Wake Up and Smell the Existential Crisis!

What Is Really Driving the Recruiting Crisis and What Can You Do?

Many businesses, especially those in the service sectors, are emerging from the pandemic to a new and equally threatening crisis. The pandemic accelerated an impending worker armageddon that has been brewing for many years. Organizational health experts have been discussing the impending generational hand-off that was to take place in 2020 for years. Statistically, the Millennial Generation now outnumbers the Baby Boomers who are aging and retiring. The much-maligned Millennials would soon begin to emerge and dominate workplace culture, and their worldview would also dominate. Most assumed that this change would be gradual.?

We are more than halfway through 2021, and that change now dominates most business environments. As a result of the isolation of the pandemic, many people have reexamined how their work fits into their lives. We already knew that Millennials wanted more from their workplaces. Government subsidies do not cause the state of the recruiting crisis. Instead, the subsidies allowed workers the time to examine their lives.?I witnessed this phenomenon in my own family. My three Millennial twenty-somethings all dropped out to pursue work that had a transcendent purpose.

In a survey conducted in March 2021, 26% of American workers said they plan to leave their current jobs and look for new ones when the pandemic is over. (That number goes up to 34% among Millennials, the largest generation currently in the workforce.) Most experts agree that the current “buyer’s market” for workers was inevitable. The single biggest challenge for employers recognizes that there is a new world order- and the employees are in charge.

This is a tough pill to swallow for Baby Boomers. Their leadership style tends to be autocratic- “my way or the highway.” But, like it or not, everyone must wake up and smell the existential crisis. This worker’s revolution is no more than a buyer’s market for purpose and culture. Millennials demand better jobs. They define these jobs as meaningful and respectful. They want a voice. They want to collaborate.?

In April 2018, I presented to a group of leaders a talk titled “Leadership Awakening- The New Era Workplace.” The central theme of the talk was around the impending workplace generational hand-off, and the impending changes businesses would face culturally. Little did we know at the time that what we expected to be a gradual change would be accelerated by the pandemic. Today we are in the midst of a recruiting crisis that few understand is actually an existential crisis.?Incredibly, what they are seeking isn't big money and perks. Instead, it's personal development and a sense that they are self-directed.

Where should businesses start to become competitive in this new era marketplace? I recently read a great article in the Harvard Business Review by Dr. Clay Routledge, a leading expert in existential psychology, a professor of management at North Dakota State University, a faculty scholar at the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth, and a senior research fellow at the Archbridge Institute.

Here are his suggestions:

Look Beyond Salary

When employees become more focused on existential concerns, they may prioritize purpose over money. Managers should thus look beyond salary and other material benefits and think about?what will help workers meet their need for meaning in life.

For instance, in one recent?survey, 60% of respondents reported they would accept less pay in exchange for more flexibility, such as the ability to work remotely. Remote work or flexible hours may be attractive to many employees looking to focus more on meaning if it allows them to spend more time with family and friends outside of work. Indeed, my research team?found?that when people are asked what gives their lives meaning, the most common response is close relationships with family and other loved ones.

Managers can also promote an office culture that values “unplugging” from work by creating clear boundaries between professional and personal time (such as not emailing employees during non-work hours). This balance will become increasingly difficult but important as remote work continues.?Research?shows that expectations for after-hours email monitoring decrease employee well-being and increases turnover intentions. The more managers can help support people’s desire to balance work with having a fulfilling life outside of work, the more likely they’ll be to attract and retain employees. In addition, the more likely those employees will be happy and engaged at work.

This may be especially important in the post-pandemic world when many workers think more about how the pandemic changed their family lives.?Pew Research Center?asked U.S. adults how the pandemic negatively and positively impacted their lives. Personal relationships were the most frequently mentioned aspect of life that was negatively impacted, with 41% of respondents reporting missing family and friends. At the same time, 33% of respondents indicated that the pandemic allowed them to spend more time with their spouses, children, or other family members. In other words, the pandemic heightened many people’s awareness of the importance of relationships by either showing them what life is like when they can’t spend time with loved ones or showing them what life is like when they have the opportunity to spend more time with them. As a result, managers should expect a post-pandemic workforce that is more focused on their fulfillment from time spent with loved ones.

Make the Work More Meaningful

This doesn’t mean that work is irrelevant to mean—quite the opposite. Work allows people to support the families they value so highly and make contributions to their communities. And?research?finds that people are more likely to have high job satisfaction and commitment if their job feels meaningful. Therefore, managers should endeavor to help all their workers feel like their jobs serve an important purpose regardless of position.

Create job descriptions that clearly identify how each position serves the broader mission of the organization. When possible, allow employees to define their job duties and how they approach them, which can increase the meaning they derive from their work.

Gallup?reports that one in three employees worldwide strongly agrees that the mission or purpose of their organization makes them feel like their job is important. The existentially threatening nature of the pandemic may have also heightened employees’ desire to work for organizations they see as making a difference in their communities and the world. My research team has?found?that the more people are driven by the pursuit of meaning in life, the more motivated they are by prosocial goals such as improving their community. Managers should emphasize how their organization makes impactful contributions to broader society to help workers connect their individual efforts to a larger mission. Dedicate time at team and company meetings and celebrations to highlight and provide updates on how the organization is making a difference through its mission and how it is possible.

Foster Strong Working Relationships

It’s too early to know all of the pros and cons of moving large numbers of workers from the traditional office environment to remote work; more research is needed. Some employees may benefit greatly from remote work because, as previously noted, it provides them the opportunity to spend more time with the people who give their lives meaning. But this doesn’t mean there is no potential negative effect of remote work on purpose in life.

Surveys suggest that Millennials are more likely to report that they often feel lonelier than older generations. For example, a 2019 YouGov?survey?found that 30% of Millennials indicated feeling lonely often or always, compared to 20% of Gen Xers and 15% of Baby Boomers. In addition, a?survey?that included the younger Gen Z group suggests they may be the loneliest generation yet. And a recent?study?observed that young adults have been particularly lonely during the pandemic.

Remote work might sound beautiful because, in theory, it gives people more freedom in where they live, cuts down on commuting time, and generally provides more flexibility — but it also has the potential to make employees (perhaps especially younger workers) feel more disconnected from important social relationships.

Managers should consider the potential long-term effects of remote work on relationships, team-building, and mentoring. For example, it may be difficult for many employees to view their work as meaningful if they don’t feel connected to their coworkers and managers. Hybrid options that allow some flexibility but still create an in-person work environment that helps employees form and maintain strong relationships may help create a balance between meaning at and outside of work.

If remote work is going to be common, managers need to spend more time than usual focused on facilitating social opportunities and?providing mentorship. This can include organizing occasional in-person social activities that allow employees to get to know each other better, creating a mentorship model that pairs experienced workers with newer workers, assigning specific times in which managers and team members are available online to chat about projects, holding regular virtual team meetings, and utilizing virtual workspace software that at least partially replicates the social environment of the office.

The pandemic has caused many workers to think deeply about what’s most important in their lives and spend more of their time focused on what gives them purpose. The more managers understand and help support the existential needs of their employees, the more they’ll be able to retain workers and benefit from a workforce powered by meaning.