The Great Attrition

We’ve all heard of the “great attrition”, also known as the “great resignation. The number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs has increased by up to 25% post pre-pandemic times. People are leaving jobs due to toxic work cultures, unsupportive leadership, changing industries, pursuing a passion or starting their own business. It’s not for the lack of jobs being advertised, research suggests that numbers have increased, but due to the decrease of barriers in switching employment, people are realising they do not need to stay in a job where they are not happy. The “traditional” mindset of employment is changing, there are more “non-traditionalists” looking for employment and the top 5 reasons these people would consider “traditional” employment include:

• Work flexibility
• Adequate total compensation
• Meaningful work
• Support for health and wellbeing
• Reliable and supportive people at work

These reasons all relate to people wanting to work in an environment that is positive, supportive and allows them to be paid adequately to complete meaningful work. This can look different to each individual, however, the trend towards supporting the whole person at work is most important. A lot of organisations have policies in place for wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, however, if there is no visibility in the work environment that shows these policies in action and where the leadership at all levels are not advocating the preferred behaviours, non-traditionalists know they can leave and find something equal or better elsewhere.

The technology available now is creating more opportunities for flexible work, allowing people to cross organisations, countries and industries more easily than before. This digital revolution, also known as the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), is fuelling this trend. This digital revolution provides opportunities that may not have existed previously. It also requires a different type of workforce. Organisations who are upskilling and reskilling their people so they have the right skills in their current roles as these roles evolve, as well as fill different positions within the company when they arise will tend to have better retention rates. In this way, companies create a talent pool of people with the right skills to fill roles as new opportunities are created due to disruptive technologies being applied along the value chain. Leadership support at all levels is important to ensure people have opportunities to move and progress their career, as well career development.

Disruptive technologies are fundamentally evolving workplaces in four ways:

• connectivity has increased through cloud technology, computational power, the internet, blockchain and sensors,
• data analytics and intelligence plays a greater role for more informed decisions, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• human and machine interaction in the form of virtual reality, augmented reality, robotics and automation, autonomous guided vehicles
• advanced engineering in manufacturing such as 3D printing, renewable energy, sustainable practices, and nanoparticles.

The traditional ways to attract talent may work in the short term, however, due to the evolving nature of work and the increase in the number of roles, people realise they can quit and are able to find better or different roles elsewhere. Retaining good talent is proving more challenging. People have more choice, more options and can change jobs more easily. Leaders need to recognise that people will only stay for as long as necessary and when they have the opportunity to go elsewhere, where their skills are appreciated, their career is supported – whether it is to progress by moving up the chain of command or laterally to develop new skills, it is important this is recognised and leaders have the discussions, plans and development in place. When leaders recognise and reward varied experience, skillsets and experience, and realise the benefit of developing their existing employees, the organisation and employee. It creates and fosters a positive learning culture.

Leaders also need to recognise that they may also need to evolve their leadership, learn new skills or upskill their own capability as their roles also evolve. As they learn, so do their employees, as skills are something that can be learned by anyone and everyone. Learning new skills is not limited to starting a new job, it is beneficial to refresh/upskill as roles change and evolve due to the digital revolution. It also allows leaders to reskill where there may not have been opportunities in a more traditional workplace. Post “the COVID-19 pandemic, it has led more and more people to re-evaluate what they want from a job—and from life—which is creating a large pool of active and potential workers who are shunning the traditionalist path.” (McKinsey, 2022).