The great resignation has been on the minds of business leaders since April of 2021 when nearly four million workers quit their jobs. Will
Omer Glass, the co-founder and CEO of employee learning and development platform GrowthSpace, says employers should expect the great resignation to slow its pace as heightened retention strategies and human nature take its course.
“A lot of companies are making great efforts in order to cope with the great resignation,” says Glass. “This, connected with the fact that humans tend to be risk-averse, means more stability is going to enter the market and people will settle down.”
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Notably, the Labor of Bureau Statistics reported that the unemployment rate dropped from 4.2% to 3.9% in December. That may mean that more Americans are settling into new gigs, and that fewer folks are looking for work — making competition even tougher for employers that are actively hiring. Not to mention, there’s potential trouble down the road as the U.S. struggles to add 3.6 million jobs so it can return to pre-pandemic employment levels.
For Glass, these factors could make for an optimistic result: fewer people will resign from their jobs in the new year, especially as employers continue to invest in current talent. Employee Benefit News spoke with Glass to better understand why the great resignation will slow down and how employers will be part of this incoming shift in the labor market.
What has the great resignation been like for you, as well as for your clients?
Fortunately, we haven't experienced people leaving us. We are working to build a strong culture, and we focus heavily on developing our people. I personally believe that if people feel they're developing, they will usually stay.
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A lot of companies are stressed out from the great resignation. They are trying to understand what strategies will retain their talent. I have even seen employers try to reward employees by bringing them to big concerts or
Then why do you foresee the great resignation coming to an end, or at least slowing down in 2022?
Ultimately, markets strive towards equilibrium. This is the way it's always been, and this is the way it's going to be. I do not have the crystal ball, but I suggest we look at three things. First, right before the great resignation, COVID entered the picture, and that set off an economic crisis — people tend to hold on to their jobs during a crisis. They do not leave because they need to make a living. Normally, the people who already wanted to leave their jobs would have left, but given the circumstances, they felt initially hesitant. The great resignation started, in part, when a lot of those people finally chose to leave.
Second, a lot of money and new jobs are going into the market, so you have higher demand. When you connect high demands for talent with many people wanting to leave, you have the ingredients for a great resignation. But even so, it’s not good for people to keep leaving — they need stability and job-hopping does not look good on a resume. If I'm interviewing someone and they hopped one year here and another year there, I will assume they will do the same for me. So eventually people will want to stay in one place and meet that higher demand for jobs. That’s the ebb and flow of the market.
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Another point you should consider is that companies have put more and more effort into retaining their talent — they're becoming better employers for their employees. They're investing more in culture, more in communication, and more in mentorship and development. When your employers really care about you and create an inclusive environment, eventually, people will stay.
What specifically needs to happen on the employer end, so workers have an easier time choosing to stay?
It comes down to learning and development. People eventually care about their careers on a deeper level. I could argue that people would rather develop their careers than just have nice, comfortable benefits. You could have an office with a lot of perks but people’s attention will turn to the company’s culture and vision sooner or later. People care about themselves, their personal growth and how their current company can help them become better professionals.
So, one of the functions of an organization has to be learning and development. You can think about it like employee benefits 2.0 because it's more connected to what people really want. In 2022, you will see three trends connected to L&D. Number one: It will be much more personalized — what people learn will be tailored to their specific needs and interests. You will also see data as the next revolution in the L&D world. People’s growth and learning experiences need to be backed by data. Just like everything in an organization, if you want to succeed, you need data. Finally, L&D is going to be far more integrated with business key performance indicators. Companies will consider what skills they want for their people in relation to overarching business goals.
