A new survey shows four out of 10 employees are about to look for work elsewhere.

The new survey, developed by Brisbane HR consulting firm Astor Levin, shows that high overall satisfaction ratings in a company are no guarantee against high staff turnover - four out of 10 employees surveyed were about to seek work elsewhere and even one in four employees who said they were satisfied with their workplace were still planning to leave.

According to Colin Melbourne, managing director of Astor Levin, the current tight labour market is changing the dynamic between employer and employee. "It is now often up to the employer to show why someone should want to work at their company, not the other way around," he says. "Our new survey shows that even if a company is able to attract the right people to work for it, retaining those people will be a constant challenge."

The survey, with over 1,000 respondents across many industry sectors and company sizes right across Australia, showed that 71% of those surveyed were satisfied with the organisation overall but 40% were planning to look for work elsewhere in the next six months.