The Great Resignation

What is the Great Resignation?

The Great Resignation is a trend we started seeing in 2021 where large numbers of employees have voluntarily left their jobs due to cost of living increases, wages remaining flat, companies forcing employees back into the office, and the decreased opportunity for career progression and advancement. 

Companies are looking for ways to retain their employees due to the cost, both monetarily and time, to hire and train new associates. 

Why Are People Quitting Their Jobs These Days?

Obviously, anyone can google “why people are quitting their jobs” and see the data. Quite frankly you probably have your own list that matches up close to this one from Statista. They polled over 13,000 employees across 4 different countries….

The top answers probably will not surprise you….

• Support for well being 
• Workplace flexibility
• Unreliable/unsupportive colleagues: This one has become stronger and more popular over the last few years during this timeframe. People aren’t showing up to work and most of the time aren’t being punished because of the difficulty of replacing them. When they do show up, they are “quiet quitting” – leading to many frustrations for employers.
• Unsustainable work expectations
• Uncaring/uninspiring leaders: We all know the number 1 reason people leave their jobs in the US – a Direct Supervisor that hasn’t changed while leaders are getting worse. We are letting the “available” become leaders/supervisors and they are not helping the situation. We also don’t have time to teach them how to be leaders, thus making the situation worse. 
• Inadequate compensation
• Lack of career development/advancement: Many of these factors have always been present even before “the Great Resignation”, mainly including the supervisor/leader issues, pay, and even career advancement. Let’s discuss some of the newer, less traditional factors:
• Flexibility: Flexibility isn’t new to the list, however what our culture is calling flexible and the amount of flexibility being asked for has changed significantly. Coming to work at all is becoming a thing of the past and when we do show up, it is definitely not 8-5 anymore.  Many companies are now struggling to compete with companies who can offer this flexibility. 
• Support for well-being: At the end of the day, support for well-being really ties to all the other top reasons like leadership, pay, and flexibility.  Employees are now counting all the ways that their company really doesn’t care about them (which could be true in some cases).
• Unsustainable asks while at work: Employees often have to “DO more with less”.  With customers to please, sometimes a short cut here or there is ok or even necessary.  In these situations, there is lots of pressure on management which gets passed down, causing employee frustration, which eventually results in turnover.

As seen above, there are many factors to employee retention, but it is key to understand what is specifically driving turnover for your company in order to build a specific plan to address the issues. Maslow’s’ Hierarchy of human needs still hasn’t changed at the top - people still want to be part of something and that something needs to be winning. 

The True Cost of Employee Turnover

Working with clients and partners across Europe, in differing sectors (across manufacturing, engineering, and even office / leadership) one situation is shared - that of the issues, waste, and losses that can be create by high turnover.

We often easily appreciate the cost of hiring and onboarding (current data indicates this is costing organizations close to $10k). The hidden cost of the negative impact to health & safety, quality, ongoing costs, and overall morale is not fully appreciated. 

This then creates a vicious circle of loss – excess turnover, increased costs, heightened pressure on tenured associates, and essentially a misaligned workplace, one that is then prone to costly mistakes and increased health & safety related issues.

How Can Businesses Avoid These Issues and Improve Employee Retention?

A step to improve this situation is to review and improve your internal processes. You may think ‘let’s improve our training process’, but this is not enough.  Challenge yourself and your organization to build a continuous skills development process – give your associates purpose, a career plan, and the ongoing opportunity to improve themselves personally & professionally. This investment will pay dividends for years to come.

We have learnt that building a continuous skills development process supported by leadership – to both grade roles and pay fairly, as well as giving a clear career path to your associates mitigates some of this short term (changing jobs) thinking. People don’t just change jobs for money, there are many factors around how they are valued, can they progress, what their career path is, as well as ensuring they are paid fairly and transparently for what they do being huge factors. Clear leadership vision, support & a strategy linked to a continuous skill development process for every associate has shown time and time again to lead to a positive impact on turnover & retention.

More Ways to Improve Employee Retention and Reduce Turnover Expenses

Looking for more ways to retain your employees and limit the losses that can come from high turnover?  Join Performance Solutions by Milliken’s team of experts to discuss ways that they have helped clients to improve employee retention and how Milliken keeps their 8,000+ associates happy at work.  Watch our webinar on the Great Resignation and get all of the valuable information our team has to offer.