Conquering The Great Resignation: Successfully Building A Diverse, Growing Organization

Communicate clearly, value diversity, foster professional development, and promote work-life balance

Employees are getting restless. According to Harvard Business Review, the average U.S. monthly quit rate has increased by 0.1% each year from 2009 to 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend, especially among Gen Z and millennial candidates, resulting in what has been dubbed The Great Resignation.
 

This is a global phenomenon: nearly 86% of India’s professionals hope to find new jobs in the next six months, according to Michael Page’s Talent Trends 2022. But, retention is possible through a thoughtful approach that takes into account first-hand experience and the trends around today’s global job market.

Communicate Frequently and Effectively

The pandemic has sparked shock waves of change in everyone’s day-to-day, including employees’ personal lives. With these changes in behavior and values have come new needs, priorities, and expectations from employees, and employers need to keep up as circumstances and sentiments shift.

For example, monthly pulse surveys can be used to gauge how employees are doing, their workload, their mindset, and how we can better support them. We ask the same questions with each survey so we can track sentiment over time. Our survey strategy, a critical tool for employee engagement, helps us stay current and relevant in our operations, benefits, and culture.

A workplace with less rigid hierarchies – where employees are comfortable speaking freely and feel heard by their leadership – is important to most employees. Monthly, firmwide town halls are a great way to foster open communication along with regular, mutual feedback sessions with managers. Meanwhile, company “ambassadors” can drive company events, employee engagement, and welcome new team members.

Diversity and Inclusivity Matter

Plenty of organizations pay lip service to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). However, it should be ingrained into every facet of your business - including your product. In this case, DEI is broadly defined to include seeking out and embracing diverse viewpoints, as well as supporting and celebrating diversity – in the race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, religion, national origin, physical ability, and sexual orientation—across employees, customers, investors, advisors, board members, and partners.

For example, our recent social impact report showed, four out of our five executive team members are either immigrants and/or racial minority groups; and nine out of our fifteen-member senior leadership team are either immigrants and/or from racial minority groups. This means, we have a diverse set of voices influencing our product, policies and culture.

Invest in Professional Development

Employees value organizations that value them as individuals and help them grow professionally. Fostering professional development is the responsibility of all managers.

Encourage every employee to create a professional development plan and provide a stipend (if possible) for approved training purposes. These must not simply be perfunctory benefits that employees will instantly see through, but rather an active investment in employees’ learning. In doing so, it encourages managers to put suitable effort toward this goal and have a decisive advantage in attracting and retaining talent.

Address Burnout and Embrace Work-Life Balance

A recent Deloitte survey found that the lack of work-life balance is a primary reason why workers are seeking greener pastures, and a report from the American Psychological Association reveals that burnout is at an all-time high across professions. Having available resources to support mental and physical health, and encouraging taking time off are good ways to start to address burnout. Oftentimes, cues for taking time off and actually unplugging are taken from the top down so it’s important for leaders to not only encourage time off but take it themselves.

This means that some elements of remote working are here to stay. Human interaction is certainly key to a collaborative work environment, which is why many organizations, have set “core” days of two or three days a week when everyone is expected to be in the office. For the remainder of the week, old and new employees alike value saving time on their commute and working comfortably in pajamas (as your author is doing right now!) Being flexible about such arrangements can be a huge benefit for many employees and provides them with more ownership and control over their schedule.

Amid the challenges of the Great Resignation, great organizations are still able to recruit and retain great talent. But a concerted effort must be taken to be compassionate, foster professional development, promote a work-life balance, and embrace diversity.

Author Bio

Lana Lodge is the Executive Vice President of Business Operations and Corporate Secretary at MPOWER Financing, a Public Benefit Corporation which offers scholarships and no-cosigner loans to international students coming to North America. Connect Lana Lodge