We wrote about job hugging late last year, when uncertainty was keeping more people in roles they may otherwise have left. At the time, the question for employers was how to turn that short-term stability into genuine engagement and retention.
Less than a year later, the conversation is starting to shift.
SEEK’s 2026 research found almost one in three Australians are hesitant to switch jobs, with concerns around job security, redundancy and salary keeping people where they are.
From an employer’s perspective, it’s easy to see how that could look like stability. At a macro level, turnover is down, people are staying put and there’s less pressure to recruit. But staying isn’t the same as wanting to stay, and it definitely doesn’t mean people are engaged or producing the kind of work that helps move a business forward.
From the employee side, we’re worried about a job market that feels uncertain, which means we’re holding onto jobs we don’t necessarily want. But there’s a bit of a contradiction in that. If people are increasingly disengaged from the jobs they already have, aren’t we potentially contributing to some of the conditions we’re worried about?
We know disengaged workplaces are less productive, and businesses that aren’t performing or growing have less capacity to invest in their people and create new opportunities. We can’t blame job hugging for the state of the employment market, but there is a broader relationship between engagement, productivity and growth that’s easy to overlook.
For employers, that raises a bigger question about what we’re actually doing to keep people engaged while they’re here.
The role of an EVP has changed
A few years ago, the employment market looked very different. A lot of EVPs were built, refreshed or given more attention during that period, with a strong focus on what would make someone choose one organisation over another.
There was good reason for that at the time, but the market has changed since then. So have our people, what they value and what they need from their workplace. Our EVPs need to keep up.
An EVP shouldn’t just be a list of benefits on a careers page or something we pull out from the back of SharePoint when we need to recruit. It should reflect why someone would choose to work for an organisation, what they experience once they get there and, importantly, why they would want to continue being part of it.
If people are staying because moving feels risky, rather than because they genuinely want to be there, a low turnover rate can only tell us so much. We need to look at what’s happening underneath it.
Are people still learning and developing? Do they feel like there’s somewhere for them to go? Do they understand how their work contributes to the organisation? Are managers having the right conversations with their teams? And does the experience of working there actually match what was promised when they joined?
Because even the best EVP won’t do much if your people don’t recognise it in their day-to-day experience.
Is your EVP still giving people a reason to stay?
There isn’t one thing that will keep everyone engaged, particularly when people are feeling uncertain about what comes next.
Pay and flexibility still matter, but so do career development, leadership, recognition, meaningful work and feeling like there’s a future for you within the organisation. The important part is understanding which of those things matter to your people now.
Why are people staying? What would make them leave? What do they want more of? Where are they frustrated? Can they see themselves progressing within the organisation, and if not, why not?
These conversations are also where you start to uncover the gaps between your EVP and the actual employee experience.
Career development is a good example. If organisations aren’t hiring or promoting at the same rate they were a few years ago, progression can’t always mean a new title. It might mean exposure to a different part of the business, taking ownership of something new, building a skill or having a clearer idea of where a current role could lead.
People need to be able to see something ahead of them. And your EVP needs to give them a reason to believe they can find it within your organisation.
What happens when people start moving again?
We may already be starting to find out.
More recent Gartner data found active job seeking among Australians increased from 19.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 26.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, while the proportion intending to stay with their current employer fell from 38.1 per cent to 34 per cent.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the job market has suddenly turned, but it does suggest people may be starting to feel more comfortable looking at what else is out there. Of course, it could also mean they simply don’t want to stay where they are anymore.
For employers, this is where job hugging becomes particularly interesting. If some of the retention we’ve seen has been driven by uncertainty rather than engagement, what happens when people start looking elsewhere?
There’s nothing wrong with an EVP that was built for the workforce you had a few years ago. The problem is expecting it to keep working without asking whether the needs of your workforce, the market and your organisation have shifted.
As more people start to consider their options, we’ll get a much better sense of who was staying because they genuinely wanted to be there, and who was simply seeking shelter while waiting for the market to give them another option.
The question for employers is what they do with the time in between.
If it’s been a few years since you’ve looked properly at your EVP, now is a good time to ask whether it still reflects the people you have, the people you want to attract and the experience you’re actually delivering. Get in touch.
