Job change during pandemic due to lack of work-life balance
Many professionals are open to changing jobs despite the pandemic. The most common reason cited for this is a lack of work-life balance, as a representative survey in German-speaking Switzerland revealed.
If there is one important reason to change jobs, it is lack of work-life balance. This already by a earlier study of a personnel service provider is now confirmed in a recent, representative survey. At the beginning of the year, XING commissioned the market and media research institute Forsa to survey around a thousand professionals in German-speaking Switzerland on their professional situation and plans for 2022.
Most common reason for changing jobs during Corona: work-life balance
According to this survey, around a quarter of professionals (24 percent) have changed employer since the start of the pandemic. This was often triggered by factors closely linked to the corporate culture. A lack of work-life balance in the current job was cited by 29 percent of respondents as a reason for changing jobs. More flexible working hours were the deciding factor for 20 percent of respondents, making it an equally strong driver as financial incentives. Among men, a better work-life balance tended to be a slightly more frequent trigger for a job change (31 percent) than among women (27 percent). Thirty percent of those who have changed jobs since the start of the pandemic had the courage to hang up their job without a binding commitment for new employment, despite the crisis. 40 percent also say that Corona influenced their decision to change jobs.
Attractive location more important for job search than home office
When it comes to finding a new employer, work culture aspects play an important role. 55 percent of respondents pay particular attention to flexible working hours. A higher salary is equally important (55 percent). The next most important factor is good management (47 percent). 46 percent pay particular attention to an attractive location, 41 percent to personal fulfillment in the job and 35 percent of those surveyed consider the possibility of remote work and home office to be important. The results show that while home office has become a relevant criterion, it is not the only decisive factor. An attractive location remains important, according to Robert Bertschinger, Swiss Managing Director of NEW WORK and its subsidiary XING. "The office has a strong identity-forming effect and remains a decisive driver for work culture, even if it is no longer visited on a daily basis in the future. Investing only in the infrastructure for remote work falls short of positioning oneself as an attractive employer on the candidate market."
One-third of professionals more satisfied on the job than before the pandemic
84 percent of professionals say they are satisfied with their current job. Thirty percent also say they are more satisfied with their job today than they were before Corona. Fifty-three percent say their satisfaction has not changed in the wake of the pandemic, and only 17 percent are more dissatisfied today.
In principle, however, around half of professionals (57 percent) remain open to changing jobs - or have already taken concrete steps to do so. This means that the willingness to change jobs is roughly at the Prior-year level. At 70 percent, the figure is particularly high in the youngest age group of 18 to 29-year-olds. Thereafter, the willingness to switch decreases with age and is still at 43 percent among the over-50s.
Source: XING
