In December, learning and development expert Mike Mair (pictured) will join IIRSM for a Professional Development Webinar on how to retain your staff. High levels of attrition is a real risk for organisations, but there are ways for you to help manage the risks, as Mike explains in this blog.   

What is ‘The Great Resignation’ and Why Does it Matter?

Since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, organisations have been faced with a new challenge – The Great Resignation. ‘The Great Resignation’ refers to an increasing trend in employee resignations in organisations and industries worldwide. Employees are choosing to resign for a number of reasons, but largely due to the feeling of increased stress brought on by the pandemic, as well as the feeling that they are overworked, under paid, and no longer fulfilled in their employment. According to a survey by Microsoft, 37% of the global workforce felt that their companies were asking too much of them during the pandemic, whilst 20% felt that their employer didn’t care about their work-life balance. 54% said that they felt overworked, with 39% saying they were exhausted and approaching burnout.

No business can enjoy sustainable success without its people. This means, in the face of issues such as ‘The Great Resignation’, it is more important than ever that organisations nurture their employee relations to ensure loyalty, productivity, and performance. In this article, we consider how organisations can work towards creating an outstanding end-to-end employee experience in order to achieve just that.

Is ‘The Great Resignation’ Inevitable?

Thanks to information like the above survey by Microsoft, we have an understanding as to why employees are beginning to resign on mass. This is a gift, as it allows organisations an insight into what needs to change. With the right measures in place, organisations can work to tackle employee dissatisfaction head-on, reducing the risk of resignations and even giving them an edge against their competitors, who are likely facing similar battles but may not be addressing the same issues as effectively as they could be. From here, the other side of the coin - ‘The Great Retention’ - is born.

Delivering an Outstanding End-to-End Employee Experience

So how can we work to retain and even delight our employees in the face of dwindling job satisfaction? Below are some top tips on delivering an outstanding experience at every step of an employee’s journey within their organisation, from recruitment and onboarding right through to reward and recognition.

Recruitment

All organisations aspire to have an engaging recruitment experience that enables them to attract and recruit the best people, but the recruitment process can be time-consuming. Organisations should aim to streamline their recruitment process, assuring they are only attracting and recruiting the right people, in order to gain a competitive advantage in a candidate-driven market. Outstanding recruitment will both facilitate the growth of the business and influence new employees to believe that they have made the right decision and have taken on the right role, in the right company, for them.

Onboarding

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. The next step in delivering an outstanding end-to-end employee experience, therefore, is to ensure that every new company member enjoys a welcoming and productive onboarding and that they feel integrated into both their team and the organisation as a whole. Organisations that invest in their onboarding programmes will reap the benefit of their new recruit right away, and onboarding is proven to have a positive impact on employee retention.

Effective Training

An organisation delivering an outstanding employee experience will ensure that everyone has a structured, transparent, and realistic training plan. This allows employees to take pride in their professional development, whilst the organisation benefits from an up-skilled workforce comprised of the best-trained people for the job. It also shows employees that you are willing to invest both in them and in their long-term future within the company. HR experts list the basic human desire for growth and development as a top concern for employees when considering their future within a company.

A Great Working Environment

Employees thrive in organisations that have efficient and effective work processes and systems in place, and where people understand the systems that they operate in.

Exceptional Leadership

Exceptional leaders create an outstanding team and, in turn, outstanding teams create an outstanding organisational culture. Exceptional leaders know and look after their people, give direction, adapt to change, and create the best possible environment for their people to engage and perform.

Strategy and Vision

A clear vision for the future is of high importance for employees. Employees thrive when they understand their role to play, know what is expected of them, feel they have a sense of purpose and can see a tangible future for their place in the organisation.

Creating Balance

In a candidate-driven world where the average person has more career options than ever before, a healthy work-life balance is of high importance. Burnout is a real contributor to ‘The Great Resignation’, so businesses should strive to create the right balance for their people, so that they feel they are well-rested and able to perform to the best of their ability every day.

Reward and Recognition

Humans crave validation. Employees want to feel appreciated and to feel that the part they play within their organisation matters. When an employee’s contributions are overlooked, they will begin to feel unfulfilled in their role and they may begin to wonder if their efforts would be better appreciated elsewhere. Reward and recognition, therefore, play a huge role in guaranteeing employee satisfaction and loyalty.

IIRSM Webinar: The Outstanding End-to-End Employee Experience

If you would like to find out more about how your organisation can deliver an outstanding end-to-end employee experience in the face of ‘The Great Resignation’, IIRSM is offering a webinar on 15th December 2022 (13:00-14:00 UK time) where I will share even more tips and tricks on how to retain, and even delight, your employees in order to negate the risk of mass resignation during these turbulent times.

Find out more and secure your place here.