Since 2020, businesses have been in a highly volatile environment. While it started with companies laying off employees, and salary deferments, it ended with employees resigning voluntarily in volumes. That’s when the term ‘The Great Resignation’ was coined. However, it isn’t a new concept. In hindsight, it happened because employees had moments of realizations and reflections while employers didn’t. Instead, they were too focused on trying to hit their business goals until all the ignorance to ‘people goals’ reached an inflection point.
Only if the time lost in lamenting over the losses or expected losses was used in keeping people and really reflecting on the changes people were going through, they might have acknowledged the truth and responded appropriately. Better late than never. The key here is to treat (and, of course, pay) your employees so well that they don’t wish to leave.
In this blog, let's find out how such scenarios can be reversed and prevented in the future as we cover-
What is meant by great resignation?
As the word suggests, the great resignation describes the unusual spike in the resignation cases. It began around the spring season in 2021 and continued till the fall time. This was the time when job openings increased, and unemployment decreased.
It is somewhere around that time that University professor Anthony Klotz.
What caused great resignation in 2021?
The great resignation happened primarily because of the following-
- One of the common causes of the high attrition rate was the increase in demand for employees in the IT industry due to rapid growth in the pandemic
- Working professionals started to gain clarity as to what they wanted from their personal and professional lives
- As they gained clarity, the openings were not as much in 2020; they waited until the demand increased in 2021
- Mistreatment and ignorance of their well-being from the current company further pushed employees to leave
Why is it important to control/ fix great resignation?
By now, we are aware of how great resignation is one of the significant outcomes of turning a blind eye to employee demands and needs. But why did it become such a pressing issue for companies? Here are some reasons-
How can HR software be used to stop the great resignation?
Companies must ingrain the following as an integral part of their HR strategy to stop the recurrence of’ The Great Resignation. As Gartner rightly highlights—Employees are now more aware than ever. They seek personal value and a sense of purpose at work. Using tech to optimize the efforts comes unsaid. Below we mention some of the focus areas with respect to change in perspective.
From company wellness to employee wellness-
Businesses need to reboot their strategy, and leadership needs to work and rework the wellness quotient of employees. The discussion should focus on how and what we have and will do to ensure employee wellness in 2022 and beyond.
On the contrary, especially when the pandemic hit, the employees were cornered. They feared losing their job and decided not to rely on just it as a repercussion.
To regain their trust, plans should be discussed, implemented, and measured results. Begin by appointing a free therapist, mental health workshop, and such. The genuine efforts never go unnoticed and are unappreciated. As a result, employees would feel valued and become more loyal.
HROne Feature Highlight: HR Posts, HR announcements, Badges
From giving feedback to receiving feedback-
Employees, especially at the executive level, are mostly told what they must do and barely asked. Flip the traditional way, and see the change. Who can better tell the problem than the one going through it? Ask the employees for feedback and stop assuming and then second-guessing why your measures didn’t work.
Begin by encouraging employees to participate and share their feedback anonymously with you. It can be something as simple as asking for their feedback on their manager, colleagues, company, culture, or anything related to flexibility. For instance, ask the pain areas, make an extensive objective and subjective questions survey related to the most voted pain area first and then tap on others.
HROne Feature Highlight: Pulse surveys as pop-ups or detailed surveys in Inbox
From assigning tasks to making learning a part of work-
Indeed, a good paycheck alone cannot make employees love your company so much that they would not wish to leave. So, as mentioned earlier, upon reflecting, most employees now seek the personal value you offer and their purpose at work. For both, continuous learning and listening can be of great help.
Again, the manager can ask before setting goals which upskilling course the employee would like to incorporate in their goal for the quarter. They can also suggest some. Then, pay for the courses or get a package for any online learning platform that can work for all departments or teams.
HROne Feature Highlight: OKR, Initiatives, and Rewards
Form exit interview to stay interviews-
Exit interviews have always been a thing where the companies ask the employees their reasons to exit. Just changing the way you propose it to the employee who has resigned can change things in your favor.
Instead of conducting exit interviews, call them to stay interviews, and before you accept the resignation, ask the employee what you can improve to make them stay. Show them their value. This is your last chance to correct the mistakes you committed unintentionally. Is it about remuneration? Is it about flexibility? Is it about the manager? Is it about the position? Try to workaround things and make them an irresistible offer.
HROne Feature Highlight: Exit/ Stay Interview Workflow
The Way Ahead
In the past two years, the world of work has undergone some profound transformation. While the path ahead is still a blur, companies have started ‘revenge hiring’ in response to ‘The Great Resignation’ now. In addition, the companies are aggressively recruiting students from B schools and others in general. But, it’s time we remember how crucial treating employees well would be not to let the uninvited historical event happen again!