Businesses are facing the biggest talent crisis since the 2000 and the 2008 recession. But this time, things are different. Talents are no longer competing for jobs; companies are competing for people.

Microsoft found that as well as 54% of Generation Z workers, 41% of the entire global workforce could be considering handing in their resignation.

Similarly, a UK and Ireland survey found that 38% of employees were planning to leave their jobs in the next six months to a year, while a US survey reported that 42% of employees would quit if their company didn’t offer remote working options long term.

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What free trade did to blue collar jobs, remote work will do to white collar jobs. - Naval Ravikant

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Surprisingly 4 million Americans quit their jobs just in July 2021. It was shocking to me that despite more than 10.9 million job vacancies the new resignation has happened in April and it has remained in an abnormal manner till to date.

While the highest number of quilting jobs is still the June 2000 when 892,000 workers in food and accommodations quit in the month, 721,000 employees in retails, and thousands of employees in governmental organizations resigned. It is controversial why employees showed a tendency to quit their job?

Why does the world experience the new resignation?

LinkedIn published an article followed by the result of a survey that 74% agree with an important reason for the great resignation. The findings disclosed that because of the Covid-19 pandemic:

• Employees between the age of 30 to 43 have tended to work remotely with flexible time at home. The rate of resignation encountered 20% growth between 2020 and 2021.
• 25-30 years workers are not sure about their financial status in the future.
• Employees who are in 7 or 8 decades of their lives witnessed a reduction in the number of resignations because they were in the retired group who did not feel concerned about financial status or education condition.

It highlighted seven major trends, which show the world of work has been profoundly reshaped by the pandemic:

• Flexible work is here to stay
• Leaders are out of touch with employees and need a wake-up call
• High productivity is masking an exhausted workforce
• Gen Z is at risk and will need to be re-energized
• Shrinking networks are endangering innovation
• Authenticity will spur productivity and wellbeing
• Talent is everywhere in a hybrid world

Possible challenges for the great resignation

It is accepted that different reasons encourage employees to work at home. Despite the advantages of the great resignation for this group of employees, some issues are undeniable:

• Firstly, It is not possible for employees with insufficient experience to use in-person training and guidance. Thus, these employees would be riskier than usual.
• Mid-level employees may have delayed transitioning out of their roles due to the uncertainty related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• A heavy- workload is another reason that employees experience during remote work at home.

Harvard Business Review revealed that the rate of resignation in industries and organizations is different. For instance, just 3.6% of healthcare workers quit their jobs. On the other hand, 4.5% of employees of tech companies resigned from their job. It is interesting to know that the great resignation has been witnessed in the fields that had extreme increases in demand during the Covid-19 pandemic.

How data-driven approach can be helpful?

HR experts in a few high-growth tech startup argued that a data-driven approach can help managers to manage this phenomenon during the Covid-19 pandemic and after this period. There are some beneficial solutions to improve employees retention.

Quantify your issue

Quantify the scope of the problem in your company and their impacts on increasing the rate of resignation. Following the formula can benefit you in this step to find out the turnover rate.

Number of Separations per Year/Quarter ÷ Average Total Number of Employees = Turnover Rate

Checking your turn over ratio QoQ can help you understand the impacts of the great resignation on the workforce turnover rate and the efficiency of the retention plans.

Working with enough information about what appeared to be a subtle increase in turnover because the nationwide driver shortage was the main reason for costing you millions of dollars in recruitment and training new employees. I believe that quantifying the issue can help both leaders to manage internal purchases and informed decisions around the most effective kinds of retention interventions.

Identify the root causes

According to Harvard Business Review factors such as compensation, the time between promotions, size of pay increases, tenure, performance, and training opportunities help managers to identify root causes of retention problems. So, you can find out two kinds of data

• The employees who have the highest risk
• The employees who can likely be retained with targeted interventions

For instance, remote senior staffs were reportedly much more likely to resign than seniors who know ins and outs of the company and those receiving in-person support.

Develop appropriate programs

Now, it is the time of creating highly customized programs as solutions to retain the talents within the company. Providing better individualized perks , enhancing DEI approach (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), open communications with leaders and employees and change agents can be suitable practical solutions to tackle some problems associated with employees turnover ratio.

The great resignation and open positions

Despite the great resignation, the number of opening positions are drastically raising. 25,400 new IT positions were created in August in the US, while constant resignation was taking place in this field. Some reasons stood at top of the list:

• 53% of workers left their jobs for better compensation
• 42%of employees try to gain work-life balance
• 36% of workers made a concerted effort for better benefits
• 71% of tech workers tended to quit their jobs for better compensation

However, stress and anxiety are among major factors in leaving jobs.

Conclusion

The great resignation has happened after 2 decades from last great resignation and the covid-19 pandemic has been the trigger to change the whole workplace and the way we work. Companies designed WFH plans and continuously are trying to improve the work structure by increasing the flexibility. Employers are offering more opportunities for their talents including rotations, perks, raises, relocation, WFH and equal pays, but shifts in benefits and working structures won’t be enough to keep people who want a major change.