What is the great resignation? Why is it happening? These are questions that many managers are asking themselves right now.
The Great Resignation is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse. While this started in 2021, research has shown that it was not caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is merely the result of years of worker abuse and oversight.
What is Causing The Great Resignation?
There are 3 key contributing factors to The Great Resignation:
Job Dissatisfaction
This can occur when someone has outgrown their role but there are no opportunities for upward mobility in the company. People generally want a goal they can work towards. If you treat your employees poorly, why would they want to stay? Don’t be a micromanager and trust that you have hired the best people for the job. Not providing access to learning resources will hurt productivity as employees struggle to learn new skills. This is also a common tactic that companies use to keep people in their current position so that they do not have to hire new employees.
Wage Stagnation
This can occur when real wages are not calculated. Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation, or, equivalently, wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought. When real wages are not calculated, this results in nominal wages. Real wages are based on the cost of goods and services whereas nominal wages are based on income alone.
Cost of Living Increases
When employees work hard, they should be rewarded and not have to reduce their standard of living. This will only cause them to become disengaged or leave altogether. You have to consider the cost-of-living index for each geographic location where your employees reside especially if you have fully remote and hybrid teams.
The Great Resignation Statistics
In 2021 alone, over 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs. This has been an unprecedented mass exit from the workforce. Worker shortages are causing supply chain issues and reduced availability of services. This is also compounded by the fact that over 6 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide and most of them were in the workforce.
Right now, people are experiencing being overworked due to the reduced workforce. If companies do not ensure that their employees are taken care of, they will continue to lose talent which only increases costs. In the past, the workforce was largely accustomed to the “command and control” style of management. That was popular in the industrial age but now, we are in the participation age and people want purpose in their work as well as a work/life balance.
What Do People Want From Their Employer?
First of all, they want respect and equality. As a manager, you should approach your leadership style with the idea that your employees work with you, not for you. They want real wages adjusted for the increased cost of living. Your employees should not have to reduce their standard of living in order to work for you. Many people want the option to work remotely 100% of the time. Keep in mind that this is not true of all employees and extreme extroverts will want to come into the office at least once in awhile.
You need to provide employees with ample time off so that they can have a good work/life balance. People achieve the highest level of productivity when they are alert and well rested. When you treat your employees well, you will create a loyal employee base. People talk and you want to have a good reputation as an employer if you want to be able to attract and retain top talent.
In a recent Qualtrics survey, 92% of people support a 4 day workweek. This can either be implemented as a 40-hour 4 day workweek or even reduced hours if you have employees work 8 hours a day instead of 10. I fully support reduced hours overall because it supports a more diverse employee base.
The Great Resignation – Courses on Pluralsight
You can learn more about about this topic in my Pluralsight course, Managing Technical Professionals. This course includes animated scenario-based training and you will watch as a management team uses leadership best practices to help you get your employees to perform at their highest potential. When you’re finished with this course, you’ll have the skills that you need to provide a positive and productive working environment as well as attract and retain top talent. Click the button below to get started with a free trial today!