Everyone Is Shuffling!

Benchmark Search has been keeping on top of thought leadership regarding the great reshuffle debate that has dominated the recruitment discourse over the last year.

There is, seemingly, no end to the disruption to workplaces caused by COVID-19 - as the disease itself abates, the long-lasting effects of the pandemic on workers and businesses continues to be felt.

This is plainly understood in the discussions around the great resignation or, as we like to term it, the great reshuffle.

• “Nearly 40 million workers resigned from their positions during 2021 as part of "The Great Resignation” and “In November last year in the US, the number of people leaving their jobs reached a record high of 4.53 million”.

The question still stands - why?

Why are people leaving? Where are they going?

The pandemic gave people an opportunity to slow their lives down. There was a newfound sense of work/life balance, and we believe the vast majority of people left their jobs due to two reasons - a novel form of pandemic induced burnout, and a complete lack of organizational adjustment to handle the rising levels of stress, disruption, and decentralization.

The facts bare witness:

• According to Gallup’s chief research scientist Jim Harter, “Two-thirds of the reasons people actually left jobs in 2021 were due to issues related to their engagement and their overall well-being”.
• “42% of the reasons people are quitting are tied to how they feel about their bosses and organizational cultures”.

What do employees want in the era of the Great Reshuffle?

A significant pay raise: improved pay, on its own and without addressing holistic issues with legacy management, will not keep your staff in place. But improved compensation as part of a package of work culture improvements is tied exclusively to a sense of value in work, and paying your teams more is a clear indicator you want to invest in them in the long run.

Flexible schedule (hybrid or fully remote): seeing as many millions of employees want to work from home a few days a week, you cannot ignore the hybrid shift. Employers offering hybrid or remote employment receive 7X candidate interest. How best will hybrid work setups meet the needs of your team and your service users?

Work/life balance: the great resignation was a clarion call to employers to refocus their efforts, their performance management, and their futures on giving employees better work/life balance. If you cannot commit to personalized offerings of remote or hybrid work, focus on giving flexibility in work hours or PTO.

A strong workplace culture that has more of a personalized approach vs. “One size fits all”: hyper-personalization of working culture doesn’t mean you need to upend years of working behaviors. It simply means managers need to target their feedback and performance management systems to help each employee grow and learn while at work.

Greater focus on mental health support to prevent burnout: show your teams you mean to help them navigate our new normal. If there has been one overriding rule of recruitment over the last 2 years it’s been lead with empathy. Listen to your teams. Take the time to understand their unique story, and offer them the sort of workplace that builds them up, rather than erodes their self-esteem.

What do employers want in the era of the Great Reshuffle?

Companies and leaders are learning that the “one size fits all” style of catchall management is dead in the water. Due to a tight labor market, employees understand they have leverage. As such, employers are sweetening recruitment offerings, focusing on retention strategies, and doing everything in their power to make their working environment more attractive.

However, in our view, there is no cultural consensus on the flexibility of employment, which we feel is hamstringing the overall agility of recruitment practice.

• In our experience, smaller companies seem to be less adaptive to change, whereas larger companies (undoubtedly with a bit of extended budget to play with and larger geographies to offer adjustments to employee culture) are having to be more adaptable.

Across all fields of business, management styles play an outsized role in creating attractive working cultures.

Some are “trust given”, while others are “trust earned” - both have their naysayers and supporters. But employees seek more empathy, and more connectedness, with their labor. It would be wise for managers to analyze their style to make sure they are attracting and retaining the right talent.

How should employers adapt?

There is no silver bullet to uniformly help every company. However, there is proven guidance on how to modify your workplace culture and management styles to improve staff retention that has been proven to work for most.

• Listen to your staff, ask what they want, and make targeted changes. Let your team demand change management.
• Personalize your relationships with your teams - that sort of inclusive, borderless, interactive partnership with management (rather than top-down) encourages confidence and builds real, tangible relationships.
• Re-evaluate your compensation packages, and don’t forget - more money alone won’t change why people leave, but it will give your teams a sense of value in their labor.
• Prioritize welfare - increase and improve PTO, talk to your teams about remote work, and do more to make their working life more effective - be as flexible as possible!

In summary

Echoing the sentiments of Jim Harter at Gallup, organizations need to create a culture of “net-thriving” - where business leaders, HR managers, and team seniors maximize positive attitudes, behaviors, and working conditions to actively reduce burnout and a lack of engagement with work.

If you are planning to hire, our team at Benchmark Search would enjoy providing additional information to help you achieve those goals…whether you decide to engage us for recruiting services or not.