Navigating the “Great Resignation”

By Darci Ahlin-Stieren

ere we are, two years out from the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know about you, but Space Mountain at Walt Disney World pales in comparison to this ride. One of the greatest shifts our country has experienced through this journey has been related to employment.

With our country’s labor market in a precarious position, getting people back to work is top of mind for every business. I recently met up with a group of leaders representing a variety of industries. The subject of “the great resignation” was raised, piquing curiosity around the table. I spent the next hour sharing ideas and best practices to mitigate turnover, strengthen organizations, and improve leadership as a result.

The “great resignation,” a title allegedly coined here in the United States, refers to the mass exodus of employees from the workforce and was precipitated by the pandemic. According to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics report, 4.3 million workers quit their jobs in August of this year. The construction industry lost twice the workers in 2021 as it did in August 2020. This report may very well represent a mixed bag of those workers who voluntarily left due to businesses downsizing and those who made a conscious choice to leave. The workers that left or are in the process of leaving have myriad reasons, some of which include pandemic burnout, changing personal priorities, assessment of work-life balance, and employee experience expectations. With that being said, we need to turn our focus to those still working—it also must be about retention.

Begin by looking inward and allocating the same attention and care to your current staff as you put into recruiting and hiring. If you have staff in place who were left behind by their colleagues, it has likely translated into increased job responsibilities and tasks. Assessing the functions and workload of current staff raises management’s awareness, acknowledges increased responsibilities, and allows an opportunity to check their burnout gauge.

A simple and cost-effective method for learning more about your workforce is to conduct “stay interviews.” While the traditional exit interview is more of an autopsy—determining why employees decided to leave—a stay interview is proactive, uncovering what can be done to encourage employees to stay in the company. Unlike an annual or quarterly performance review, a stay interview is the employee’s unique perception of his or her work environment. Using this approach can prove to be a valuable tool on many levels.

Times are changing and many employees would like extra benefits, flexibility, and experiences over a pay raise. Depending on your organization and the type of workforce, you may consider conducting a quick benefits survey to better understand what is important and meaningful to your staff. Responses from employees can range from paid time off, health insurance, retirement, and parental leave to wellness programs and hybrid or remote work plans. By learning what employees value, companies can increase retention and, in some cases, reduce costs.

Trust is a critical component to employee engagement and retention. Therefore, upon collecting employee feedback it is important to be responsive to your findings, otherwise it can backfire and lead to a loss of trust. Employees are more likely to share their opinion and be engaged if they feel they are being heard and there is consistent communication across the organization.

There is a need to stay even more open in these confusing and chaotic times. When external mandates or controls are being evaluated by leadership, the actual outcomes may be unknown. But the process of getting there can be shared and updated so employees don’t jump ship out of fear or lack of information. Most often the process can be shared, even when outcomes are not clear.

Developing employee relationships through clear communication increases engagement, loyalty, and overall workplace satisfaction. For those of you with an increasingly dispersed and mobile staff, internal communication is more important now than ever before.

If you are lucky enough to have a strong team who believes in your business and takes pride in their work, it’s worth doing everything you can to retain them so that your business will continue to thrive within these challenging and rapidly changing times.

Skilled workers are an asset for any business. They play a key role in developing a business’s reputation and securing its ongoing success. In the workforce of today, skilled workers are a necessity. Put simply, any business which values productivity, efficiency, quality workmanship, loyalty, and a harmonious workplace should be investing in their employees by providing access to further training, education, and new opportunities to expand their skill set and move up through the ranks. In doing so, you will be investing in the success of your business while also enjoying a positive working relationship with your staff.

Personal relationships are one of the biggest factors that affect the employee experience, specifically the relationships employees have with their managers. Strong leaders encourage their staff to be curious, focus on innovation, and self-manage. They know how to properly motivate and communicate with their employees, which enables employees to better recognize their own skills and value, in turn reducing turnover.

How each organization responds to the “great resignation” is as unique as their role in the marketplace and the culture they adopt internally. This isn’t just a short-term issue, but potentially a long-term opportunity to build a competitive advantage by retaining and attracting top talent and building stronger organizations in the process. This is a ride we may be on for a while.