5 Strategies to Minimize Employee Churn During “The Great Resignation”
“The Great Resignation” is here.
With 40-55% of employees looking to switch employers in the next 12 months, it is clear that this ongoing phenomenon — also dubbed “the Big Quit” — should not be taken lightly. Scads of employees are changing jobs or even“just quitting,” as the circumstances of the pandemic have emboldened many to reevaluate professional expectations, pursue new or old passions, or level up in their career development.
But all this turnover comes at a hefty cost to employers. A recent Gallup poll estimates costs to be half to two times an employee’s annual salary. And on top of the painful financial cost, there is human capital. When great employees leave an organization, they do more than “stop working.” They also take their skillset, knowledge, and valuable personal connections elsewhere. It is no wonder arecent Gallagher study indicated that 61% of businesses have listed attracting and retaining top talent as a significant priority.
The waves of the Great Resignation are still reverberating throughout the professional world and the job market. Business leaders must ask: How can we stop employee churn in its tracks before it derails our plans for growth and innovation?
The Problem: A Closer Look
The root of the Great Resignation is no mystery. With the onset of the pandemic, all of a sudden, we were creating makeshift offices in our home, balancing childcare and remote education, facing new mental and physical health challenges, and struggling to maintain our social connections.
In the work arena, the pandemic shed new light on long-brewing sore points or created new ones, causing employees to reevaluate whether they wanted to remain in their current roles. And as more employees trickle back to the office, they are bringing heightened expectations. They are seekingflexibility in terms of when and where they can work, greater purpose, more work-life balance, more transparency, fair career progression, and great company culture.
Conventional wisdom says the Gen-Zers and younger employees are driving this transformation at the start of their careers and are at most significant risk of heading for the exits. To some extent, this is true, but it’s not the whole story.
Seasoned employees in the middle of their career tenure are also planning to leave in record numbers, with43% stating that their career development has come to a crawl. The Visier noted that at-risk employees also include those with five to 15 years of tenure, 40 to 45 years old, and women.
5 Strategies to Tackle Employee Churn Head-On
1. Ensure Employees Take Time Off
As employers, you have to go the extra mile in retaining top talent.
For example, Lusha prioritized proactively promoting a healthier work-life balance for their employees. They also require employees to take a certain percentage of their vacation days every year.
2. Anonymous Employee Surveys and HR Sensing
Additionally, you can use active sensing to ensure employee health and well-being.
At your company, is there a teammate that’s consistently sending emails and Slack messages late at night? Is there an employee that went from vibrant and engaged to downcast and unkempt? This is where emotional intelligence is just as vital as the traditional kind. Employers must be able to “read the room.”
Well-being isn’t a safety blanket that one can toss over the entire office. Instead, employers must seek personalized solutions that address the needs of individual employees in a way that suits them best.
The department’s HR Business Partner could send anonymous employee surveys and do sensing at the departmental level to ensure that HR leaders understand each business unit’s unique wants, needs, and sentiments, meaning they can address challenges head-on.
3. Make Sure Your Employees Are Seen and Heard
Ultimately, it is crucial to make sure employees feel seen and heard at work.
The worst possible thing is for an employee to think that they don’t matter, that no one cares about them, or that their contributions aren’t meaningful.
That’s why it’s so important for companies to keep their thumbs on the pulse of the workforce, with an open, transparent, and collaborative environment where employees feel supported. Employers should do all they can to nip burnout in the bud.
4. Meaningful Connection Through Hybrid Work Is Key
Meanwhile, employers should consider embracing hybrid work as an effective way of providing the flexibility employees seek without sacrificing a vibrant corporate culture.
A company that lacks authentic connections between its office employees is easy to leave. From the lunches workers eat with their peers, to the internal bonding they do with their teammates, feelings of camaraderie, meaningful connections, and shared experiences play a vital role in keeping talent on board.
But flexible working options and a friendly in-person workplace are not necessarily enough on their own. Employees need purpose, passion, and a reason to show up each day beyond their baseline financial compensation.
5. Align Employees to The Business Needs with OKRs
Lusha haseffectively utilized “OKRs” (objectives and key results) as a means to ensure that our employees have clear, digestible, engaging business objectives.
The strategic implementation allows employees to align themselves with the business, understand where they fit within the bigger picture, and contribute to its success. For Lusha, the result of this approach is that their average attrition rate held steady at a very low rate for the last year, so it can work.
Creating company policies that encourage transparency, allow flexibility, and facilitate meaningful connections are the simple steps that will go far in ensuring employee loyalty and trust. Don’t feel resigned to the Great Resignation. Seize it as a challenge to move your organization forward.
Reut Rubinstein is the VP of Human Resources at Lusha.
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