How to retain employees in the era of Great Resignation?

After the pandemic, a large number of people started quitting their jobs. In November 2021 alone, more than four million people quit their jobs. Employees may quit their jobs for a variety of reasons. Some quit because of the work conditions at their company, while others wanted more compensation and benefits. Moreover, some employees leave their jobs because they dislike the company culture. In addition, some quit their jobs because of the burnout they experience at their work.

Affected Industries

In almost all industries, employers are having trouble finding recruits. However, according to the U.S. Bureau of labor statistics, the traditional low-paying jobs have seen most quitting. In September, leisure and hospitality, transportation and utilities, professional services, and retail were the most affected industries.

You can see the industries and the percentage of quitting below:

• 1. Leisure and Hospitality: 6.4 %
• 2. Trade Transport and Utilities: 3.6 %
• 3. Professional and Business Services: 3.3 %
• 4. Other Services: 3.1 %
• 5. Educational and Health Services: 2.8 %
• 6. Manufacturing: 2.7 %
• 7. Construction: 2.5 %
• 8. Mining and Logging: 1.5 %
• 9. Information: 1.5 %
• 10. Financial Activities: 1.5 %
• 11. Government: 1 %

From the numbers, you can see that customer-oriented industries have a heavy quitting rate. According to Hiring Labs, about 78% of employees quit working in Manufacturing, 43% in Leisure and Hospitality, and 41% in other services. However, traditional office-based industries only show a quitting rate of 5% since February 2020. According to Goldman Sachs, over five million Americans have quit their jobs since the start of the pandemic; among them, over three million were over 55.

How to Retain the employees?

The cost of finding and training a recruit is 1-2 times the annual salary of the previous employee. Therefore, it would be economical to find strategies to retain the employees. A short-term solution is to pay everyone more money. However, they are likely to quit if money is the only factor holding them. According to a Joblist survey, thirty percent of people want a better work-life balance than higher pay. Further, the Microsoft Work Trend Index, forty percent of employees are thinking about new jobs.

Even before the pandemic, people had problems with their jobs, such as work-life balance and poor attitude of managers. Now, as the pandemic has given them time to think, they have decided to look for jobs giving them a better work-life balance. To retain employees, companies must develop empathy. They must start thinking from the employees' perspective, instead of just thinking about improving business.

Here are a few tips to motivate the employees to stay:

• Improve the employees' awareness about the goals and ambitions of your company. They are more likely to stay if they understand and relate to your company's purpose.

• Give them more choices, such as the option of working from home. The pandemic has shifted everyone's perspective about work. For some people, it is more productive if they work from home. Others need work and home separation; give them this choice. Further, you could also offer them options within the nature of the jobs, such as an hourly job or fixed wage job.

• People often quit their jobs because they have plateaued in their skill development. Therefore, train them and improve their knowledge. As human beings, we always like to improve and become experts in something. If you provide the option of learning and improving the skills of your employees, there is less chance that they will quit.

• Create opportunities to increase bonds between co-workers. Employees like to know and understand people with whom they work. That will help them manage their stress levels and be more productive. Consequently, they will not think about resigning.

• Ensure that your employees feel that the company cares about them. That can include providing packages with reasonable health plans and vacation allowances. Further, you could also give the facilities of therapists for maintaining their emotional wellbeing.

• If you want to retain your employees, rewards, and recognition for their work are a must. Everybody wants to be recognized, valued, and respected for the job they are doing. Therefore, giving awards and bonuses to employees will encourage them to stay.

• Keep your infrastructure well maintained and up-to-date. For example, you should keep the software used by employees in your company updated. If the work conditions such as this are not proper, your employees may think about leaving the job.

• Another reason people may quit the jobs is that they feel the company is not fair in giving salaries. Therefore, being transparent about the salaries can make employees stay. However, you must ensure that the pay is reasonable depending on the job. Race, gender, or ethnicity should not affect the pay grade.

• The above points focus on the general issues of the employees. However, every employee has reasons to quit the job. Therefore, it is necessary to regularly do job-experience surveys where you find out the problem of your employees.

Summary

The Great Resignation was inevitable. With the increase of more technologies, the competition in industries has also increased. People no longer must stick to one company their whole life. Moreover, they can choose where to work according to their ambitions and lifestyle choices. Therefore, companies can no longer be inconsiderate of the working conditions of their employee. To retain the employees from resigning, employees must understand the organization's purpose. The companies must show that they care about their employees and ensure their physical and emotional wellbeing. In addition, the job nature should be flexible, the work environment should be friendly, and the infrastructure should be adequate. Finally, they should regularly ask the employees about their job satisfaction and ambitions and provide opportunities to learn and grow.

You can give your employees options to learn more using GyrusAim LMS or the Learning Management System. It offers features for advanced learning, such as the ability to monitor logistics and assignments. Moreover, it provides features to assess your employees' learning progress, certify their abilities, and provide a rating for their achievements. Gyrus commits itself to giving customer-first innovative learning solutions for industries worldwide.