According to the Department of Labor, 4 million Americans resigned in April 2021. The Great Resignation is real, and if your organization hasn’t felt it yet, it soon will. The pandemic seems to have helped crystalize what’s important for people, and it’s not money. So, before reaching into company coffers for a short-term solution, step into the shoes of your employees.
Nobody Wants to Commute Anymore
Some people claim to miss the buzz of airports and the excitement of touching down in a foreign city. But nobody is longing for hours idling in morning traffic or crammed in stuffy public transport. Millennials and Gen Z have always bucked against the “big commute.” Where older generations seldom questioned the requirement to be physically present at the office, for these “digital natives,” the demand appeared unreasonable from the outset. They are the generations that grew up with the world accessible from their bedrooms.
Now older working generations have the first-hand experience of how much can be achieved when working remotely. Additionally, the pandemic has brought home how tenuous life can be and made us all more appreciative of the time spent with our loved ones. As life slowly returns to normal, management can easily push for a return to the old status quo and insist employees return to the office. However, by stepping into your employees’ shoes, you will understand that a conversation on the matter is about more than office hours.
Demanding an employee come into the office to perform work both of you know can be undertaken remotely is really a conversation about trust and respect. The employee may not voice it, but what they hear is that their boss doesn’t trust them to do their work unsupervised and that they are so inconsequential to the organization that they should unquestioningly give up their personal time to retain their employment.
Relationships that aren’t built on a foundation of trust and respect are doomed to fail. CEOs wishing to retain valuable employees need to address the matter of office attendance with empathy. Possible solutions include hybrid arrangements that require employees to come in one or two days a week, reframing performance measures to fit remote working procedures, and establishing satellite offices in suburban areas close to where employees live.
Flexible Hours Will Broaden the Talent Pool
Several studies now confirm women were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. One reason for this is that women are more highly represented in the service industries, which were hardest hit by shutdowns. But even professional women were forced to leave their employment to take up carer roles within the family. Societal and cultural pressures still place an undue burden on women to care for young children and elderly relatives.
Even temporary absences from the workplace can severely impact a woman’s progression up the corporate ladder. Their earnings are thus impacted way beyond their period of absence, as are their retirement savings. Therefore, CEOs wishing to attract and retain a diverse workforce should acknowledge the pressures on female staff and try to accommodate them. For example, flexible hours that allow those in carer positions to fulfill familial duties while retaining their employment will secure a broader talent pool.
Be a Good Company to Come From
As counter-intuitive as it seems, in their article “Worried About the Great Resignation? Be a Good Company to Come From,” Sandra J. Sucher and Shalene Gupta make a good case for making your company an excellent company to leave. They suggest employers shouldn’t focus on increases and perks but instead on developing their staff and building a culture of innovation, learning, and recognition.
Employees who feel trapped in dead-end jobs will take advantage of the opportunities offered by the post-pandemic shake-up. But if they feel staying will put them in a better position to leave down the line, they will likely delay their decision. Moreover, according to Sucher and Gupta, allowing employees to pursue “passion projects” will be an additional incentive to stay.
The authors base their article on the experiences of Japanese company Recruit Holdings. In the 1980s, the company was party to a scandal that had many predicting it wouldn’t survive six months. Unable to offer employees the traditional Japanese “job for life,” management focused on measures that would put employees in a good place to leave. They even developed “happy exit” strategies with retirement bonuses that allowed exiting employees to start small businesses in some cases. Today, Recruit is a $20 billion organization employing 50,000 people globally.
At times like these, wise CEOs would do well to recall the saying, “The wind does not break a tree that bends.” Adaptability and flexibility were paramount in seeing organizations through the first year of the pandemic, but they are skills that will be required on an ongoing basis as we head into the “new normal.”