Mar. 18, 2022 "The Great Resignation isn't over yet: Workers say they'll quit if they don't get the flexibility they want": Today I found this article by Victoria Wells on the Financial Post:
A labour force of empowered workers, all too willing to walk off the job if their needs aren’t being met, could mean the Great Resignation is just getting started, new research from Microsoft Corp. suggests.
Two years into the pandemic, people have a new perspective on what’s most important to them, and work no longer takes top billing, according to Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index.
That means many people are now putting greater focus on their well-being.
Globally, 53 per cent of people said they’re prioritizing their physical and mental health,
and 47 per cent said they’re putting time spent with family and friends over their work lives.
All that soul searching has led some to quit their jobs.
Last year 18 per cent, and 15 per cent in Canada, said they left for greener pastures, but a much larger number are considering leaving this year.
Younger workers, especially, are feeling the call to look for something new:
52 per cent of generation Z and millennials, both globally and in Canada, said they’d think about quitting this year.
Overall, 43 per cent, and 37 per cent in Canada, are open to other opportunities.
Those numbers are up from last year,
Microsoft said, signalling a continuation of what it calls the Great Reshuffle.
“We are not the same people who went home to work in 2020.
The collective shared experience of the past two years has left a lasting imprint.
And so flexibility is now a non-negotiable that companies really can’t afford to ignore,”
Colette Stallbaumer, general manager of Microsoft 365 and Future of Work Marketing, said.
Even so, the expectations of workers and their bosses aren’t always in synch and that’s putting a lot of strain on the managers stuck in the middle.
Managers believe leadership is out of touch with what staff wants,
especially as 50 per cent of company leaders worldwide want a full, physical return to the office.
Managers on the ground know their employees’ expectations are dramatically different, but don’t think they can do anything about it.
Seventy-four per cent said they feel they don’t have the power to align worker wants with that of upper management, putting them in a tough spot.
“It will be on leaders and managers and every organization to navigate through this change to find a better way of working for everyone,” Stallbaumer said.
As it stands, the transition to hybrid work has been a rocky one.
Workers say they don’t have a clear idea of when it makes sense for them to be physically present in the office.
Hybrid meetings are also a pain point for those working from home, who say they end up feeling left out.
Still, managers aren’t doing much to offer guidance: rules around things like how to make meetings work remain hard to find.
In fact,
only 20 per cent of managers in Canada,
and 28 per cent globally,
said they’ve created any kind of hybrid work policy.
All that uncertainty is leaving employees feeling unmoored, at a time when they aren’t hesitating to look for other employment.
“We’ve got a gap to close there,” Stallbaumer said.
“Remote work had a standard
and hybrid work is more complex.
I think that really puts the onus on organizations and leaders to focus on the culture in this moment, to make hybrid work work.
It will take being really intentional about the role of the office.”
Indeed, Microsoft’s data suggest employees may not be sold on the hybrid model just yet. Of those currently splitting their workweek between the office and home, 51 per cent said they’re thinking about going fully remote.
That speaks to just how new this way of working still is after efforts to reopen offices stalled over and over again amid new COVID-19 waves.
“After a year of talking about hybrid with these false starts, (employees) really haven’t experienced the lived benefits,” Stallbaumer said.
But in spite of some people’s hesitation around hybrid work, employee expectations around flexibility remain. Stallbaumer said companies must recognize that we’ve entered a new phase and understand there is no going back, no matter how much some leaders might like to.
“I think that the organizations who really will come out ahead of this
will embrace what the data says about where employees are
and how much work has changed,
and try to meet them where they are. I think that’s going to be key,” she said.
There are 56 comments:
Last time I checked most adults have bills to pay and having an income is important. But now work is no longer a priority? Great. Perhaps someone should write an article reminding this same group of people that one day the Liberal handouts will end, either by way of a new government or bankruptcy of the country.
Aug. 5, 2022 "Many bosses are spending almost half their day dealing with staff turnover, survey says": Today I found this article by Noella Ovid on the Financial Post:
Is the Great Resignation over?
Not according to the findings of this survey from California-based business technology firm Kantata.
The study interviewed 1,502 full-time employees and independent contractors in the professional services industry in June.
Forty-three per cent of the full-time employees said they were considering quitting their jobs to become freelancers.
The percentage is even larger among younger workers.
More than half (52 per cent) of millennial and gen Z employees were considering leaving their jobs to become independent contractors.
Three-quarters of the independent contractors surveyed had been full-time employees last year.
“The findings confirm that the Great Resignation is not just a trend, but
a radical and permanent transformation of global workforces,” said Kantata.
It’s also a headache for management.
More than half of the business leaders in the survey (53 per cent) said they were having trouble hiring full-time employees.
In fact, the senior executives said they were spending 40 per cent of their day dealing with employee turnover.
Of the reasons identified for the high-turnover,
compensation was unexpectedly low on the list.
Continuing education towards professional growth ranked more highly.
Above three-quarters (76 per cent) of freelancers stated that they want to work with businesses that provide financial support for their professional growth.
This includes paying for
certificates,
continuing education
and masterclasses.
The vast majority of full-time employees agree:
92 per cent said they would be more loyal to corporations that invest in their professional development.
Earlier this year, U.S. academic, Anthony Klotz, who coined the phrase
“Great Resignation”, said he thinks resignation rates could stay above average for two or three years
as employees adjust to the new ways to working that have emerged from the pandemic.
But those who do leave may not find the new pastures so green.
A survey of 15,000 U.S. workers by Joblist, an artificial intelligence job-search platform, found that more than a quarter of those who left work this year were reconsidering whether they made the right move, Bloomberg reported.
Among those who had found a new job after quitting 42 per cent said that it hadn’t lived up to their expectations.
Posthaste: 43% of workers considering quitting their jobs to freelance | Financial Post
There are 2 comments:
Thomas Wayne
What, a boss has something to do?
A good high skilled employee can often get 20~25% more by changing companies.
Why is that...........? Clearly because employers are counting on inertia to keep people in place - and historically that was true. If an employee was generally happy the prospect of a modest increase in compensation wouldn't move them.
But a 20% bump is a little more than a 'modest' increase
In this era of high inflation people will do what they must to survive
So employers had better be thinking about what is more costly -
proactively offering your employees a reasonable cost of living increase?
Or spending months trying to replace them and deal with the
lost productivity,
brain drain
and loss of corporate memory?
I've already done the math - and my attrition is 0% since the start of the pandemic.
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