The Great Resignation: Why Good Employees Are Quitting Their Jobs
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States saw unprecedented numbers of employees leaving their jobs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracked the highest rates of turnover in 30 years in 2021 and the trend is continuing in 2022. While there was a reduction in resignations in 2020 when workers feared for job security immediately after the pandemic hit, the numbers quickly reversed once companies started recovering from economic losses due to COVID-19.
What happened during the pandemic is that it shined a light on companies who were already struggling with workplace climate and ineffective leadership, and escalated those issues to the point where workers began fearing not just for their mental and emotional health, but their physical health as well. COVID-19 and a global pandemic was new territory for everyone, but some companies handled the response better than others. Those that missed the mark are now struggling to keep employees, and replace those that have been lost - contributing to what will be remembered in history as "The Great Resignation".
Many people have been citing economic reasons as a factor in the sky-high rates of turnover - blaming the high unemployment payouts as a reason for why "people don't want to work anymore". However the data shows that this is in fact false, money is rarely listed as a reason why people are quitting their jobs. Employees leave jobs for a wide array of factors and can include both professional and personal reasons, but the overwhelming majority can be boiled down to one (or many!) of the following causes:
1. No connection to the company's purpose or mission
We have to work for a living, that's just a fact. But as millennials now make up the majority of the work force - 75% by 2025 (Rice) - how we view work is changing. Rather than spending your life working at a job you hate so you can pay the bills, employees now want to feel a connection to their job. Something that fuels them and drives them outside of just earning a paycheck. The ends no longer justify the means, HOW we earn money is just as important (if not more important) than what we earn.
2. Poor leadership or no community in the workplace
Humans by nature are social creatures, developing community is a skill and practice that has kept us alive for centuries. And while it's true that generally we no longer need community for our physical safety, not having it can take a serious toll on our mental and emotional well-being. When employees feel connected to their colleagues and like they are part of a community, they tend to be happier at work and stay in those positions longer. One of the biggest contributors to a healthy workplace community is the effectiveness of leadership. Poor leadership or having bad experiences with supervisors is the number one reason why employees are quitting their jobs, with 50% citing leadership as a cause for their resignation and 67% saying they felt their manager lacked the right training to lead effectively (Schwantes). This was especially highlighted during the pandemic, companies that didn't organize and respond effectively from the top down are now facing the consequences of ineffective leadership.
3. No investment in training or development
Oftentimes employees take on new professional opportunities for a variety of reasons, one of which is that they want to learn a new skill or grow in a different area. 80% of workers say that a company culture that values personal growth is highly important (Overfelt). The majority of us want to feel we are working towards something in our careers. Whether that's a promotion, or just continuously developing a professional skill set - when people stagnate in their work scopes they start looking for other options. Companies that value and encourage growth and innovation and offer training opportunities to their teams see higher rates of retention.
4. Toxic work culture
We spend a third of our lives at work. Over 30% of our time, energy and motivation is spent in our jobs - and that's a very low estimate. Most of us work well over 8 hours in a day, especially when you take into account the time we spend checking emails, answering calls/texts, or discussing work in our free time. In our modern world where everyone has access to us, the boundaries between our personal and professional life are getting more and more convoluted. Because of this, workers are burning out at alarming rates - leading to high company turnover. Combining lack of boundaries with poor relationships at work, communication issues, ineffective leadership, lack of trust or whatever the other negative attributes the company culture may have, creates an environment that is toxic to employees mental, emotional and physical well-being. Companies should be responsible to conduct regular assessments on their workplace cultures to ensure they are meeting their team's needs and that the environment is safe and respectful for everyone who works there.
Organizational leaders can take active steps towards overcoming the impacts of The Great Resignation, starting with assessing where you are at organizationally with the factors listed above. Ensuring that you are making positive changes in these areas will encourage those still employed with you to stay, and entice job seekers to accept open positions. Figuring out what you are doing well, and what you need to work on is the first step - and those answers lie with the people you employ.
The pandemic forced us to end an exhausting full steam ahead hustle culture that has been present in our society for the last few decades. With the majority of U.S. cities instituting some form of sheltering in place or quarantine, so many people began to question what they really value in life. As we all went through a collective trauma we realized that our time and energy is a precious commodity, and now more than ever we need to make sure we're spending them the right way. As we all continue to identify what we value the most, companies and organizations should also be doing the same. If that list doesn't include the well-being of employees, companies will continue to fall victim to The Great Resignation.
Sources:
Rice, David. “Generations in the Workplace Statistics Show the Impact of Pandemic by Age” HR Exchange Network. January 28th, 2021. https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/employee-engagement/articles/generations-in-the-workplace#:~:text=By%202025%2C%20Millennials%20Will%20Make,employee%20experience%20in%20recent%20years.
Overfelt, Maggie. “The New Generation of Employees Would Take Less Pay for These Job Perks” CNBC. May 31st, 2017. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/30/job-perks-prodding-millennials-to-work-for-less.html
Schwantes, Marcel. “Why Are Workers Really Quitting? You Can Boil It Down to 1 Simple Reason” Inc. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/why-are-workers-really-quitting-you-can-boil-it-down-to-1-simple-reason.html
