Robert Kenward, Fitability® recruiter at YOU Search & Select and founder of The Hub.Jobs, explores the reasons why employees are moving on to new ventures.
The great resignation is looming; how do you decide whether to join in or not? The past couple of years have had a huge impact on people, and their work experiences have varied wildly.
In one corner, we have the person who stayed in their job, but then had to do everyone else’s job for the same salary and were expected to feel grateful. They feel that they weren’t looked after, so they feel a bit disgruntled and are now looking for another job.
In the other corner, we have the person who was furloughed, but is now back at work. They feel that they were treated badly and not kept in the loop, so they feel a bit disgruntled, and are now looking
for another job, too.
In the third corner, we have the person who was made redundant, and simply had to grab a job to pay the bills. They may be working for a company they hate, in a sector that they don’t enjoy and for a salary that is less than they were used to. They have been feeling disgruntled for a while but have been biding their time until now. They are also looking for another job.
There is a fourth group that overlaps the other three segments. In this group, we have the person who should have naturally moved on to the next step in their career last year, but couldn’t move through lack of opportunity, or the fear of giving up job security. They are not disgruntled, but they are now looking for another job.
Moving on
Employers and recruiters are expecting many people to move jobs this year, but it will come as a shock when they realise that even the people who were fully employed through all this still want to move on.
Employers feel that this is the group that was looked after; they carried on working and getting paid, so they are okay, right? But these are the people who had to firefight, and who had to do four people’s jobs with no support and no extra money.
It may also come as a shock that the group that were furloughed are also feeling disgruntled – after all, they were paid almost all their salary to be off work, so they must be happy, right?
It depends on how communication was handled and how they were treated. If an employer looked
after their furloughed team, communicated and didn’t just cast them off, they are going to be in a much better place.
Everyone is feeling guilty about the position they ended up in last year; people feel guilty for being furloughed instead of working, or feel guilty because they are working whilst their colleagues were made redundant, or feel guilty when made redundant and not be able to provide for their family. People stayed put because of guilt, but now that guilt is turning to anger and they are starting to think of themselves and their own needs. Relationships have been lost; the people they used to go to the pub with are gone, the boss they really liked is gone; the whole dynamic of a company they once loved has changed. So how do we handle this?
Temperature check
My advice to employers is do a temperature check.
Speak to your employees and have a few linear questions to ask them about the future, such as “how do we improve things?” and “how could we attract new talent into the business?”. Do not ask them “are you happy here?” because no one is going to say “no”. You’ll be able to gauge their enthusiasm, dedication, and engagement by their answers. If they say, “I don’t know,” then that speaks volumes.
If they are gushing with ideas then listen to them. You can look back and ask questions such as “what could we have done differently during the pandemic?”, but you have to be prepared to hear the answers and act on them. More importantly, not just act on it, tell people you acted on it.
The way in which you communicated with your team during the pandemic will now be coming home to roost. If you were harsh and uncaring, lacking in communication, your actions will now find their consequences. But if you do a temperature check, you will at least have some warning of what’s to come.
Check your happiness
My advice to employees is ask yourself “am I happy?”.
Is this just a job or the next stage in your career? Ask yourself “why do I stay here?”. If you can’t answer that question with at least four or five different things, then you may be in the wrong place. The grass may not always be greener, but if you’re incredibly unhappy where you are because of any of the reasons above, then the grass could very well be greener somewhere else.
As of this month, the UK is open, and that’s official. We’ll have a period of pinching ourselves to check that normality really has returned and then it will start. Resignations will start with a trickle and lead to a flood.
