Overcoming the ‘Great Resignation’
Overcoming the ‘Great Resignation’
If the pandemic can teach us anything it is that employees want to feel valued by their organisations and its leadership. They crave meaningful interactions, not just transactions. Investing in creating a new kind of leadership that understands the motivations behind the widely reported ‘great resignation’ may be key to businesses mitigating high levels of churn and winning the war for talent.
Distanced physically from offices and colleagues, engagement and purpose have become major factors in employee loyalty. As the survival uncertainty for organisations slowly dissipates, creating an engaged workforce with stronger bonds into to the corporate value system becomes increasingly necessary to avoid star performers exploring new avenues.
Research by McKinsey[1] shows that:
40 per cent of employees said they are at least somewhat likely to quit in the next three to six months.
18 per cent of the respondents said their intentions range from likely to almost certain.
These findings held across all five countries surveyed: Australia, Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States.
6 things to combat the great resignation
Failing to understand what employees are running from and why could easily turn into an existential crisis if retention is poor. Make sure to capture the reasons amongst people leaving your organisation during for instance your offboarding process.
Similarly, differentiating your business from the competition, using USPs that really speak to the talent pool is vital in terms of attraction. Define these in a clear way, communicate them internally and align within your organisation.
Leaders will have to develop a deeper empathy for what employees are going through and to pair that empathy with the intention to act and change. Make sure your leaders have the right support to enable this deeper empathy and understand their role in helping to drive change in your people agenda.
Leaders will also have to provide the flexibility, connectivity, and sense of purpose that their employees are looking for. They will need a much stronger people focus to stay attuned and able to meet individual needs.
Leadership will also need the skills to communicate shared values and goals more effectively, creating a culture of engagement.
Inspirational individuals with the power to motivate and lead with genuine compassion will be the new gold standard in leadership. Consider doing an audit of your leadership in your management team for instance, to help identify areas of strength and weaknesses were you can more proactively help steer your organisation in the right direction.
Investing in people makes good business sense
There has arguably never been a better or more necessary time to invest fully in the workforce at a personal level. Training and capability building through leadership development is definitely a wise investment at this time - in fact, personal development programmes for everyone from the C-Suite through to the front line creates jobs with stronger and more compelling career trajectories.
Only through upskilling leaders to improve their ability to unleash their own and their reports’ potential can businesses hope to create the necessary changes to halt the ‘great resignation’ in its tracks.
References
[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/great-attrition-or-great-attraction-the-choice-is-yours
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