The Great Resignation – Who, Why, and What Can You Do About It?

Have you been hit hard by the Great Resignation?

Or you’re tired of listening about this phenomenon that came in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, showing employees’ need for substantial changes in the workplace.

Whatever the case may be, you need to be prepared to tackle this tidal wave of resignation, and here you’ll find in-depth analysis that can help you gain a better understanding of the entire trend and offer possible solutions to this intimidating issue.

Eye-Opening Statistics about the Great Resignation

The American Bureau of Labor numbers shows that 4 million employees left their jobs in July 2021. This came after the April resignation peak and resulted in a record 10.9 job openings by the end of the month. If you want to get a better understanding of the issue you’ll need to know more about the employee demographics that drive this trend.

According to the Harvard Business Review’s comprehensive analysis of more than 9 million employee records from 4,000 companies, the resignation rate has increased by more than 20% among 30 to 45-year-old employees. 

While many would expect the younger generation (20-25-year-old) to have the highest resignation rates, this isn’t the case. Quite the opposite. The number of younger employees leaving their jobs has decreased over the past two years. This is probably due to the significant financial uncertainty combined with the lack of entry-level positions on the job market.

These rates have also dropped in the 60-70 age group while employees in 25-30, and 45+ age groups have jumped on the resignation bandwagon with higher resignation rates in 2021.

Why Do Employees Choose to Leave Their Jobs?

If you wonder why more and more mid-level employees are deciding to quit their jobs, here are several plausible reasons. 

• Numerous employers may think that it’s risky to open entry-level positions while transferring their business online and running fully distributed teams because new employees won’t have the chance of in-person onboarding and training. For this reason, they decide to rely on mid-level employees who already have the experience needed for specific roles.

• Also, many mid-level employees may have decided to postpone their career change when the pandemic hit, waiting for the troubled times to pass, holding on to their jobs that brought some sense of stability in their life. This said, once the pandemic subdued, many mid-level employees decided to stop delaying their career-related decisions, leading to the resignation increase in their age group.

• Finally, many workers may have simply decided to leave their jobs feeling overwhelmed by all the forced changes in the workplace. It’s not surprising that so many people need a change after months of, overworking, hiring freezes, and other work-related issues that they may have experienced in the past couple of years. 

Many of them feel they need to take a break, reconsider their work and life values and seek a much-needed balance between them.

Make Data-Based Decisions to Diminish Resignation Rates

The best way to tackle this issue that can affect your business’s success is to take a data-based approach to it. You can start by identifying why people are leaving, and who is at the highest risk of turnover. Advanced employee tracking software can help you by providing a detailed insight into employees’ activities, identifying signs of overworking or disengagement that can lead to burnout and ultimately drives employees to resign.

This is only one of the factors you need to consider. If you want to better understand why your employees are leaving, seek answers to these questions:

How frequent are promotions or pay raises in your company?

Do you offer effective training and guidance to employees to help them perfect their professional skills and boost their performance?

Do you recognize and reward exceptional achievements frequently?

By answering these questions and analyzing monitoring data you can make well-informed decisions and take steps to diminish your resignation rate and improve your employees’ experience.