Articles From the Team
‘New year, new job’ – Investors in People (IIP) research suggests this sentiment has declined.
An article in The Telegraph earlier this year has highlighted some interesting research by Investors in People (IIP).
According to the IIP research, there has been a 12 percent drop (between 2017 and 2018) in the number of people who plan to change job in 2018 – specifically, only 47 percent of people spoken to planned to change job this year – and of those considering a move, 18 percent are actively looking for a new position compared with 25 percent at the beginning of 2017.
IIP put the decline down to a loss of confidence in the UK job market. Despite UK unemployment at 4.2 percent being a 42 year low, only a quarter of workers say that their employment prospects had improved, down one-third on the previous year.
The Head of the IIP has said the “wages have stagnated” and “improvements in the labour market have failed to translate to the pockets of UK workers”. Of those people who are looking, 49 percent have cited poor management as the main reason they’re considering looking for a new job. The IIP suggested that “management strategies must evolve to meet the demands of employees if organisations are to retain staff.”
BCL Legal opinion:
Our experience in 2018 doesn’t wholly echo the IIP research however we have definitely noticed that lawyers are becoming more and more discerning regarding future roles, despite record number of live opportunities in in-house legal department and private practice teams.
The reasons for moving in the legal market are very much focused on career progression, salary/package advancement and learning new skills and experiencing new types of work or ways of working. Most people we deal with are looking to move for positive (pull factors) reasons and we are seeing less people moving because they are dissatisfied.
It appears that management within law firms and in-house departments are on the whole looking to reward success and there is plenty of quality work out there for lawyers to get stuck into. However, as with many roles, there often comes a time where progression cannot continue with your current employer and so there is a need to move. This links back to my point above about moving for positive (pull) reasons, where you are looking to better yourself and progress. It’s not because your are dissatisfied, it more that you need to move.
Original article below:
For more information please contact Craig Wilson at BCL Legal.