THE GREAT RESIGNATION: the revolution that is set to bring the future of work to present
Sanketh Ramkrishnamurthy
Global Head of People Operations at AutoRABIT, Seasoned HR Leader | Strategic Talent Management | Employee Engagement Expert | Motivational Speaker & Team Builder
Ever since the term ‘great resignation’ has been coined, it has created much buzz around. Everyone’s talking about it. Some call it “worker’s revolution”, “legacy of the pandemic” and some even say that it’s “a newfound respect for life”. The result of employer’s inability to fulfil the needs of their employees resulted in this discontent which was brewing even before the start of the pandemic. With the pandemic added as the catalyst, the reaction turned exothermic spilling out to all corners of the world.
People around the world are quitting their jobs. Here are some data from the credible surveys that depict the severity of the situation. 41% of the world’s working population is planning to switch this year. 95% of Americans want to quit their job this year, 4.3 million have already quit their jobs in 2021. 1/3rd companies are short of skilled workers in Germany, having about 400k vacancies. OECD says that about 20 million workers have not returned to work in their countries. In India, the attrition rate in tech sector is up 23%. In Vietnam, many low paid garment workers have not returned to factories. There is shortage of workers in tech sector in China. These numbers go on and on.
If unemployment benefits, inadequate pay, caregiving, relocation is half of the reasons for mass resignation, the other half is because of lack of work life balance. The pandemic epiphany has made up reflect on what really matters and how we have led our lived around work. The plan of week based on work calendar, social gathering only on weekends, skipped weddings for work, prioritized work meetings over parent-teachers’ meetings, compromised on vacations to save unpaid leaves. The pandemic made us see the unpredictability of life and gave a reality check on how we have led our lives. So, millions began re-imagining their lives.
People quit full time jobs for freelancing, turning their hobbies into full time occupation, starting their own start-ups, trading full time in crypto. In a survey conducted by well known Journal people were asked why they quit their jobs, 40% cited burnout, 20% spoke about lack of flexibility, 16% said that their employers did not support their well-being.
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The Gen-Z workforce is looking for the ability to work remotely, flexible, shorter workdays, 4 days’ work a week. A job that helps maintain a work-life balance.
On the other hand, the situation of the companies is like, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Companies are offering increments and bonuses to retain the talents, giving collective holidays, coupons for food delivery etc. But for a company to survive the great resignation, it has to deep dive into the minds of its employees and make changes. Allow employees to work from home if they want, switch to a hybrid working model, become diverse, rearrange the human resources in a way that enables flexibility because today, a pay check is no longer enough. Give better health policies, better family engagement policies, reward and make the employees feel valued, to not to lose out in the race for talent.
Therefore, it’s time to re-imagine work, re-imagine office culture, re-imagine leadership.
A company is nothing more than its people.
Talent Acquisition
2 年Am still a young rookie with very less exposure to worldly knowledge, but from my limited experience in technical recruiting I've seen people who have resigned choosing to work ONLY if permanent WFH is given to them or are looking for companies which will agree to their demands of work-life balance. I did realise that it's not just a western trend, it's happening for real in India too. For the question of, how far can a company go or what is the collective approach, i do not have a right answer. But as someone who have recently come out of studying to work phase of life, just like most of the engineers, what we study and what we work are so different. The anxiety to do better, adapt, learn from start, and even after years of working, the stagnation in work, all adds to exhaustion and burnout. To solve any problem the issue must be addressed from grassroot level. Rectify the education system, teach students better with hands-on session, and in companies, give robust training and recognise the potential, efficient talents and manage them well. Address their needs. Some perform better with WFH, some find it distracting. Find a middle ground. Yes, a lot of work to HR dept. people make up organizations. Something must be done.
PMP?| Program Management | People Practices| Innovation | Transition | Transformation | Leading Change |
2 年Very well articulated Sanketh Ramkrishnamurthy, the concept Employee engagement has drastically changed with the newer generation coming in to the workforce the dynamics are even more tougher! However the bigger question is how far can any organization go? Though many organizations have been making swift moves to be more employee friendly, the human nature is #nothingisenough. I believe being more ambitious is not going farther and farther from practicality, It is the #MissingBalance with no known origin to resolve!
Executive Search Expert | Career Transition Consultant | Repatriation Specialist for Indian Diaspora Talent | Transforming Global Leadership Teams | SHRM India/ ETHRWorld Influencers Club |Empowering & Mentoring Startups
2 年I am afraid I will agree to disagree Sanketh Ramkrishnamurthy While it is a romantic idea to nurture -that those in the Western nations can talk about, it is essentially driven by the fact that most developed countries have robust social security in place, to tide over! We in India -are in no way -in the same league. We just cannot afford to quit our jobs. Desire is aspirational, but in reality -it is different. I believe everybody who wants a job has a job. They don’t have the wages they want or need. We should not get carried away by the sentiments of IT or ITEs industries -India has huge unemployment and an underemployment problem, simply because most organisations are not productive enough to provide a wage premium. Would you believe of the 63 million enterprises, only 18,500 companies in India have a paid-up capital of more than Rs 10 crore? ( And 1.2 million pays PF and ESI!) Only 1.5% of enterprises say they have more than nine employees!! Most enterprises in corporate India are dwarfs. They are small companies, which prefer to stay small. Unless companies are more productive and grow, can they provide to plough back, and invest in people. I think we ought to wake up.
HR Leader
2 年good read sanketh, yes absolutely this challenge of attrition, work-life balance demand from employees , hybrid model is the new trend in IT companies. each companies is taking different stand on this. so what is the collective approach?
Manager - HR | MBA in HR Management
2 年A good article Sanketh. I had read an article few weeks ago that the great resignation is not yet started in india and it looks like we will face it in another 6 months. How are we going to face this. Since most of our leaders are having contemporary thoughts, It is tough to imagine your Tagline of this article.