Employee Retention In The Era Of The “Great Resignation”
The Great Resignation is the surprise outcome of the pandemic, and actually in existence globally. A recent survey from Indeed found that more than half of the global workers experienced burnout, and more than two-thirds stated that it only got worse through the pandemic. Further accompanied with job insecurity, lack of appreciation, remote work preference, poor response to Covid-19 and exacerbated mental health issues led to a stark number of people wanting to explore better pay and work conditions.
Although the Great Resignation has impacted organizations across the globe, India is not left behind from bearing the brunt. Infact, a latest report by professional recruitment services firm Michael Page highlights that nearly 86% of India’s professionals will continue to seek new jobs in the next six months, as the Great Resignation will intensify in 2022. It’s not just the demands for higher pay packages making employees explore other opportunities, instead they are re-evaluating values, interests, and career options, in the aftermath of the pandemic, particularly in the IT and knowledge industries, where remote work is highly plausible.
This has been an interesting trigger for the overwhelming demand of IT professionals, pushing companies to outbid each other in the hunt for the exclusive talent! With tech start-ups emerging in India at a shocking pace, employees have a lot of choice when it comes to new job opportunities. A lot of IT professionals are insisting on work from home or hybrid work spaces. Another notable intent is how today’s talent pool is interested in better prospects and are focused to work on the latest technologies. Surprisingly, when organizations miss out on conducting exit interviews, there is an eminent gap to understand the reasons for this attrition.
Despite the talent war raging throughout the industry, it’s important for leaders and human resource professionals to not hit the panic button. It is a great opportunity to deep-dive into data insights and analytics, to quantify the core workforce problem. This can be highly beneficial in creating a retention strategy to proactively build solutions for the same. Effective employee retention strategies can boost employee morale, improve communication and engagement, and spread a sense of support throughout the organization. Retention strategies include actions to keep employees motivated and focused, so that they can remain engaged to deliver the organizational end-goals.
It’s interesting how this phenomenon has engulfed the entire Corporate Universe! And thus, the need for one and all to evaluate few interventions to manage this change.
Recognition and Value
Appreciation and gratitude goes a long way and employees want to feel that they matter to the organisation. There are various ways in which organisations can make employees feel valued. Simple actions like acknowledgment of their milestones, providing constructive feedback, celebrating small & big wins and giving employees an opportunity (or a platform) to express. Employees simply want to influence decisions that create meaningful impact for their organization. Enable this and visualize the value created.
Training and development
Companies that continuously upskill their employees and focus on their growth and development, are definitely ideal places employees would like to be at. This is a symbiotic relation as both the organisation and the employee benefit from learning and development programs. Investing in your employees’ professional development will help advance their professional development and build leadership skills.
Motivation in work culture
A transparent and clear internal communication strategy with leaders can be highly motivating for an employee. It helps keep the work environment fun while also making employees feel comfortable in reaching out to the leadership teams. It is no surprise that organizations who prioritize employee retention efforts, have highly engaged employees. A well-established and well-executed employee retention strategy is key and acts as a competitive advantage. A company’s ability to retain its talent, especially in markets with limited recruitment, has major implications for its ability to perform at a high level without the interruptions that employee turnover entails.
Each decade, rather each year, brings alive incredulous modifications across the entire talent pool behaviour. And this should be viewed as the perfect canvas to learn and implement better for an innovative change!
(The article has been curated by Ayush Sinha, VP-HR, SugarBox Networks for BW People publication)
