LONDON, December 17 /PRNewswire/ --

Employees may be feeling more loyal to their own career goals instead of their employers, as 40 per cent do not feel loyal to their current employer and 23 per cent said they are likely to leave their current position to change jobs in a year or less. This is according to CareerBuilder.co.uk's latest survey of more than 250 HR professionals and hiring managers and more than 600 employees.

When workers feel disloyal to their employer, they are more likely to be less productive and proactive in their role, and ultimately, are probably keeping their eyes open for a new position elsewhere, said Tony Roy, Managing Director for CareerBuilder.co.uk. While already weathering the storm of a downshifted economy, employers may need to factor in additional recruitment costs into their budgets to keep their workforce stacked with qualified talent.

The price tag of frequent turnover can be quite high. According to the survey, 34 per cent of employers have an average cost per hire of 1,000 pounds or more; 20 per cent estimate their cost-per-hire at 2,500 pounds or more.

Once employers factor in the costs of hiring new employees, it can take a significant amount of time to make up those expenses. Forty-seven per cent of employers estimated that it takes them more than six months to recoup expenses associated with recruiting and training someone once they're on board with the company; 22 per cent said it takes more than one year.

Workers cited a variety of reasons for why they felt disloyal to their current employer:

-- Don't feel my employer values me -- 61 per cent -- Employer does not pay enough -- 53 per cent -- My efforts are not recognized or appreciated -- 46 per cent -- Not enough career advancement opportunities -- 42 per cent -- Benefits are not good enough -- 34 per cent -- Don't like the work culture -- 26 per cent -- Employer doesn't provide enough ongoing training or education -- 24 per cent -- Work is not challenging enough -- 24 per cent -- Don't like my boss -- 21 per cent

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.K. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.co.uk among 289 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions); and 656 U.K. employees (employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over between June 2 and June 13, 2008, respectively (percentages for some questions are based on a subset of UK Employers or Employees, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 289 and 656, one could say with a 95 per cent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 5.76 percentage points and +/- 3.83 percentage points, respectively.

About CareerBuilder.co.uk

CareerBuilder UK is one of the most visited online job sites in the United Kingdom. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), CareerBuilder.co.uk powers the career centres for more than 160 individual UK sites that reach national, local, industry and niche audiences. Job seekers visit CareerBuilder.co.uk every month to search for opportunities by industry, location, company and job type, sign up for automatic e-mail job alerts, and get advice on job hunting and career management. For more information about CareerBuilder products and services, visit http://www.careerbuilder.co.uk.

Media Contact: Allison Nawoj +1-773-527-2437 allison.nawoj@careerbuilder.com

Allison Nawoj of CareerBuilder.co.uk, +1-773-527-2437, allison.nawoj@careerbuilder.com