Resigned Reflection
The global pandemic has made the entire workforce take stock and re-evaluate their values and purpose of work and life. People have developed a new sense of self-worth and world awareness and are seeking human and purpose-motivated employment. 2021 is referred to as the ‘Great Resignation’ and has seen millions of people globally voluntarily leave their jobs throughout the year, 4.5 million in the United States in November 2021 alone.
Salary betterment
According to Job List’s 2022 Job Market Trends Report up to 75 per cent of the full-time workforce are actively seeking new roles, particularly in industries such as telecommunications, technology, oil and gas. By resigning, they believe that they can make more money by switching jobs than staying in their current role.
Flexibility leads to contribution
Businesses have reached a time where they should reflect on creating an environment where their teams want to contribute as much as they can and go the extra mile rather than how much they can get out of their employees. This attitude to work is new, and there will be the need for trial, error, reflection, dialogue, adjustments and retrials. It’s time that companies create a hybrid culture that manages to embrace employee willingness whilst allowing them the flexibility to do so.
Out of crisis comes innovation
The world has experienced disruption for eternity, which means both change and opportunity. Humanity has had hurdles, steep learning curves, and periods of disaster throughout history and many successful businesses have been born from crisis. Over 100 years ago, iconic companies such as Hilton, Volvo and Disney started during the Great Depression, more recently, Airbnb and Uber were launched during the 2008 – 2009 financial crisis.
Today, the job market is seeing immense shifts in the nature and innovation of work. Platforms such as robotics, DNA sequencing, energy storage, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology are overturning or reshaping entire industries. The scale is moving exponentially from crises to a world with a sense of optimism and hopefulness. Reflection is very much a term used by candidates that are seeking new opportunities. The pandemic and enforced quarantine has given people time to think, reassess their goals and strive for what they truly want. These times of imposed ‘silence’ have allowed entire populations to reflect.
Have women been carrying the load?
Interestingly, during the pandemic, the female workforce has been maintaining the equilibrium by ensuring that they help their teams figure out boundaries between work and home. They were also more likely to provide the emotional support needed to decipher the new virtual model, yet only 25 per cent of women felt recognised for their contributions and awarded with a pay rise, in a performance review or with a promotion. To top this, almost a half of working women were experiencing burnout, which is higher than last year and a higher rate than men, which is concerning. All of the positivity in the pandemic is clearly showing as a backwards step where women are concerned. Is this just highlighting the lack of promotional opportunities available to women? Without first-stage promotion, women are not able to make sustainable progress which results in too few women to promote diverse senior leadership roles and their progress.
Remote and hybrid working, it’s here to stay
It's clear that remote work is how employers will navigate the work field into the future and that it needs to be monitored, not only for health reasons, but recognition. Promotional opportunities are becoming increasingly difficult if remote workers go unnoticed. Those who shout louder and frequent the office more often will be promoted first.
Almost all women and men want to have at least one day each week that is remote. Companies should realise that they need to imagine how this remote workplace will look. How are the inequalities tackled? How are balance, training, mentorship and performance reviews managed? 2021 saw hugely positive results in the corporate world and many of these successes are driven by women.
Take the pulse of your business
In order to understand how companies are failing women, employers and managers need to ask some basic questions to understand the challenges faced, the fresh inequities appearing, how employees are feeling about overall workflow, how they are feeling on a scale of one to 10. It’s important to start tracking this information over time. By making these changes and reevaluating how people feel, employers might see the reduced rate of employees leaving their company’s in droves.
As the old saying goes ‘actions speak louder than words’. Women are pressing pause to reflect on what they want and it’s inescapable that companies will have to decide if they want to wait out the storm or they want to put a halt to the great resignation and appreciate their employees, prevent burnout and increase inclusivity. One blatantly clear point at the moment is a vast gap between positive intent and action. If this is not recognised, these women and men will jump ship and move to the competition. Employers need to realise that people across the world are questioning as part of a gargantuan human story and are insisting on being treated fairly and differently.
More money is rarely the answer to retain talent
Already, employers are offering almost crude bonuses to encourage people to stay. In practice, this counter-offer is no more than a common plaster and the candidate will be back on the recruitment landscape in less than a year. It’s time for employers to be proactive with their teams and celebrate a good job done by gifting someone a gift card, a pamper spa day, an unexpected day off or a well-deserved promotion. It’s time to create a nurturing culture that engages in-person and remote workers in the same way. This effort will be beneficial in the long run by companies retaining their best employees, nurturing emerging talent and attracting talented new hires.
