The great resignation phenomenon and how to reverse it?

What is Great resignation?

The great “talent migration” has seen a surge in the number of employees either quitting or planning on leaving their employers when job opportunities are at their peak.

 “The Great Resignation,” as it is called has been a little-known but surprising fallout of the current pandemic. Many employees are either quitting or planning on leaving their employers, even at the cost of changing industries. And, it is happening when job opportunities are at an all-time high.

Living through and surviving pandemic lockdowns nudged many to see “work-free” living as a viable option. Grievances about low pay, unrealistic deadlines, and bad bosses bubbled up from subconscious depths to feed the impulse. Over the last year, the Reddit forum “r/antiwork”, which has been in existence since 2013, gained over 920,000 followers and saw more than 1,400 daily posts on average.

For a lot of talent, it’s increasingly becoming less about job security and more about job satisfaction. Given the re-prioritisation and soul searching, being faced with your own mortality has spurred, working individuals have started asking whether the stress, lost time, and foregone opportunities are worth what they are getting paid. 

According to PwC research, nearly nine in ten (88%) executives say their company is experiencing higher turnover than normal.A study commissioned by Amazon India in September 2021 revealed that nearly 51% of job-seeking adults wanted to pursue opportunities in industries in which they had negligible or no experience. And 68 % of them wanted to switch industries.

Impact on Organisation

Disengagement and attrition are very costly. According to Gallup

• The lost productivity of not engaged and actively disengaged employees is equal to 18% of their annual salary.
• For a company of 10,000 employees with an average salary of $50,000 each, disengagement costs $60.3 million a year.
• Replacing workers requires one-half to two times the employee’s annual salary. So, it costs $9,000 a year to keep each disengaged worker and between $25,000 and $100,000 to replace them.

These costs are over and above the lack of growth or instability high attrition can cause for companies.

What can Organisations do?

Organisations engage Exponentia Learning Solutions for their capability building requirements. When we interact with leaders, managers and individual contributors during capability building need analysis of these Organisations, we get a decent understanding on what can help Organisations improve retention. Here are some common themes that have emerged especially in the light of the great resignation.

Connections :

Robin Dunbar, emeritus professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford University, in his new book, ‘Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships’, reminds us that the single most surprising fact to emerge from medical literature over the last decade or so has been that the number and quality of our friendships have a significant influence on our happiness, health and even mortality risk. Research by Tori Yu-wen Huang and Vangelis Souitaris of Cass Business School and Sigal G. Barsade of the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania have shown that a bond of friendship in a business partnership can push you to challenge as well as support each other for the ultimate objective of the betterment of your business. Emotional closeness among team members helps you better navigate the differences and difficulties one might have over how a business goal is best achieved.

Working in isolation, as remote or hybrid working demands can be taxing for employees. So one of the ways is to create an engagement platforms where the top most leader (Function Head) engages with her entire team at a defined frequency. This gives a connected feeling to the employee besides having an opportunity to share her struggles and successes with fellow colleagues and the leader directly.

Sharing the big picture :

How does the individual contributor know that her work is contributing to a meaningful bigger objective? You guessed it right. Leaders again have this responsibility to communicate to the team. This helps the employee in not only knowing the big picture but also helps in assuring that their work is making a positive difference.

Managers as Coaches :

Team members expect periodic inputs from their supervisors on the performance and on enhancing their capabilities. While reviews help managers understand the current performance, it is still a lag indicator. Coaching on the other hand acts as a powerful developmental tool and a good lead indicator for managers. The challenge is that Organisations need to have structured program for managers on building coaching capabilities.

Learning as Employee Value Proposition

Organisations spend a great deal of resources to define their Employee Value Proposition. Today’s employees look at learning opportunity as one of the important considerations while joining an Organisation. Hence incorporating ‘Learning & Development’ as one of EVPs becomes imperative for any progressive Organisation that intends to attract great talent. Factoring in each individual’s learning and growth needs while planning their career progression in conjunction with the employee is a great way to engage and build trust with your team members.

Any Organisation that is willing to commit their resources (time, energy, money) on the above enablers is most likely to see a better retention and counter the great resignation phenomenon with great employee engagement proposition.