Howdy HR friends!👋

Hope you’re all having a great start to the week!

Today we’re pondering job hugging. All reports suggest it’s happening more and more, especially in the US economy. But what is it? And is it always a bad thing?

Or is it just an expected side effect of the state of the job market and various economic factors?

Let’s dive in shall we?

🚦Coming up

In today’s edition

🔍 Job Hugging: The Hidden Retention Crisis | When Employee Stability Becomes a Warning Sign

🛋️ The Break Room: Are your employees staying put out of loyalty or fear? Weigh in on how you're handling the job hugging phenomenon at your organization.

📚 Human Readsources: Navigating AI in hiring processes, spotting fake candidate information, and the latest developments in the office vs. remote work debate.

💭Opening thoughts

Could your team be hugging on tight (but through necessity rather than choice)?

Nearly 60% of Americans feel trapped in their current roles, with "job hugging" emerging as the workplace phenomenon that is slowly replacing the Great Resignation.

The shift from quitting to clinging creates a deceptive retention metric that masks what’s really happening: employee disengagement.

As HR leaders, how do we distinguish between genuine retention and fear-based job hugging?

Uncovering what’s really happening requires a more subtle approach and requires us to look beyond the spreadsheets and software that only show us the turnover metrics.

For easy reading

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🧠Let’s unpick

🔍 Job Hugging: The Hidden Retention Crisis

Employees all over are reportedly clinging to positions they've outgrown due to economic uncertainty.

With U.S. hiring slowing (just 73,000 jobs added in July) and quit rates falling to 2016 lows, your workforce is likely staying put out of fear rather than fulfillment.

As an HR pro, you've got 2 fires to put out (at the same time might I add) 🚒 

1) Proving that your improved retention metrics are actually due to a happy workforce (not economic headwinds) and 2) overseeing increasingly disengaged teams (and middle managers).

Now's the time to distinguish between healthy retention and problematic job hugging.

Focus on competitive compensation, create visible growth paths, and foster psychological safety.

Most importantly, have honest conversations with your teams about career development.

Even if they're staying put because they want to be there, you can help them use this time strategically to build skills for when the market eventually rebounds.

You can read more at...

🔗 Why Workers Stay Put in Tough Times (Inc.)

🔗 Clinging to Security in Uncertain Times (Forbes) 

🔗 Job Hugging: Workers Cling to Security in Today’s Economy (USA Today)

👀Too long didn’t read

TLDR

Job hugging isn't inherently bad, but HR needs to distinguish between strategic patience and fear-based stagnation. Focus on creating growth opportunities and psychological safety now, or risk mass exodus when the market improves.

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🎬Lights, camera, action!

Takeaway and try

🔍 Implement regular "Career Checkpoint" conversations with small groups to uncover whether employees are staying out of fear or engagement. These informal chats can reveal improvement opportunities before disengagement sets in.

🌱 Create visible internal growth paths by showcasing employees who've advanced within the company and clearly communicating the skills needed for promotion in each department.

📊 Don't trust retention metrics alone during economic uncertainty. Instead, pair them with engagement surveys to distinguish between employees who are committed versus those who are just clinging.

⚡ Identify and eliminate unnecessary friction in your internal mobility processes. If it's easier for talent to leave than move internally, you're inadvertently encouraging job hugging.

☕The break room

What’s your take?

📚Additional reading

Human Readsources

🤖 AI Reshapes Hiring Despite Worker Concerns (HR Dive) - AI increasingly dominates hiring despite concerns about bias and oversight.

📄 HR Struggles to Detect Fake Job Applications (HR Dive) - HR struggles to detect fake candidate information despite prevalence.

🏢 Office Return Debate Fractures Traditional Alliances (Human Resource Executive) - Book argues purposeful in-person time benefits hybrid workplaces.

That’s it for today.

Thanks for reading to the end and we hope today’s edition sparked some new ideas for your workplace! 🧠

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