Employee Retention Is A Myth!
Nearly 20 per cent of Canadians would consider quitting their jobs instead of returning to office, says CTV News.
According to a recent poll, 19 per cent of people would quit or look for a new job right away if required to return to the office, 25 per cent would go back to the office but would start looking for a new position, and 39 per cent would "roll with it" and return to the office. The pandemic has continued to jolt workers’ mind-set about their jobs and their lives.?The phenomenon is being driven in part by workers who are less willing to endure inconvenient hours and poor compensation, who are quitting instead to find better opportunities.?Normally, churn in the labor market reflects workers feeling more confident in the economy, willing to risk the security of their current job for a new opportunity. But the scale of these new changes — and the larger economic transitions they signal — has added an element of unpredictability. Workers and employers are reassessing their approaches amid a continually evolving public health threat.
Jennifer Booth quit her information technology job at a national retailer in August, after months of working as many as 90 hours a week during the pandemic to help the company revamp its e-commerce system. The final straw came when the chain began moving hundreds of finance and tech jobs overseas, she said in an interview with The Washington Post.?“To be working as much as humanly possible for all of 2020 and then get told we don't matter? It felt like crap,” said Booth, 48, of Denver.
She began looking for a new job in January and briefly considered moving to Hawaii.?By July, she had found a new position with comparable pay at an insurance company. Two months in, she said she feels appreciated: The workplace is more collaborative and there are opportunities to move up. “I feel so doggone lucky to have found something better,” she said. “I lived through hell for 18 months until I finally realized I don’t have to do that anymore. There are brighter pastures.”
CEO of Uyir Engineering Inc. says, "If you don't make people feel like they are working towards something that not only elevates them but also their community as a whole, if your firm's WHY is not strong enough, if you still have not opted the Open Book Management practice, then you are bound to become irrelevant in these times. Micromanaging your employees demonstrates lack of trust, and if you don't trust them, why should your employees trust you??
Employee retention is a myth, as parents you can barely "retain" your own children, why would you think you can retain an employee?! The best a firm can do is coach and train people, teach them the skills they need to better themselves and provide them a healthy and trusting work environment to learn, feel safe enough to make mistakes, feel valued enough to collaborate with everyone, and grow as humble yet phenomenal human-beings. Even after which, they should feel comfortable leaving with no sense of guilt, and when they do, you can know and believe that they will carry these values with them, and create a better community wherever they end up."
About the Author:
Ayshwarya S. is a Business Development Consultant at Uyir Engineering Inc., looking to understand the intricacies of making a multi-generational workforce stay engaged and establish strong inclusive routes for the firm from the start.