Increase in workers seeking new jobs

The pressure on companies to retain their best employees is only going to increase. That's one of the major findings of a new workplace study titled "The World at Work 2007" by the Atlanta-based staffing firm Randstad USA and polling firm Harris Interactive.

One of the study's conclusions was that employees in 2007 are less likely to feel trapped in jobs they hate and also more likely to feel it's a good time to leave their current job. In 2007, 54 percent of the survey's respondents said they're looking for a new job that pays more, up from 34 percent in 2003.

In the face of large numbers of looming retirements by baby boomers, the study's authors point to the importance of transforming a company's high turnover culture into a high-retention culture.

"In the simplest terms, most people don't leave a company or a job, they leave their managers or supervisors," the report says. "That doesn't mean management becomes a popularity contest. It means that managing for employee retention becomes just as important as productivity and profitability."

According to the study, the following workplace factors will contribute to keeping employees from leaving your company:

• Compensation that's aligned to current market values
• Revised benefits that are more realistic in meeting family needs in 2007
• More flexibility and choice in work schedules, full versus part-time employment and the length of the workweek
• Training and personal development
• Career opportunities inside the organization that equal opportunities offered by other companies

Read the full World at Work 2007 report.