Resignation and recruitment act like a seesaw on corporate work. An employee resigning from a job for better prospects, start-up, or government jobs is not something unheard of. But what if employees started mass resigning from corporates permanently? Yes permanently! Not to go back to corporates again.
This article is about the Great Resignation trend that has erupted post the pandemic for a reason beyond salary. Let’s talk about what great resignation is and how this trend can affect businesses in India. If you are a business owner, HR manager, or start-up founder, it’s time you start insulating your company.
Great resignation is a trend that started in the US and followed through other western countries. More than 20.2 million workers in the United States resigned from their jobs between May and September 2021. Now the trend is shifting towards developing economies like India.
The resignation trend is expected in booming economies, but currently the employees are quitting not to look back. Employees are quitting to adopt a more flexible way of paying bills.
Experts suggest that the trigger behind this mass resignation is anything but better job prospects and salary. While the resignation rate is record-breaking, the hiring rate is low, which indicates that the resignation trend is here to stay.
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As mentioned earlier, the cause of Great Resignation is not simply the search for better high paying jobs. Employees have started choosing flexibility and work-life balance over stability.
They are looking for more than just pay check and health benefits. Here are a few major causes for the ‘The Great Resignation.’
The Covid lockdown allowed employees to work from the comfort of their homes. Employees spent more family time and continued their passion beyond their day 2-day work. The impact of Covid 19 on businesses is clear: The working class adopted an alternative lifestyle.
Once the offices reopened, most employees were not ready to sacrifice their work-life balance just for pay checks. Soon, the resignation trend started, and people have started leaving their hectic jobs.
The corporate policy of giving meagre or no raise during the time pf Pandemic has also contributed to the great resignation. Employees are not happy working for the same wage despite the rise in the cost of living. Hence, employees started opting for other flexible jobs, entrepreneurship, and long-term goals.
The corporate policy of giving meagre or no raise during the time of Pandemic has also contributed to the great resignation. Employees are not happy working for the same wage despite the rise in the cost of living. Hence, employees started opting for other flexible jobs, entrepreneurship, and long-term goals.
Employees want their work to be valued and treated respectfully. Non-acknowledgment of performance was the last nail in the coffin for most of the employees who are part of this ‘Big Quit.’
Corporates are unopen to change. The policies made to increase productivity before the industrial revolution is to date unchanged. On the other hand, employees are adaptive and open to change.
This mismatch has compelled many employees to leave the cubicle job and search for alternative ways of earning.Toxic work culture is one of the main reasons forcing new employees to resign immediately after joining.
Automated HR policies did not allow for any reasonable explanation from the employee. The 9-hour work culture still haunts creativity and critical thinking. Which is one of the major reasons for resignation. Employees found that the work from home flexibility during lockdown allowed them to focus on the bigger picture rather than maintain daily work shifts.
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If you think that employee retention is a problem only for large corporates, you are as wrong as you could be. In fact, small businesses are most likely to be affected by mass employee resignation movement this resignation trend because small companies can’t afford to lose top talent as they have the resources to hire, train and groom new talent.
Just to tell you the depth of problem let’s take example of one of the largest corporations of the world- Amazon. Amazon has allocated a budget of $4 billion for hiring employees in a single Quarter.
There is no way a small growing business could afford to spend resources like this to hire skilled manpower. Therefore, it becomes extremely important for small organizations to retain their human resources for survival and growth.
However, small companies could leverage their adaptability and flexibility to retain and hire top talent.
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Most experts suggested that ” The Great Resignation” is a trend in developed economies and won’t affect Indian corporates due to the lack of social insurance and survivor benefits.
However, the statistics suggest otherwise. Indian IT companies are first on the list to be affected, with top-level employees resigning abruptly.
IT industry has reported a 52 percent increase in hiring as per Times of India. The great resignation is supposed to affect top-level skilled employees in Indian corporates as managers and other KMP’s are the only section in the Indian workforce who can afford to adopt the alternate lifestyle.
Experts suggest that the Great Resignation trend in India can be temporary. Although most skilled white-collar workers are supposed to return to corporates in India, pay checks won’t be the only thing employees would look for. Employees will switch to better companies that offer agility, recognition, and better work-life balance.
Indian corporates need to identify the major reasons for resignation and upgrade their work culture to retain the skilled human resources. They need to offer flexibility in terms of work timings and perks.
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Corporates should learn from this COVID resignation trend. It is now obvious that employee retention demands a lot more than just a raise. Allowing flexible work timing and work from home could be a head start, but it’s no different from what most companies offer. Indian businesses should focus on the following to retain their top talent.
Companies should employ a data-driven approach to measure on-time performance. It would help if you acknowledge employees’ work and make them feel valued. You can use dedicated performance management systems to evaluate employees’ work, give raises, or appraisals.
Public acknowledgment of employees’ work is the best way to make them feel valued. You can use initiatives like ‘Employee of the Month’ or have a Hall of Fame for outstanding employees. Boosting employee morale could significantly reduce employee resignation from the company.
Indian corporates need to be flexible, transparent, and empathetic towards their employees. They should offer their employees the most profitable work setup to make them feel like they are part of a family.
Don’t just push your employees to achieve the target; instead, create a culture of Innovation. Encourage employees with an inspiring leadership approach to take on bigger responsibilities. Invest in ideas of employees that have potential beyond just revenue generation. This will create value for the organization and recognize employees’ ideas and potential.
Corporates need to focus on upskilling their employees. They should provide continuous and relevant training programs to their employees to keep them updated with the latest technology.
Most of the employees who are part of the resignation trend are searching for jobs with flexible working hours. Work from home or remote working provides a better work life balance, making them comfortable in the company.
Providing additional fringe benefits like home loans, retirement services, and childcare plan can help retain employees in the long run.
Work pressure is one of the main reasons employees leave the workplace. Overburdening makes employees unproductive and slowly persuades them to leave the workplace for better opportunities.
A stay Interview is an interview between manager and employees conducted at regular intervals to identify and address the problems that might lead to employee resignation. A ‘Stay Interview’ is as important as the hiring interview. Conducting stay interviews for employees helps them convey their needs, preferences and makes them feel important.
Corporates should make employees a part of their organization. Launching Employee Stock Options Scheme (ESOP) provides opportunity for employees to be stockholder of the organization. Ownership of the company gives employees a reason to stay with organization for a long period.
Suggested Read: Best Paid, Free and Open Source Employee Monitoring Software
Peoplecart is a dedicated cloud-based employee recognition system designed for modern-day businesses. Here is how Peoplecart employee recognition software can help your business retain the skilled employees.
Drive Innovation: Peoplecart helps organizations implement innovation by crowdsourcing ideas with Spark 2 Sparkle platform. It converts an innovative idea into a well-structured project.
It makes sure that the ideas of employees don’t go unnoticed. By shaping employees’ innovation to an ongoing project, Peoplecart helps companies value their employee’s ideas.
Engagement & Recognition: The happiness @Work platform by Peoplecart is designed for employee engagement and recognition. It automates talent management initiatives like social recognition and instant feedback for better employee recognition. This keeps the employee engaged and motivated.
It helps organizations adopt a corporate culture of innovation, reward, and recognition. A must-have tool for modern organizations to stay ahead of the competition.
Low work-life balance, rigid work culture, and lack of recognition by companies are the major reasons behind the COVID resignation movement.
Great resignation is a movement that started during the Covid Pandemic in the US and other developed nations. Many employees began resigning from large corporations for an alternate lifestyle with better work-life balance.
Anthony Klotz (A&M University professor) predicted mass resigning of employees and coined the term “The Great Resignation.”
The great resignation is a movement that started in the US and soon followed in other western countries. However, the trend has a limited impact on the Asia-Pacific region.
No, although the resignation movement has majorly impacted the US, its effects can be seen in European and Asian corporates as well.
According to some of the leading job search portals in the US, the number of vacancies is increasing, indicating that The Great Resignation is alive and could continue in 2022.
Building a flexible work culture and providing a better work-life balance to employees can prevent the mass resignation of employees.
The Great Resignation is supposed to bring massive changes in corporate work culture and hiring process. It could reshuffle corporates, deploying the right employee to the right workplace.
Related Categories: HR Software | Payroll Management Software | Attendance Management Software | Recruitment Management Software | Applicant Tracking System
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