If the Great Resignation has taught us one thing, it’s that people aren’t willing to stay in jobs they hate. But why are so many people deciding to throw in the towel and move on to greener pastures?
The answer is simple: it’s a combination of factors that all add up to make quitting your job more appealing than staying put.
In a recent survey by 360Learning, burnout was the most cited reason respondents gave for wanting to quit their jobs. Alongside, they also stated the feeling of unfulfillment and discontentment. Others were dissatisfied with the salaries offered, while others felt that the work environment was not conducive to their personal development.
At the same time, we must not ignore the impact COVID-19 had on the way people perceive work. In the same survey, 37% of respondents agreed that work became less important after the pandemic. However, 28% had the opposite experience – work became more important. For 35%, their perspective about work did not change after the pandemic.
As the Great Resignation continues, and now with the emergence of ‘quiet quitting’—a term not connected to quitting a job outright but rather doing precisely what the job requires and nothing more, organisations need to support and engage their employees like never before. In this article, we delve into five ways organisations can beat the Great Resignation and support employees so that they feel engaged and motivated at work.
First impressions matter: Get onboarding right
Employees who have had a good onboarding experience are 2.6 times more likely to be delighted with their jobs and are much more likely to stay with your company. On the other hand, new hires are twice as likely to look for a new job if they don’t enjoy onboarding—enter the Great Resignation.
When putting together your onboarding process, the choices you make will impact employee retention, learning, performance, and—by extension—your company’s bottom line.
Be sure to focus on the following things for a good onboarding experience:
- Communication: Make sure you have clear communication from the start. Set up regular check-ins so you can ask questions, get feedback, and ensure everyone knows how to reach each other (and when it’s appropriate to do so).
- Socialisation: Second, people can get to know each other outside of work. This could be as simple as setting up regular social calls or arranging virtual coffee chats.
- Providing support and guidance: Provide resources that will help people hit the ground running. This could include an overview of your company’s systems, processes, and procedures; training materials; and contact lists for key people in different departments.
With a little planning and thoughtfulness, you can set your teams up for success with a great onboarding experience.
Promote peer-driven collaborative learning in your organisation
Peer-driven collaborative learning is a powerful tool for upskilling and building professional relationships. It goes beyond sharing knowledge—you can use it to motivate your employees and help them adapt to new challenges. Peer-driven collaborative learning breaks down the walls between departments, allowing people to collaborate and share ideas, something which is critical in fast-paced environments.
You can encourage peer-driven collaborative learning by creating a culture of sharing expert knowledge, listening to the learning needs of others, and helping colleagues upskill from within with great learning experiences. This will also help you identify gaps in your company’s training programmes and provide opportunities for employees to learn more about each other’s roles within the business.
Ensure everyone has a personalised career pathway
A one-size-fits-all employee development programme will fall flat because your employees have different interests and career aspirations. Set clear, personalised career pathways for each employee. Their progress should be based on individual skills and aptitude so that employees experience job fulfilment each step of the way.
Creating a personalised experience doesn’t have to be a chore if it’s part of your overall company culture. It can include:
- A clear plan for progression through the company, including short-term goals and long-term career aspirations;
- A transparent view of how they are performing against those goals;
- Gather people’s feedback on what’s working well and where they think there are gaps in knowledge or skills
This will help you build strong relationships with your employees and will give people a sense of fulfilment in their work, which is key to a high-performing team. At the same time, you’ll also be able to match employees with different roles in the organisation much more easily.
Offer flexible working
In 2022, employees have different expectations when it comes to when and where they work. For companies, flexible working is no longer a nice-to-have. During a skills crisis, the shift to a working culture that gives employees full autonomy over their work is a strategic step into the future of every business.
Studies show that employee satisfaction is higher under flexible working conditions. Employees, in turn, are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to remain loyal to their company.
Flexible working doesn’t just benefit employees; it also helps improve organisational productivity too. A study evaluating some 100 million data points from 30,000 U.S. employees during March and April of 2020 showed a work productivity increase of 47%, despite–or because of–the increase in the number of people working from home. In another study, 44.9% of employees report being more productive in a remote working model.
Make sure leaders and managers get the training they need
A great way to beat the Great Resignation is to ensure leaders and managers get the training they need. This is an investment in the company on several levels; it’s an investment in your employee, it’s an investment in your team, and it helps build a culture of trust at work.
This strategy will help you retain top performers who might otherwise leave for greener pastures. It will also provide a sense of camaraderie between colleagues from day one through consistent communication about what’s happening within each department (and across them).
But it doesn’t stop there. You should apply the same approach to every employee in the company, from the CEO down to the newest hire. It’s a way for leaders and managers to get in front of any issues that might arise before they become major problems—and an opportunity for everyone else to provide feedback on how things are going so far. Adequate training for leaders and managers is also the best support to prevent burnout in teams.
Upskilling from within is the best way to beat the Great Resignation
In the midst of the Great Resignation, organisations need to take it to the next level if they want to rescue the employee experience. Leadership teams must find new ways to meet employee demands and expectations.
From providing the right growth opportunities through to supporting flexible and remote working and giving leaders the tools they need to steer the right course, leaders have the power to transform our relationship with work for the better.
The best tool to combat the Great Resignation? A positive and engaging learning organisation culture. Find out how upskilling from within can help you reach your company goals by supporting your workforce to learn and grow.
About the author:
Freddie is Content Lead for the UK market at 360Learning—a collaborative learning platform that enables companies to upskill from within by turning their experts into champions for employee, customer, and partner growth.
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