Are you losing talent like never before?

Data within in the United Kingdom’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) showed that 391,000 of the 1,020,000 people who left employment from July to September of 2021 had resigned. These numbers were unprecedented in LFS history and prompted an influx of corporately sponsored research with the aim of understanding the drivers behind the talent transition.

Before the results were published, most pundits reached for the obvious (Occam's Razor) and stated the movement was because supply could not meet pandemic recovery demand and so companies hired en masse. They went on to explain this immediate injection of life to a depressed labour market sparked fierce competition that left the workforce with options.

However, as convincing as that explanation sounds, and whilst leading thinkers and analysts agree that pandemic recovery has a role; there is not yet a consensus on what that role looks like. This means it may be far more complex than initially thought, for example:

• Many believe that being confronted with our mortality spurred the workforce to reflect on the way they chose to live life. This caused many to rethink spending their finite time with an employer that does not share their values, and redefined employment priorities.
• Others suggest, due to longer lives, the workforce has transcended the traditional phase journey (education-work-retirement) in favor of a multi-stage voyage. This caused us to value work which gives us the flexibility to mix and match the different stages.

Of course there could be many other possible factors. For example, households running on two incomes would result in both parties having less reliance on their respective employer; whilst some built savings during the pandemic that allowed them to search for greener grass.

But, as we try to definitively understand the challenge, what kind of thinking would help lessen the blow of the market readjustment, and perhaps turn it to our advantage:

1. Readjust thinking to account for a multi-stage way of working. Ultimately, this means addressing and satisfying your employee's need for flexibility (top of their agenda).
2. Accept that the market favors the talent, and that employees know they do not need to 'settle' for questionable cultures, unsociable hours, low pay, poor prospects, etc.
3. Open dialogue and beware the competition. If a competitor offers something exceptional (particularly involving flexibility), employees will ask why you're not doing the same.

In summary, the winners will replace top-down thinking and an MBA-approach to listen and create a bespoke employee experience that will attract/ retain the type of top talent they need to dominate their market (a defining leadership quality). Everyone else will take a cookie cutter approach, and then fight over mediocrity (a defining management quality).