Fixed is becoming more mobile and flex more sustainable

In this Talent Monitor, we took a closer look at the duration of jobs and assignments of workers. In doing so, we explicitly looked for the overlap and correlation between permanent and flex in the inflow and labor market activity and zoom in on retention and retention.

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Staff retention is the new recruiting

Labor market activity - which involves actively looking for a job/assignment yourself - is historically low for both permanent and flex workers. In contrast, external mobility is at a record high, which for salaried workers means they are almost twice as likely to change employers as in 2015. This is almost twice the rate of internal mobility. Employers are hardly betting on internal careers and advancement opportunities, instead focusing primarily on recruitment in the external labor market. This is a major driver of costs and the loss of productivity and job happiness.

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Key findings

  • Labor market activity (actively looking for a job/assignment yourself) is historically low for both permanent and flex, prompted by the tightness in the labor market. This puts more emphasis on sourcing and active mediation by intermediaries and secondments.
  • In contrast, external mobility is at a record high, which for salaried workers means that they are changing employers almost twice as fast as in 2015. In early 2023, the duration of a salaried job for the entire Dutch labor force will be less than five years, down from eight years in 2015.
  • It is almost twice as large as internal mobility. Which means, concretely, that employers are hardly betting on internal careers and advancement opportunities, but are concentrating mainly on recruitment in the external labor market. This is a major driver of costs and the loss of productivity and job happiness.
  • Whereas employees are employed for shorter and shorter periods, the initial assignment duration of contractors - independent professionals and secondees - is steadily increasing to an average of 205 days. In the process, the percentage of assignments that are renewed after the initial assignment is also increasing again, to 61% in 2022.
  • Not paying or charging a market-based labor market rate according to professional group and level of experience lowers the likelihood of renewing an assignment, both from the client and contractor's perspective. It also increases the need for greater transparency and increases the call for independent data-driven rate information.
  • The probability of being renewed and the duration of the contract - in addition to the rate - also depends on type of position (embedding), type of project (head-to-head), initial duration (the longer, the lower the probability of being renewed) and the industry (tendered/not tendered).

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