More than one third of employees surveyed—including 34% of directors and 38% of managers—said they would change companies for an employer that embraces flexible work.
This is according to a new research from Unify, a communications software and services firm.
The findings showed that the highest flight risk is among those in the sought after Gen-Y or "millennials" demographic, with 43% of these employees saying they would change employers for a job that offers flexible work.
The company’s New Way to Work (NW2W) Index, is based on more than 900 global respondents at all levels across the healthcare, financial, education, manufacturing, and public sector markets, with the goal of learning how workers define the NW2W, and how important it is to them.
Among the findings, 47% of respondents defined the NW2W as working where they want, while 43% defined it as working when they want; with better collaboration technology being key to realizing it.
"Recent research from Dun and Bradstreet says the total cost of replacing an experienced employee can be up to 150% of that person's annual salary," said Bill Hurley, chief marketing officer at Unify.
"This type of 'flight risk' can be devastating for organizations,” Hurley added. “If companies want to attract and retain the best talent, they must implement flexible work options. The best enabler of this is collaboration technology that allows employees to work where and how they want, and easily collaborate to solve problems, and achieve results."
Additional findings from the NW2W Index include the following:
- More than one third of employees at all levels said they would actually leave their jobs/change employers to go to a job with more flexibility.
- More than half of all senior managers (director-level and higher) surveyed said their organizations are moving in the direction of more flexible work and expect to be there in the next two years.
- More than one third of respondents said they would drive initiatives to make flexible working terms a reality in their organization.
