The Great Resignation - Who’s going to be left in Finance and Technology?

The following article is in response to the debate #TheBigShift and #Thegreatresignation, initially posed by Anthony Klotz, regarding an economic foreshadowing of mass exodus of employees from their existing roles post-Covid-19. 

I must admit, I missed any debate on social media with respect to the theory posed by  Anthony Klotz (holler fellow baldy). Klotz contends, “When there’s uncertainty, people tend to stay put, so there are pent-up resignations that didn’t happen over the past year... This should lead to a mass exodus of workers leaving their companies for greener pastures, offering better opportunities.”

When it was brought to my attention, I was surprised to see a debate on it at all. We’ve had our heads down since July 2020 and haven’t really looked up since, so I and the Templar research and writing team decided to take a peek. 

Forbes’ Jack Kelly is leading the SEO charge with his Article titled “Why The ‘Great Resignation’ Is Greatly Exaggerated”. This has since been picked up on Linkedin by recruiters and those that work in the self development industries (trainers, coaches etc). As ever with Forbes and their strict adherence to neoliberal economic viewpoints, this is more deflection than fact. Others have commented further on Anthony Klotz’s initial viewpoint: Tech Nation (a UK-based innovation hub) for instance, declaring “Are 30% of workers really going to quit”; and the Wall Street Journal, educating readers on “How to quit your job gracefully”.

Unlike the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, our exposure to this ‘Great resignation’ debate is much more ear to the ground. We just speak to people, daily, constantly and across a wide spectrum of the Payments, Blockchain, Financial Services, AI, and Non-profit sectors. 

Currently, large corporations are scared. Covid-19 has allowed a readjustment of values and beliefs which for most, having been locked inside, either alone or with family and friends, has allowed more time simply to think. For many, this is the first time in a long time they have been allowed - forced - to reflect without the noise of day to day movement. People have actually had the chance to ask themselves what they want from their life. Schwabb and Mallerat in “Covid-19 - the Great Reset” discuss previous global pandemics throughout human history and how society has adapted post-crisis. The book was essentially an academic paper, released initially around April 2020 and updated periodically since. The authors discuss a transgression towards ‘localism’; the idea that human beings that came before us craved societal values and closer ties to a community post-pandemic. Interestingly, the World Economic Forum have coined something similar. The Great Reset initiative, a call to arms on “global stakeholders to cooperate in simultaneously managing the direct consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. To improve the state of the world…” Schwabb and Mallerat are not alone in their observations of societal change.

So what are people looking for in the employment market? We, as an industry, are in a reasonable position. Finance (payments) and technology are two of the top growing industries and for the majority of us, at all levels, we are all paid a reasonable living wage. Certainly, at least in the UK Market. For example, in the UK payments industry, there is a vast disparity in roles and, consequently, salaries available. You could work as an Account Manager within a payment gateway and earn between ￡22,000 and ￡25,000 a year. All you really need for such a role is a working knowledge of basic computer programmes and the willingness to help customers with payment enquiries. However, you could also land yourself a job in London working as a Payments Operations Specialist and be earning up to ￡47,000 a year managing investment flows between investors and customers. While there is a substantial difference in salaries and job status (especially differing across areas of the country), even entry-level finance-related jobs are paid an acceptable living wage. The payments guys know that Sales roles for Merchant Services range between ￡18,000 + bonuses, and well beyond. Developers tend to make a decent living for themselves too, with junior roles starting an average of ￡32,000 moving up to ￡45,000 for expert-level positions within specific niches (Blockchain seems to be the buzzword for more money at the minute). Freelancers and consultants are at the top of the income food chain, flittering between projects, countries and generally having the comfort and security to live their best life. The Economic Impact briefing paper (released 1st June) displayed higher savings in UK households and a desire from people to continue saving, more so than pre-Covid-19, with ￡180bn predicted to be in Household savings pots by the middle of 2021 - 10% of which is expected consumer spending. This leaves a portion of ￡162bn within the saving pots of households outside the higher tax threshold. The briefing paper goes on to say “higher level of savings appears to be concentrated in higher-income households”. Logic dictates that, if (and there is a big if), SOME lower and middle income households have more savings and security, they have more time to decide on their next big career/learning/education leap. 

A Zoom call with Daniel Brier of PURPOSE Technology, a tech recruitment firm, led us to discuss whether he believes there has been a change in people's values within the market. He talked about developers currently active in the marketplace asking questions about work from home policy, maternity and paternity rights, Corporate Social Responsibility, ethics and company culture.

The simple fact of the matter is that people have been educated by having to talk, research and understand (often in real time), where they stand with Covid-19. We’ve all been doing that since Feb/March 2020, and as a result, people have been establishing what they want their own future to look like and what is important to them. Some have been working throughout this period, with many in the Merchant Facing POS payments market ending up on the furlough scheme. Those people have had time to weigh up the 20% salary deduction vs the trade-off of building their personal connections and lives. 

Chris Sands from Totally Locally, a non-profit helping independent shops, spoke to us in April about the UK High Street. His observation was that it may not feel the same as it did prior to Covid-19, in part due to a number of high street retail names vanishing, and in part people's perception and memory of the pre-mask era. Chris is an optimist, and his work is empowering independent businesses to weather this storm. The team at Totally Locally are beginning to be recognised by local authorities in the UK and beyond; their Fiver Fest system runs off of pretty basic economic modelling of the High Street. They state that ￡5 spent in local independent 'stores' derives value of  ￡50 to a local economy, supporting job creation via the SME’s you walk past every day. Nick Hanauer and his ‘gang’ are getting support in the USA for similar people-led economic principles, but mostly for the introduction of a $15 minimum wage drive.

UK based Coding Boot Camps are one example of 'normal' people taking back control of their lives and careers. The Boot Camps retrain people into software development over a 16(ish) week intensive period. We're lucky that tech is one of, if not the, most progressive industries today, and the payments, financial and technology sectors are becoming ever more intertwined. A recalibration of partnership into 'Strategic Alliances' is being pushed more into the consciousness of business, and a more detailed discussion between Boot Camp-style learning methods, existing provider systems, corporations and SME’s, could bear fruits and potentially a wider impact on Boris's narrative. 

An organisation's people strategy should be a consideration for those potential job hunters that may be reading. Organisations have known for a long time that their people resource or ‘Human Capital’ is an asset unlike any other, and they’re less likely to adapt and be agile in response to new employee demands than new entrants. 

I have had the opportunity this week to watch some Beyond the Hype (a free entry, 3 day webinar event), on which there were some cool speakers from AI and AI ethics, etc. discussing Industry 4.0 and how they were seeing the job market of the future. A couple of the guys, Volker Hirsch of Amadeus Capital, a VC fund that invests in pretty much anything AI based, and Christian de Vartavan of Projectis Consultants, a UK Gov advisory body on AI ethics, discussed a job market of the future.  They went on to say that this would be heavily predicated on ethical and moral understanding of us, human beings, in order to live in an AI world. I didn't get a sense of urgency or impending doom, or an immediate world in which there is an AI 'terminator'.  It is, however, dangerous to ignore the position of AI currently. Most people remember Deep Blue beating the chess grandmaster in 1996. Since then, not much has changed in the public consciousness. Our understanding of AI, as a collective, is pretty poor.  Mozilla stated that 51.6% of people had ‘some knowledge,’ and 9.5% felt that they were well-educated, in AI. Given this question is only going to heat up over the coming decade(s), having educated people on all side of this debate can only be useful.

Concern was also expressed, during the Webinar’s Q&A, of a clear scarcity of talent in the UK market for developers, and of awareness of programming in society. It's crazy to me that despite 98% of Boot Camp graduates finding a ￡25K(ish) job after just 16 weeks of training, the concept of 'working class' developers as a way to boost the UK economy is hindered by bureaucracy: lengthy interview process, time-wasting, form filling and fuckaroundery commonplace in organisations. 

There is clearly a change afoot in the market, and the savvy among us are scrambling to grasp hold of whatever that may be. The question is not if people will leave in droves, but when. We all have different expectations now, both of employers and of ourselves. 

I see what Anthony Klotz is seeing: a more educated, arguably (at least for some) richer, public, looking in a different light, with different priorities, at a business landscape eager to adapt. There is so much opportunity for innovation (and moxy), in the startups, scale-ups and re-energized organisations, to capitalise and grow.

The strategic order of business has become somewhat unsettled, and people resources must take a leading role in the future market of business leadership and strategy.

The old adage ‘Treat them mean and keep them keen’ approach and the Jeff Bezos and Mike Ashley school of corporate humanity, “may have got us here, but it certainly won't get us there” - Marshall Goldsmith

"Everything else is just noise" - Rihanna