Culture Chat: How to prioritise your people and overcome the Great Resignation

A record number of employees are quitting or thinking about doing so. Organizations that take the time to learn why—and act thoughtfully—will have an edge in attracting and retaining talent.

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When a large wave of people first began leaving 2 years ago, experts coined the term the ‘Great Resignation’ and put its emergence down to the direct side effect of the pandemic and its associated stress and chaos.

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Whilst it definitely was the case that many employees did quit their jobs because of Covid-19 safety concerns or because their companies didn’t provide adequate remote-work support, there were more nuanced reasons behind the en masse numbers of people handing in their notice. Years later, the rates of employees resigning have not dropped. This suggests that whilst the pandemic could have triggered a movement of people wanting more from their work, the uplift of restrictions has not changed the newfound needs of our work force.

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The BBC reports that high numbers of employees left their jobs for more autonomy or meaning in their work and states that many of these shifts are ‘linked to lockdown reflection’ but ‘others quit for more money elsewhere, as the labour market tightened’, a trend arguably only accelerated by the current cost of living crisis.

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Despite widespread predictions of a slowdown, data shows not only are people still leaving positions in spades, but many workers who haven’t resigned yet plan to do so in coming months.

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Experts actually suggest that the seeds of the ‘Great Resignation’ were sown well before the pandemic and until the deep-rooted factors causing workers to quit are addressed, resignations are unlikely to subside. People are looking at work and the role they want it to play in their lives in a different way. They are switching to jobs that better align with their new values.

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McKinsey’s recent survey found that 40% of employees said they are at least somewhat likely to quit in the next three to six months and 18% of respondents said their intentions range from likely to almost certain. These findings held across all five countries they surveyed (Australia, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and were broadly consistent across industries.

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To overcome the ‘Great Resignation’, the first step is to truly understand why employees are leaving in the first place. Many organisations have tried to do this but interestingly, a large number are mistaken in their conclusions. ‘When employers were asked why their people had quit, they cited compensation, work–life balance, and poor physical and emotional health. These issues did matter to employees—just not as much as employers thought they did. By contrast, the top three factors employees cited as reasons for quitting were that they didn’t feel valued by their organisations (54%) or their managers (52%) or because they didn’t feel a sense of belonging at work (51%)’ – McKinsey, ‘Great Attrition’ or ‘Great Attraction’? The choice is yours.

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Our Culture and Partnerships Manager, Alex, has spent the past year speaking to team members of ours at x+why, members based at our sites across the UK and organisations in our community across the globe. She’s been motivated to find out what can be done to attract top talent, as well as increase retention and team satisfaction. Here are her top 3 ways to priortise people in 2023:

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1.     Listen to your team! If you don’t then trust somebody else will

Research suggests that executives aren’t listening to their people nearly enough. We have all left a job because of poor management or know of someone who has. Executives who don’t make their people feel valued can drive them from companies, with or without a new job in hand. Leaders who motivate and inspire their teams and lead with compassion are essential and the first step to establishing a brilliant culture is talking to your employees. Find out what makes them tick, what they enjoy doing outside of work, what their ambitions are, what they find challenging. If you know them well, you’ll be able to put in place the support they require as and when they need it. Not only is it essential to talk to everyone individually (managers usually being best placed to do this during 1:1 sessions), but its also crucial to provide a variety of options for your team to give their input. At x+why, we have HR support who can be emailed at any point for pressing questions or concerns but we also have periodic surveys that go out so that our team can provide their feedback – we use the data to inform our cultural strategy each quarter. To listen openly, you have to be prepared to lay out a number of ways in which your team can come forward – not everyone feels comfortable talking in person or online, to their manager or to HR. The more ways you can engage with your team, the better.

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2.     Offer hybrid working options. They are no longer a rarity and their importance is not to be overlooked

It goes without saying that the pandemic has changed what people expect from work and there is no going back. Employees want flexibility and at x+why, flexibility equals trust. 64% prefer a hybrid model rather than fully onsite (17%) or completely remote (19%). In fact, 29% say they will look for a different job if required to return fully onsite. There are 3 main categories of benefits to hybrid working: those that benefit individual employees, those that benefit the organisations they work for, and those that benefit society in general. For the employees, being able to work from wherever they want to (even if only some of the time) can enable them to improve their wellbeing, save their income and increase their mobility, all of which in turn will benefit their employers as they’ll be much more likely to stay. Employers can also reduce their real estate cost by offering hybrid options and those who have rolled out hybrid policies have reported increased rates in productivity amongst their teams, too. Not only that but they’ve been able to widen their talent pool and ensure their whole team gets to know the senior leadership team more easily. Effects of hybrid working that benefit society as a whole include less pollution from transport, a healthier work force and higher employment rates, too. If you are able to offer your team the option to work from wherever they feel they can do their best work (and ideally allow them to get their work done when they are most productive), even if it’s just some of the time, you are going to feel a greater level of trust from them and probably see a rise in the quality of their work, too.

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3.     Make your work environment more than transactional. There is more to a job than a paycheck

Think about it, if your only response to people leaving is to raise their pay, you’re unwittingly telling your team that your relationship with them is transactional. There needs to be other reasons for them to stay with you than their paycheck – why is that, you ask? Well, it’s pretty simple. There will always be the risk of a better cash offer somewhere else. The only real way for you to combat that is to try to solve your team’s problems, not just their bank accounts. Ask yourself this: ‘Are our benefits aligned with our employees’ priorities?’ Free parking or entertainment-related perks are probably not top of mind for them right now. Among survey respondents who had left their jobs, McKinsey found that 45% cited the need to take care of family as an influential factor in their decision. ‘A similar proportion of people who are thinking of quitting cited the demands of family care. Expanding childcare, nursing services, or other home- and family-focused benefits could help keep such employees from leaving and show that you value them as whole people. Patagonia, long the standard-bearer for progressive workplace policies, retains nearly 100 percent of its new moms with on-site childcare and other benefits for parents’. It’s the start of a new year and so many use this opportunity to set new personal and professional goals. Why not check in with your team to find out what they think of their current benefits and ask them what perks they’d like to see introduced this year? Whilst you might not be able to immediately implement them all, they’ll appreciate you taking the time to get to know more about their challenges and ambitions and there will be value in you being able to assess the success of your current offering, especially when it comes to budgeting for future hires and cultural activities for your team. You may well find that you can cut costs on perks that they’re not enjoying and spend less but increase their happiness. At x+why, we found that our team were less interested in using online wellbeing suggestion tools but really wanted financial advice so we adjusted our offering to suit them!

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This moment in time represents a big opportunity. To seize it: take a step back, listen, learn, and make the changes your team wants. By understanding why people are leaving and by acting thoughtfully, you may well be able to turn the ‘Great Resignation’ into the Great Attraction in 2023.

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We hope you enjoyed the first in the Culture Chat series, please do let us know your thoughts by sharing this piece online and adding your comments. We’ll be releasing a Culture Chat blog every month so stay tuned and be sure to get in touch if there is a particular work place culture topic you’d like to see covered here! ayoung@xandwhy.co.uk

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