Can’t Avoid The Great Resignation? Here’s How to Beat it

As per McKinsey Featured Insights, more than 15 million workers have quit their jobs since April 2021 in the US alone. An even more astonishing finding of the survey is that 40% of the employee respondents said that they are likely to quit their jobs in the following three to six months.

The numbers offer insights into the gravity of the situation. Among the most prominent concerns is the widening gap between the job environment that employees want, and the job environment that their employers have on offer. The new-age employees have workplace expectations that are quite different from their traditional counterparts. This has impacted the workplace satisfaction index of employees across industries, leading to a global phenomenon – the great resignation.

What is The Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation, also referred to as the Big Quit, is an emerging and ongoing economic trend where employees across different jobs and industries voluntarily resign from their existing jobs en masse. The trend gained an impulsive momentum in early 2021, primarily in the United States.

 Experts have even claimed that some industrial plants and factories have experienced nearly 100% turnover. Even the data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis confirms the anecdotal findings that there has been a consistent increase in voluntary quits since the onset of the global pandemic.

“In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor’s JOLTS report reveals that nearly 4.3 million people quit their jobs in January 2022 itself.”

These reports clearly imply that great resignation is a current and pertinent phenomenon impacting employers across all industries. And the worst-hit industries are leisure & hospitality, professional & business services, and healthcare & social assistance. The data suggest that the high attrition rate does not mean people are quitting their jobs. It is pushing employers to offer higher wages and additional benefits – flexibility of work – to attract and retain talent.

Therefore, employers must gear up to counter the unrelenting “churn”. Here are 5 promising solutions to revamp your employee-related strategies and lay the groundwork for a truly future-forward organization.

6 Strategies to Retain Employees During the Great Resignation

1. Incentivise Your Loyal Employees

The change in the mindset of employees globally has been the primary reason behind the great resignation. Employees want to associate with organizations that genuinely value their loyalty. Companies can partly achieve this objective by revisiting their compensation package strategy.

Several forward-looking organizations are considering offering bonuses to employees who have completed a pre-decided tenure in the office. Bonuses act as a major incentive that helps employees accomplish major personal milestones, such as purchasing a house or repaying student loans.

Besides offering bonuses, organizations must also consider re-leveling compensation for loyal employees. It allows organizations to identify and rectify pay inequality across departments. This strategy becomes even more important when the workforce comprises professionals from different geographic realms, ethnic backgrounds, etc. While re-leveling compensation, organizations should pay special attention to single mothers/fathers, pregnant/expecting mothers, widows, and differently-abled employees.

We have also witnessed some organizations recently offering “boomerangs” to their loyal employees. This means organizations approach the employees who have recently departed and offer them a more promising, long-term compensation plan. However, organizations should evaluate if it's worth offering boomerangs only to those employees who may have made the decision to quit on cordial terms.

2. Ensure Continuous Growth for Your Employees

The Great Resignation is an opportunity for most companies to rethink their employee value proposition. An organization’s professional aspirations are often aligned with employees’ passion and commitment to its growth - which can be further encouraged by upskilling or/and due promotions.

Ask your employees about their professional goals and evaluate how this aligns with the organization’s goals. Take your retention interviews seriously, and then work on the employee feedback that you receive.

“As per a BCG survey report, 68% of employees worldwide are willing to get retrained and learn new skills.”

Companies can capitalize on this enthusiasm by stimulating an employee-first culture and offering them ample opportunities to grow and upskill. Therefore, it is essential to encourage continuous skill-building across the organization by devising a plan and schedule that connects employees with learning and development (L&D) opportunities. Companies can sponsor higher education for high-performing employees. They can collaborate with globally-renowned universities and leading learning experience platforms to ensure continuous learning for their employees.

3. Elevate Employee Experience, Beyond Working Hours!

A great employee experience is all about people coming together to accomplish common goals - where support and collaboration become critical to success for employees as well as employers. Now, it is even more important to foster an environment of value-centric support and collaboration to elevate the employee experience a notch higher.

You need to devise a plan that can help you take care of your employees and their families alike. We have seen that during the pandemic, it became quite difficult for working professionals to manage office work and families simultaneously. Companies must acknowledge and recognize the extra efforts that employees have put in to keep businesses running during the pandemic. 

Businesses can consider:

●    Investing in group insurance policies for their employees.

●  Liberalise leave policies and institutionalize no-questions-asked leave policies.

● Upgrading Work From Home (WFH) infrastructure for employees.

These are some small steps that can improve retention and elevate the employee experience.

4. Embrace Flexibility

One positive impact of the ‘Great Resignation’ is organizations now are more attentive to employees’ feedback and grievances. One of its manifestations has been the readiness among organizations to embrace a more flexible work environment - which sometimes is a hybrid work setup. You must also offer a flexible work environment to your employees in terms of career path, remote work, asynchronous meetings, etc.

“The Microsoft first-annual Work Trend Index reveals that 73% of the workers surveyed want the flexible remote working culture to continue.”

We have already witnessed how the hybrid and remote work culture have benefited both employees and employers alike. In fact, it has become a prominent strategy to retain valuable employees during uncertain times.

Organizations must understand that flexibility goes beyond merely institutionalizing remote work. It also encompasses adopting more flexible hiring and policies like contract-based hiring, project-based hiring, etc.

5. Redefine Your Company Culture

Organizations stick to a defined set of fundamental beliefs, guiding principles, and core values to bring people together. However, organizations are revisiting their value systems as they operate amid varying uncertainties and a transient marketplace to make them more relevant. You must nurture relationships with the most valuable asset of your company – your employees. Establishing a strong social connection with your employees will position you to counter employee attrition well.

It is thus important to develop a value-centric culture for your employees and engage them through trust, confidence, inclusion, and well-being. You must seek your employees’ opinions on how to further enhance their experience at work. Address their queries and dissatisfaction proactively to lower the attrition rate. This will also help you reinvent your organizational culture and create a more committed, resilient workforce.

Organizations also need to re-evaluate the leadership approach to counter problems arising due to the Great Resignation such as employee burnout, project delays, diminished productivity, and operational efficiency. The power dynamics between employers and employees have undergone radical changes, and leadership teams must respond intelligently. This means that managers must work with teams more compassionately and empathetically. This will help in nurturing a long-lasting relationship with employees.

6. Automation to Provide a Connected Employee Experience

As the world is settling into the digital hybrid working style, businesses are forced to quickly adapt to the changing norms. It is becoming increasingly clear that traditional methods are no longer able to evolve to the needs of modern employees.

Organizations must foster a connected workplace experience for their global employees. Automation has a profound impact on employee experience and engagement. Organizations can automate mundane tasks, freeing employees to undertake more productive activities. It is also a statement of intent that underlines organizational willingness to embrace digitization, creating a future-ready workplace. A digitally connected organization aims to integrate the entire tech ecosystem and establish a unified sharing of business data. Intelligent automation tools such as Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, and Professional Services Automation can help you improve operational efficiency while reducing operating costs significantly. Faster and smarter decision-making powered by analytics-driven insights ensures efficient resource utilization and reduced attrition rates.

Think Beyond the Bottom Line to Earn Employee Loyalty

Organizations are playing catch up to maintain pace with the dynamic expectations of employees. However, one must think innovatively and envisage a success-driven plan to meet employee expectations in these challenging times. You must win your employee's trust,  making them believe in the organization’s values and cherish these values.

The Great Resignation is a wonderful opportunity for organizations to identify and critically analyze the road ahead. It has enabled organizations to become more employee-focused, more flexible in terms of their choice of workplace, and implement employee-friendly policies to create a future-ready workplace.