Almost six in ten charity workers want to resign and find a new job, a survey is warning.

A job satisfaction survey of employees across a range of sectors has found that charity workers are among the most likely to want to leave their job.

It found that 59% of charity workers want to quit, the highest of any sector. The average across all sectors and industries is 40%.

Charity workers desire to quit comes despite the voluntary sector having one of the highest rates of job satisfaction. Only the creative arts, and business management have higher career satisfaction levels.

Meanwhile, those working in the public sector are among the least likely to want to leave, with only 29% of those working in education and 33% of those in social care considering quitting. This is despite social care having the lowest job satisfaction among employees of any sector.

Across all sectors the desire to resign is being led by Generation Z and millennial workers.

Half of 18- to 24-year-olds and 45% of 25–34-year-olds want to leave their job. In contrast only 30% of 55–64-year-olds want to quit.

An unhealthy culture is the top reason for employees to want to leave, cited by 27% of workers across all sectors.

Poor leadership

Poor leadership, mentioned by 23%, is the next biggest reason for quitting, with poor work life balance and high workload cited by around one in ten workers as other concerns.

The survey, of more than 2,000 employees carried out by employment research platform New Possible, found that good working relationships with colleagues is the top reason to stay in a post.

Flexibility, engaging work and a good working culture are the next biggest factors in staff members wanting to stay.

“High levels of job satisfaction do not always result in high employee retention,” said New Possible.

“For example, although employees working in the charity sector are among the most satisfied, they’re also the most likely to search for a new job. Conversely, those working in social care are the least satisfied and one of the least likely to look for a new job.”

Recruitment crisis

New Possible’s survey is latest evidence in recent months of a recruitment crisis to impact the charity sector.

In September employment website CharityJob found that the number of applicants for each role had fallen by more than three quarters over the last year.

Care charities and housing associations have warned government ministers they are facing “the most acute recruitment and retention crisis” in their history.

Elsewhere, staff recruitment consultant Paul Nott told Charity Times last month that charities need to prioritise feedback for candidates amid the charity recruitment crisis.

“We need to do all we can to make our sector an attractive prospect for talented employees and a big part of that is communicating with them and treating them with respect,” he said.

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