You may have noticed it already: each week, a new e-farewell card to be signed. A promising new starter gives their notice. An old colleague parts ways with the team. Across the country, people are leaving their jobs in droves.
The Great Resignation boom is upon us. After a tumultuous 18 months of layoffs and stand-downs, employees are the ones left holding all the cards.
Job openings are soaring. According to PageUp data, there are 50% more open job ads than there were before the pandemic.
At the same time, the number of Australian workers quitting their roles to pursue new opportunities is increasing. New research shows 38% of Australian workers plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months, and a further 39% are open to new opportunities.
There are a few reasons for this.
Faced with the prospect of returning to the office, many workers are simply quitting their jobs rather than surrendering the flexibility of their work from home lifestyle.
Dissatisfied with pay freezes and burned out from increased workloads, employees are jumping ship for greener pastures. The best talent knows they have many options.
But it’s not all bad news. For working professionals, there is optimism and hope for the future. It’s much-needed after a long year spent weathering a health and economic crisis.
For talent acquisition teams, resignations mean high turnover costs and business disruptions. But it also means more talent on the market, and more people searching for jobs better suited to their skills and interests.
The opportunity lies with businesses that are quick enough to snap up this talent, and strategic enough to retain their most valued people.
Rethinking rewards and benefits
In an effort to keep a hold of talent, some employers are raising wages and offering bonuses.
Wage conversations are always a factor in whether an employee takes a new role or stays put. But they aren’t the only reason a person leaves a job.
COVID-19 has created a seismic shift in what employees and job seekers look for in a role – and it’s no longer just about the money. Organisations should be prepared to re-think their benefits and Employee Value Proposition for a remote-first world.
For example: More than half of Australian working professionals would take a pay cut if it meant they could work from home 100% of the time.
Today’s workers are used to the flexibility and freedom of a work from home lifestyle, and they don’t want to go back. In fact, 34% of employees look for a new role if their employer didn’t provide remote work options.
But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Three quarters of Australian workers say they’d like a mix of in-person and remote work. Instead of advertising a signing bonus to attract reluctant candidates back to the office, offering a mix of remote and in-person options could be a far bigger drawcard.
Engage employees with internal mobility opportunities
If your employees have an appetite for change, feed it. Internal mobility opportunities like cross-functional team assignments and secondments in new business units give employees fresh challenges and new perspectives.
Internal mobility opportunities increase cross-company collaboration, which is crucial for keeping employees engaged, motivated and connected to the organisation.
As PageUp wrote in our Top 60 Employee Engagement tips article,
“Collaboration is important for employees to feel included and engaged. Studies show teams that share leadership responsibilities, interpersonal interactions and a cross-functional mentality have lower levels of conflict and stress, and higher levels of overall satisfaction.”
And remember: if you don’t offer employees opportunities for growth and career development within your organisation, they won’t hesitate to find it elsewhere.
Get onboarding (and re-boarding) right the first time
Perhaps an inevitable trend to emerge from the pandemic is high turnover among new employees. Most of these workers were onboarded remotely, and many have never met their co-workers in person.
Sustaining a relationship remotely is difficult. Building a relationship remotely is even harder.
But it’s something organisations need to do if they are to hold on to their hard-won talent.
20% of employee turnover occurs within the first 45 days, and 90% of employees make the decision to stay at their company within the first six months.
Considering how much it costs to replace an employee (up to 60% of their first-year salary) it’s clear that it pays to invest in proper onboarding.
Onboarding sets the tone for a new starter’s time at an organisation, and is particularly important when welcoming remote hires. If that first impression isn’t a great one, new hires can become disengaged, overwhelmed, and leave.
When onboarding remotely, it’s imperative to make new hires feel supported, seen and connected to their coworkers online. You want to maximise the “employee honeymoon” phase, and minimise anxiety and disengagement.
When organisations get onboarding right, new hire productivity increases by 62% and retention of new hires increases by more than 50%.
Just as important is “re-boarding” employees who return after time away. Whether it’s an ex-employee who has been re-hired, a staff member returning from maternity leave, or a furloughed worker you’ve brought back on board, taking the time to get them up to speed will ensure they hit the ground sprinting.
This helps returnees reintegrate into the workplace culture more easily, introducing them to new processes and technologies instead of throwing them in the deep end.
This article originally appeared on PageUp, and has been republished here with permission.
Marion Robinson is responsible for spearheading global growth for PageUp in all its forms. She provides strategic direction across PageUp’s client advocacy, partner alliance, marketing and brand-building programs, ensuring total alignment between them so as to deliver on the PageUp growth strategy. Leveraging a wealth of experience in client management roles across a range of industries including Banking, Human Resources and IT, Marion understands the daily people challenges of clients first-hand.