New figures show that nearly half the nation’s workers intend on staying in their current jobs for less than five years with young workers aged between 18 to 34 being most likely to change positions.
According to a Newspoll conducted for The Australian, 48 per cent of workers said they would remain in their current job for less than five years. Of these, 14 per cent said they would stay for less than a year while 11 per cent said they would change position within 2 years.
The survey of 699 full and part-time workers found those most likely to change were younger employees with 57 per cent of those aged between 18 and 34 looking to move within five years.
However, those workers aged between 35 and 49 were more grounded with 60 per cent saying they expected to be in their current positions for more than half a decade.
In a separate survey of 103 senior managers conducted for The Australian by Hall & Partners, nearly two-thirds expected the workplace of the future to become more flexible.
However, more than 60 per cent of respondents expressed concern that too much flexibility could damage workplace productivity and that a major challenge was the loss of control over employee time management.
Throwing light on future workplace trends, the survey also found that nearly three quarters of senior managers believed training and education would need to better prepare workers for change while 68 per cent said improved childcare services would be critical.
Privacy concerns emerged as a key issue for managers with 78 per cent saying they were worried about protecting privacy in the digital age. While 87 per cent believed the internet was important to their business, less than half thought similarly about the national broadband network.
The survey included managers from a broad range of industries from manufacturing, resources, aviation, energy, transport and healthcare with 30 per cent rating the Australian economy as “good” and only 16 per cent expecting it to improve in the net 12 months.
