The Great Resignation: Why is this happening?

A new economic trend in which employees are leaving their jobs in drowns is what is referred to as The Great Resignation. This new awakening started in the U.S in the early 2021 because the necessary work conditions and protections advocated for were not realized during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its effects have opened up a re-thinking mindset among most employees on their careers, employees know desire flexible and remote work conditions and rising pay.

Industries which require face-to-face interactions are feeling this impact the most. Covid-19 stimulus packages and rising unemployment benefits allow low wage earners to stay home.

The effects resulted in employee dissatisfaction and rising cost of living amongst others.

According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly four and a half million Americans quit their jobs. If this seems trivial, be reminded that it has economic and social impact on business and policies. A reduction in tax revenues both direct and indirect from the incomes of these workers, generally industrial production targets to meet demand will fall thereby affecting an economy’s Gross domestic output.

Clearly, employers no longer hold the power. Instead of shying away from this new dynamic, I believe that bosses should embrace this change and meet their employees where they are

Harvard Business Review reports that researchers studied during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, a significant realization was that the lock-down helped people focus on tasks that really matter hence become more productive.

Let’s Uncover the effects, thus good and ugly of the great resignation.

Reasons why this is happening

Almost all the reasons that we can cite for this trend can be as a result of an awakening or awareness from employees regarding their work and the conditions therein.

1. Demographic changes

The most profound reason why this is happening is a fast change in demographics by millennials and gen z in response to Covid-19 economic policies and its effects.

Millennials and generation Z are those born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s, these group of individuals have demands and views of how they can work and be productive in this technological era is very rife, virtual realty and augmented realty as well as existing video conferencing and email solutions are all at their disposal for use.

2. Lack of appreciation

Being unappreciated or undervalued is one cause of this great resignation. A study, from Office Team looked to uncover the power of appreciation and found that 66% of the employees would quit if they didn’t feel appreciated.

The lack of appreciation is deep rooted in humans from the study of Abraham Maslow's needs and employees will look for new opportunities should they not feel unappreciated by their colleagues or leaders.

3. Low pay

Paying employees only the fair minimum without benchmarking against industry standards, could prove prudent on paper, However, in the long-run might cost an employer a rising talent or business opportunities. A competitive pay relative to skill, training and expertise enables an employee to take care of his demands be it from family or others, needs and individuals’ preference are not stagnant, and Pay rewards should be structured as such. and it is one of the key motivations to being attracted to. If your employee feels like they’re not being paid well for the work, and they can find better pay for the same job elsewhere, they’re going to pursue that higher-paid opportunity

4. No work-life balance

Work life balance is no new concept, it is important before and more now within an employer-employee relationship. Work-life balance means recognizing the fact that employees have lives outside the work environment and making policies and decisions to take cognizance of this fact.

Employees are more likely to be productive, focused and enthusiastic when they know their company encourages them to have a healthy work life balance.

In a study done by Kronos and Future in 2017, it found that burnout was seriously undermining workforce retention; and about (95%) of the HR leaders they quizzed reported that burnout was negatively affecting turnover

5. Poor leadership

Just as important it is for employees to have the right managers, having good leadership is of much importance especially among business units within a company. Employees can feel dissatisfied with their jobs once in a while, if they persistently feel leadership is poor or ineffective in managing, it can greatly affect their willingness to commit their future to the job. Employees want to have faith in their leaders and see that they’re also working to grow the company and foster a conducive work relationship.

A survey done by Gallup, a global analytics firm, it found out that leaving a bad manager was the number one reason why workers quit, with 75% of those who left voluntarily doing so because of their boss and not the job itself.

6. No growth opportunities

All businesses from small to large need opportunity to grow. Most employees, coming to the realization that company does not support their career growth, they take a decision to quit and seek that growth in another organization. Most of these employees do the same job for years without any opportunity for growth and change.

7. Lack of respect or trust

It may seem like a simple thing, but one reason why good employees quit is that they don’t feel like they’re respected or trusted at work. This can be from their supervisors or co-workers these negative feelings went built, eventually cause them to decide to leave. This lack of trust may be perceived in many ways — it could be the way that they’re spoken to most of the times, the kind of work they receive or the way their managers oversee their work in relation to others.

Conclusion

with the pandemic undoubtedly changing the approach to work? And work place flexibility becoming the ‘new gold’, Many businesses will have to evolve and get hooked to this new trend in order to survive. While some leaders may feel uneasy, squint and deliberate, the top-performing companies of the future are taking giant steps to accommodate this new trend.

Solution: not only Human resource leaders, but also managers should take into practice healthy employee work relationships as well as provide systems for reporting employee issues without fear of victimization

Statements for businesses to ponder over?

• Are employees needed physically to reap the full benefit of their productivity?
• Does an employee’s productivity fall when working remotely?
• Am I will to change my policies to accommodate this new wave,
• OR I am willing to lose employees due to remote work policies?