Great Resignation – What Can Employers Do About It?

The Great Resignation is a term we have heard in the news, but what does it mean for employers? According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics,^[1] over 4.5 million people quit their jobs in November of 2021, which represented a continued trend from earlier months and indicated a seismic shift in the labor market, where young professionals are leaving companies in droves for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to better pay, improved culture, flexibility and options to work from home.

The most impacted group of people are young professionals aged 30 to 45 years old, who are in the middle of their careers, according to the Harvard Business Review.^[2] The resignation rate in this group jumped over 20% from 2020 to 2021.

What the Great Resignation Means for Employers

The Work Institute,^[3] an industry-leading workforce research firm, published a comprehensive study on employee retention and estimates that turnover costs about 33% of an employee’s annual salary. This is a high cost to employers and makes keeping your employees happy more critical than ever.

Employers will need to adapt to retain their best talent. This is your best chance to maintain smooth business operations, keep overall morale high and ensure that your team continues to perform at their best.

Lean into Remote Work

Employees are looking to balance their work with other aspects of their life. Their physical health, spiritual wellness, and personal relationships are key areas that help a person live a whole life. Balancing many aspects of wellbeing is key to living a fulfilling life, so embracing remote work aligns with the Full Life Framework, a framework that I’ve come up with to help people live life to the fullest.

Shifting away from commuting has given time back to workers and has benefited everyone significantly by allowing people to balance their work with other non-work activities and commitments. You can spend more time with your family and have more time to spend on hobbies, exercise, and other pursuits that bring you joy.

The reduction of commuting has also reduced the cost to the employee and given back some budget flexibility, without the expense of transportation, restaurant meals, and work clothing.

Physical comfort is another reason workers appreciate the opportunity to work from home. People have the chance to customize their workspace to meet their individual needs. They can control the temperature, set up of their desk, and physical surroundings. Generally, they will also select more comfortable clothing and aren’t constrained to the restrictive, uncomfortable formal outfits.

Also, people no longer drop by your desk for extended chats and non-productive activities. It becomes easier to focus without the humming background noise of an office environment.

Increased productivity and a better balance between work and personal life have positively impacted workers’ mental health and reduced stress levels. With this in mind, embracing remote work and doing it right is the best way forward.

How Can You Optimize Remote Work?

With remote work being the best way forward, we must ensure that it works for both employers and their workers. There are significant cultural and process changes that employers must navigate to succeed.

1. Ditch the Old Management Mindset

Leadership within a thriving remote environment must be done from the top down. Leaders must feel comfortable empowering their teams to get their work done without micromanaging. If we don’t manage our teams like this, we have the potential to cause them unnecessary stress. Avoiding micromanaging allows us to leverage our and our employee’s talents and expertise.

Delegate

Delegation is an essential trait of a good leader, as it allows the employee the opportunity to potentially stretch themselves, and giving them ownership over the work will improve their satisfaction with their work. If micromanagement was or is part of the culture, this is the most important and often the most challenging change in how a team operates.

Manage by Output

I’ve learned from Andrew S. Grove’s book High Output Management the importance of identifying vital and measurable output. Teams should be measured by their results instead of hours spent working. Encouraging a culture of productivity means focusing on creation over hours spent working on something. Said another way, workers are no longer rewarded for more extended hours but for meeting their objectives.

Embrace Asynchronous Work

Asynchronous work means not requiring all team members to be online simultaneously. At Lifehack, we embrace asynchronous work. All team members can work productively without waiting for others to complete a task. The key to asynchronous work is trusting your capable employees and allowing them to work autonomously.

2. Adjust Training Delivery

Training your employees in a remote environment is still essential Before today’s work from home, our workforce would navigate a new role or new responsibilities with limited guidance, and we could get away with little available training. Workers would absorb their jobs by working with various groups in the office.

In a remote environment, we no longer have this structure and must pay close attention to how we train our workers. We need to build out specific training objectives and be mindful to document training goals in a clear, easy-to-follow format.

Online courses have become more critical than ever as the preferred training delivery method to scale training well. Classes should be supplemented with robust materials, SOPs, guides, and FAQs. Different levels of available Learning Management Systems (LMS) available on the market today allow you to build, manage and deliver learning content. Some platforms host your learning content, whereas others will be robust enough to track and measure completion. Available budget and internal resources to manage these programs will drive what you choose for your organization.

An important note around learning content is that you must put a full review in place in a remote environment. Gone are the days where training is built but never used or allowed to go out of date. Training must be accessible, relevant, and up-to-date for success in a virtual environment.

Another excellent format for learning is Resource groups. These are typically employee-led and focused on some form of education, knowledge sharing, or social topics, like diversity and inclusion. These groups are a great way to encourage learning and social interaction.

3. Check in With Your Co-Workers

It’s also important to keep in touch with employees during remote work. Technology is the best way to do this, allowing everyone to stay connected via messaging apps and video calling platforms. Great teamwork can still happen in the virtual world, with so many collaboration tools to choose from. For example, Basecamp is our team’s go-to tool for project management and communication.

Encourage workers to spend time in the calendar connecting with other employees. It’s okay to meet occasionally to catch up with each other.

Keeping a watchful eye on employee productivity is essential as well. While the majority of workers have demonstrated a high level of productivity while working from home during the pandemic, you may still encounter exceptions to this rule. Some workers may struggle with keeping focused without the motivation of an in-person environment. Ensure your leaders continue to check in, provide the necessary support to these individuals and help them continue to transition to successful remote work if needed.

With some workers struggling with staying motivated, try to encourage them to practice good self-management. Having them establish a good routine will be vital in helping them manage their newfound flexibility.

4. Be Mindful of Employees’ Mental Health

The increased productivity we will see in a remote environment must not come at the expense of employee morale or workers’ mental health. We are working shifts remotely, how we interact with one another, as we lose the connection we would have in person.

We must be aware of this risk and implement steps to help manage it. Virtual social gatherings during work hours are a great way to help keep your employee’s spirits up. Be sure to schedule these during company operating hours, wherever possible, to show the importance of these types of events. A great way to facilitate these types of events is to combine learning and social activity, so they are fun but also productive.

5. Hire Talents from Around the World

In addition to the great benefits of embracing a remote work environment for your current organization, there are some additional benefits to consider for future team members. Building a remote work structure will allow you access to a broader pool of talent for roles across your organization. You will no longer be limited to the talent pool near your headquarters and can bring talented employees into the organization from around the globe.

Offering remote work will also become part of the overall benefits offered at your company and can stack up against companies that have not adapted to this new reality. Working from home has become an in-demand benefit for many talented workers.

Will the Great Resignation Continue?

The Great Resignation isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. It will continue if companies cannot adapt to the remote work environment and workers have more options with potential employers who are willing to make a change.

Some industries and company structures won’t be able to make the change as quickly as others and may experience more challenges adopting a remote work structure. Many companies may still try to use in-person ways of working in a remote environment and still struggles with things running smoothly. In some industries, technology barriers and the need to meet in person will exist.

With a shift in mindset and an adjusted outlook from your leaders, you too can navigate this new reality and thrive. It’s possible to make the future of flexible, output-driven work a win for both the employer and the employee.