What Companies Can Learn From The Great Resignation: Tips for Leaders, Managers and Team Builders
With recent layoffs dominating headlines, it’s easy to forget that team members voluntarily leaving their jobs continues to be a major source of turnover in the American workforce.
The Great Resignation may not have entirely taken us all by surprise, but few of us could have predicted the speed at which it accelerated throughout 2021 and well into 2022. The lack of public spaces and social events and move to a largely remote or hybrid workplace provided an unprecedented opportunity for self-reflection, and the ballooning costs of living in major U.S. cities pushed mid-career workers to move to new locations in record numbers.
Unsurprisingly, the younger generations are the biggest force pushing this movement forward. Considering that the Millennial generation (those born between 1980 - 1996) is the biggest generational block in the workforce, and Generation Z (those born between 1996 - 2010) are increasing their presence in the workforce every year, it will be in a company’s best interest to adapt to the needs that are currently being expressed in today’s climate in order to reduce turnover and encourage a team to grow together.
Read on for more ideas on how companies can find positive opportunities in the wake of the Great Resignation.
Your Team Members Want to Grow. Allow Space for This.
The unprecedented amount of time most workers have been able to spend on reflection in the past three years has led many people to feel frustrated by stagnation in their careers. American workers, and younger ones in particular, are an ambitious group, and leaders will be wise to harness that ambition rather than let it stagnate, inevitably pushing team members to seek upward mobility elsewhere.
This is where avoiding implicit bias, or the subconscious assumptions of a person’s abilities based on widespread stereotypes, is going to be absolutely critical. A growing body of research shows that workplaces are full of these biases: affinity bias will encourage you to only promote those who remind you of yourself; confirmation bias will keep you focused only on those who make you feel as though you are right about your opinions and/or decisions; and conformity bias may act as a form a peer pressure in which attention is only paid to those who “fit in” with a larger group.
Keeping an awareness of these biases (and many others) will help you to see the full scope of a person’s potential in the workplace.
A few ways to encourage this potential can include:
Promoting Internally
Promoting and training team members who already have a wealth of institutional knowledge at their disposal is one of the most direct ways to encourage longevity at a company and motivation for other team members to do their best work. When the example is set that hard work can lead to promotion, team members are more likely to feel inspired and supported in their roles, even if they have not yet benefited from it themselves - especially if they are regularly receiving positive praise in their efforts. Making it clear that hard work will be recognized and promotion is possible is uplifting, whereas keeping team members in one role for years while continuing to bring in outside talent can be demoralizing. Of course, any company is well within its rights to find the right fit for every role - and sometimes, internal promotions may not be the right decision. But doing so whenever possible will go a long way.
Mentor Trainings and Meetings
The workforce can be a competitive place, and it can be difficult for team members at just about any level to know what will help them move up in their careers. Mentorship has been a crucial component to the workplace for hundreds of years, so it’s somewhat surprising that so few professions continue to support formal mentor/apprentice roles. Offering mentorship can be very easy on the part of a company; something as small as a 30-minute meeting per month can make a team member feel supported and inspired to grow.
Professional development lunches or AMAs
A less formal approach to providing mentorship is to host events, such as company lunches or AMAs (Ask Me Anything) in which team members at any level can access higher-ups at the company to learn from them. It’s wise for management to recognize and nurture that interest, since greater institutional knowledge is only going to make a team more efficient, more likely to understand a company’s overall mission, and more likely to complete work that aligns with that mission.
Embrace a Healthy View of Work/Life Balance
While work/life balance is a common topic among workers, upper management should also be considering the benefits of healthy boundaries between working hours and time off. For one thing, team members who feel burned out at work are much less likely to be engaged at the office, which hurts a company’s productivity in both the short and the long term. Additionally, those with access to parental leave are far more likely to remain loyal to a company over time; and considering that Millennials and Gen Z, or those who are at the age ripe for new parenthood, are currently the largest demographic in the workforce, decision-makers would be wise to consider incorporating such benefits.
Better work is being done, better ideas are being generated, and better cultures of communication are created when everyone has the option of taking much-needed time off and logging off when they’re healing or otherwise unwell.
And while many companies are pushing for a full return to the office after three years of remote or hybrid environments, companies that offer flexibility to work from home are bound to see more applicants and lower turnover. A major factor in the desire for remote work is the harsh reality of increased costs of living, especially now that, on top of a global pandemic and a huge wave of layoffs, Americans are also contending with staggering rates of inflation. This has pushed many workers away from expensive areas to more affordable locations. Cost of living is a powerful force that’s difficult for companies to combat; by embracing remote work, you will communicate to your team that they are not expected to commute to an office in a city they can’t afford. Another huge advantage to offering remote options is the ability to source talent from all over the world, diversifying your team and creating a win/win situation for employers and team members alike.
Invest in Strong Managers
According to a Gallup poll, 50% of employees in the American workforce have left a job because of their manager and not because of the job itself. Yikes! That may sound like a discouraging statistic, but the good news is, it’s something that can be changed.
It might be easy to fall into a rut in middle management, but the truth is, managers’ communication skills need to continue to be nurtured in order to be successful in their roles, too - not just for the sake of future promotions, but for day-to-day efficiency when leading a team. Managers need to be able to lead by example when admitting to mistakes and demonstrating how to fix them, keep team members motivated in the midst of economic challenges, and be an important voice in the company’s mission.
Investing in the workplace communication skills of managers will involve a balance between encouraging the professional development of each as an individual and training multiple team members to work together for the sake of continued growth within the company. Customized team training sessions can help to identify specific strengths and weaknesses in a group setting, encourage bonding, and teach departments to build on each other rather than work in different silos.
At the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to trust. It may sound simple, but turnover will remain low and engagement will remain high if team members feel valued and heard by their managers.
About the Author
Jackie Miller launched Bespoken in 2015 to channel years of professional performance experience into techniques that improve public speaking, presenting, and professional communication skills. She holds a B.F.A. and M.A. both from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
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