Wednesday afternoon, and wonder, “What am I doing here? Nothing ever changes,” you have plenty of company. New data from analysis outfit SurveyMonkey found that 43 percent of workers feel like there are “little to no” opportunities for growth at their current jobs. But if you’re an employer, then this might truly worry you — dissatisfied workers are likely to be less efficient, and they may seek greener pastures, leaving you to handle the effort and cost of finding their replacements.

This poll has survey has some depth. SurveyMonkey’s Workplace Culture and Trends research involved over 3,500 staff over the last couple of months, so there’s large sample size for the data. The answers also skewed in interesting ways for different age cohorts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gen-Z workers were the most dissatisfied with their current jobs. Just 28 percent said they felt satisfied, industry site HRDive reports. This dissatisfaction is driving over half of this age group to actively hunt for growth where they are or changing where they work. Meanwhile, 18 percent are feeling very “stuck” or are unsure about where the future will take them.

Those Gen-Z workers are also much more likely than their older peers to look to develop their career at a different company—with 33 percent saying they feel this way. Just 24 percent of Millennial workers agree, and only 22 percent of Gen-X staff. 

Meanwhile, Millennials are a little less dissatisfied overall, with 38 percent feeling okay with the status quo, and 47 percent of Gen-X workers said they are satisfied. 

Of course, you can flip this narrative upside down, and ask what’s driving people to stay at their jobs — a trick that may help shape your thinking if you’re keen to try to retain your workforce, particularly your youngest staff members. The SurveyMonkey data show that the main drivers for staying put are financial security, status, and “opportunities for challenges and improvement.” About half of all workers said that if they were offered the chance to improve themselves on the job, that would motivate them to do the best work in their current roles. Working with other team members who inspire them was cited by 42 percent of respondents as a reason for doing their best. 

Nevertheless, as HRDive points out, one big takeaway from the survey is that financial stress is a big motivator for people feeling dissatisfied with their jobs, and three in four people have a side hustle to help pay the bills. Two in three say money is a main motivator for their ongoing career choices.

Why Should You Worry About This?

It’s quite simple. Finding and successfully recruiting a new person to work at your company is a a lot of work for your company. It takes time, effort and money on from management and your HR team—and we know that the muddled job market and the arrival of AI is actually making the whole business of recruiting good personnel much harder than it used to be. Keeping your workers happy and keen to go on working for you is a financially savvy decision. 

The worker stagnation data shown in SurveyMonkey’s data, combined with the keenness for workers to develop themselves is the big takeaway here. It all suggests that to retain your staff, keep them happy and motivated so they’ll be productive in ways that benefit your bottom line. That means you may have to invest more than you expected in learning and development programs, particularly for your Gen-Z staff.