The ‘Great Resignation’ is a Current Economic Term
With the World Economic Forum stating that 41% of employees worldwide plan to leave their jobs this year. Whilst exciting for many, it is of great concern to employers and HR. People planning to leave their jobs before the pandemic waited because of the uncertainty and instability of the COVID-19 situation. Many people are now resuming their job searches.
Others may be leaving as they’ve had time to reflect on their situation whether it be a change of career or simply feeling unhappy or unsupported in their current role. People have realised that ‘Life’s too short’ to stay in a job they don’t love.
Balancing Employee Retention and a Successful Business
Business leaders are finding themselves at a crossroads balancing employee retention and business results. This shouldn’t be considered as an ‘either’ ‘or’ situation – but rather an opportunity to build strategy for growth around employee engagement and investing in their development and learning.
To ensure the best people stay, businesses need to focus on developing evolving skills that will deliver results and enable business to stay competitive. Whatever the role of your people, whatever business and industry you are in, investing in your people will facilitate greater productivity, engagement and job satisfaction, which in turn will boost retention and support the strategy to increase revenue. Offering remote or hybrid working may help where staff are reluctant to return to the office.
An Increase in Demand for Career Development
Whilst a number of roles previously carried out by individuals have been automated during the pandemic, there is now greater emphasis on the ‘human side’ of business, especially leadership skills. We have seen recent emphasis and demand for virtual selling, customer service or presentation skills, but in the long-term the priority will be in Leadership development, incorporating motivating and developing teams, effective communication and driving the business forward through a focused strategy, but intrinsically linked with developing a sense of belonging to the business through their people.