Is Your Organization Being Impacted By The Great Resignation?

According to an article written by the Harvard Business Review in 2021, the greatest increase in resignation rates were employees between the ages of 30 and 45 years old. Within this same article, the authors suggested that many of the mid-level employees were leaving because of a greater demand for their services due to the lack of training for remote employees, bad workplace cultures, and better paying positions.

Although, each of these statements was accurate for several different employees, after writing a dissertation and book on specific strategies that organizations can use to retain more culturally diverse millennials (individuals that are between the ages of 30-45 years of age), I knew intuitively that there were certain workplace trends amongst this demographic of people that may be having an impact on this great resignation.

For example, in my doctoral dissertation, Downing (2006) discovered that 35% of Baby Boomers (those born from 1946-1964) believed that a good goal to have was to work their entire career at one company, while Millennials were less loyal and typically changed jobs within three to four years. Furthermore, within this same doctoral dissertation, Gursoy, Maier and Chi (2008) stated that the Millennial Generation primarily focused on working to live and enjoy life while Baby Boomers lived to work and believed that by working hard and making personal sacrifices, they could achieve financial stability and success for themselves and their families.

Ironically, after thinking about the impact that these workplace trends could be having on the great resignation, an article published by a Linkedin Editor stated that 78% of Millennials polled during the summer of 2021 stated that they were interested in changing jobs, and many Millennials have recalibrated their priorities due to the pandemic, trading prestigious jobs, startup perks, and even workplace passion for more flexibility and time off the clock.

Consequently, after reading this article and learning about the impact that most Millennials were having on the great resignation, I felt compelled to share some of the strategies that I talked about in my book and dissertation that can help organizations develop viable strategies to the challenges that are existing because of the great resignation.

The first leadership strategy that I want to share with you this month as it relates to the great resignation is the importance of implementing the right leadership style. In essence, although there are a variety of leadership styles that lead to positive results as a leader, I have found in my research and experience that there are certain styles of leadership that have more of a positive impact on retention than others.

With three specific leadership styles to choose from as it relates to increasing the retention of Millennials between the ages of 30-45 years of age, one of the leadership styles that I found to have a positive correlation with retention is the transformational leadership style. In a sense, if organizations are going to increase their retention rates and alleviate the negative impact of the great resignation, they must place more of an emphasis on developing transformational leaders.

Transformational leaders are individuals who are not only motivational, inspiring, and advocates of positive change, but they are visionary leaders who are very supportive of the members of their teams. These leaders are also enthusiastic, purpose driven, optimistic, empowering, and committed to seeing those around them grow and flourish.

Ultimately, although 900 culturally diverse leaders between the ages of 18-44 years of age who participated in my leadership survey on retention in 2020-2021 stated that the main reason they would leave a company is because of bad leadership, I have also found that there are some other key factors that organizations must think about if they are going to increase retention rates and decrease the impact of the great resignation.

To learn more about these other factors, you can either order a copy of my newest leadership book entitled, “R.E.D. Leadership! – 15 Ways to Retain, Engage, and Develop More Culturally Diverse Leaders of the Emerging Generation,” reach out to me about speaking at one of your next events, or register for a free webinar that I am hosting in February to share more insights and solutions about ways to alleviate the impact of the great resignation by clicking on the link that has been provided below.

Event Link - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-resignation-learn-how-to-alleviate-the-negative-impact-tickets-245925779627