Tackling employee career regret: A growing retention risk

Employers and HR teams must recognise the signs of career choice among their workforce before they walk out the door.

HR Leader recently spoke to Ukari Warmann, HR director (ANZ) at SEEK, about the growing number of Australian workers experiencing career choice regret. According to SEEK data, more than half of Australian workers (52 per cent) regret their career choice, impacting an organisation’s engagement, productivity, and retention.

Speaking on the data results, Warmann said: “It is significant, and I think it’s probably not surprising. You think about, for most people, they’re choosing a pathway, maybe not a specific role or a specific career, but certainly a pathway really early.

“Whether that’s the subjects we choose at school, whether that’s the subjects we study for our degrees, the way that we are kind of trained to think about our roles is to try and make a call really early.

“By the time you get to 30, you’re probably a different person than you were. You’ve got different priorities in life, you’ve got different things going on, but you’re pretty well-progressed in where your career is, and so you might feel in this position where you’re a bit stuck.

“So, no surprise that it’s that high, but certainly, there are some reasons as to why that can happen.”

In terms of how employers can recognise that their employees are experiencing career choice regret, Warmann claimed that it can simply boil down to gaining a more in-depth understanding of your staff.

“What I’d always encourage any employer to be doing is make sure they know their people. I think the more that you know your people, the more you’re actually going to pick up on the signs, because the signs sometimes can be obvious,” said Warmann.

“It may be things like disengagement at work, people being a little bit quieter than they normally are, maybe a few more sick days, maybe a lack of enthusiasm and even a lack of productivity.

“Those are all obvious things that you can see as a leader and you can pick up that something is wrong. Sometimes, the signs can be quite quiet, and there can be things which are going on for someone which might lead to career regret or might be a result of career regret.

“When you have an open conversation with your employees, when you have that relationship, you can pick up on some of those early signs a little bit earlier and not wait for some of the more tangible signs, such as lack of productivity and lack of enthusiasm.”

According to Warmann, the balancing act for leaders who are tasked with addressing employee career regret can be strenuous as they are often juggling business outcomes and their team’s wellbeing. However, it’s a challenge that organisational and HR leaders must manage to mitigate the risk of career choice regret.

“That’s the magic right there … We do have to deliver. Every organisation is employing us for a reason. We have to make sure that we follow through on that. So, obviously, you teach leaders how to set up the rhythms and the cadence so that they can make sure that that delivery is happening on a consistent basis,” said Warmann.

“But ultimately, you do need to be making sure that as a leader, you’re thinking more broadly and you’re understanding your people. You’re understanding the different elements that make a really strong team environment.

“Psychological safety and creating safe environments for people is crucial. That’s a really important part. The best leaders are able to do that quite naturally and create an environment of high trust where you’re able to have that safety.

“But even if it’s not something that comes [naturally] to a leader, certainly opening up the spaces for people to be able to communicate, I think it’s critical.

“And as you learn how to kind of balance your leadership style, hopefully, you get better at balancing both the human element and delivering business outcomes. What you tend to find with the best leaders is that they can balance that quite well.”