You have the Power to End the Great Resignation

Each one of us is a player in the Great Resignation—as a participant in the workforce—as an owner, leader, employee, independent contractor, or not-currently-employed worker. You are involved whether you are reflecting and reassessing, debating and deciding, waiting in the wings, making a move, speculating about what is going on, or watching to see who will leave and when. You can play a meaningful role in reducing the resignations—including your own.

Catalyzed by Crisis

The unprecedented upheavals during the first twelve months of the pandemic caused a significant shift in our minds about the role and meaning of work. Waiting so long for conditions to return to some semblance of normalcy many started wondering “Do I want to work like that again?” prompting the logical, “If not, then how?”

These questions have, in my opinion, long needed being asked and answered. The deterioration of the social contract—especially in the US—since the 1960s has resulted in a significant imbalance in the distribution of benefits between employers and employees. The focus has been on shareholders not stakeholders. “Command and control” leadership and transactional management have not fostered engaging employee experiences. Working constraints—such as location—have continued despite enabling technologies offering numerous tools that could improve employees’ working lives.

Then COVID-19 threw a huge spanner in the works, putting us all under intense pressure and giving millions the distance and time to reflect on the realities of what was—and what could be. It is not surprising that alternate (home-based vs office-based) restrictive conditions, a wider range of proven working options, and leadership lacking empathy have generated much soul-searching, re-evaluation, and, ultimately, departures.

Moreover, while fear and inertia are typically the two most important impediments to change, both have been dramatically reduced by the crisis. We have been living with dread, distress, and disruption for so many months that making a substantial change now is relatively easy to contemplate and act upon. Nostalgic recollections of pre-pandemic work situations have also been reviewed through a more realistic lens, and the longing now is often for something new, and better. 

Individual Involvement

However, most resignations can be prevented—with your help! Unless work conditions are truly mismatched or unacceptable—in terms of compensation, control, or content—most people would rather stay if there is credible hope of improvement. That said, making fundamental changes to a corporate culture, attitudes, or work arrangements is an insurmountable task for any discontent individual by themself.

Let’s step back for a moment and recognize that we are necessarily evolving to a sustainable, more balanced, and mutually beneficial stakeholder capitalism involving everyone throughout our business ecosystem. Every one of us becomes responsible for our part in contributing to the transformation. In parallel, have you noticed how the greater digitalization of your business has had wide-ranging impact on operations and employees? The emphasis now is on talent with more projects and teamwork to handle more complicated issues and situations.

Strategically, employers as well as employees are needing to think through what the new circumstances mean and how they want and need to adapt to be successful. What does it take? Your proactive participation in the process—including design, trial, and ongoing iterations—whatever your role at your company is. Then transformation becomes believable and achievable. When everyone is encouraged to buy in and contribute to making the changes reality, it involves and engages disaffected employees as well.

Reducing Resignations

Tactically, there are immediate solutions for stemming the tide or trickle that you can initiate right away. The relationships you have at work can reveal all you need to know and change the dynamic and outflow. Do you have strong, trust-based relationships with your colleagues and team members? Do you connect empathetically and know what is going on with each of your reports—how they are doing, what they are worried about, what they like, and hate, about their job, and how they might like to reconfigure their working life?

If you do: how can you help them improve their situation to reduce their stress and distractions as well as orient them towards projects and tasks they enjoy and do well? Who are influencers you can talk to as well as your boss about potential adjustments since there are common issues among your group? An employee will hesitate before resigning if you can demonstrate there is intent to change and evidence of initial progress. Your personal intervention matters to stimulate and support a compelling vision of your organization in the future so they might not need to leave.

If you do not: if your connection with your team members is not that strong yet and you don’t have much knowledge about their issues, developing those relationships to find out is a vital first step. By creating deeper bonds, you help people feel part of a community, where they belong and work with others who care, which increases their desire to remain. You also discover their concerns and what adjustments would be meaningful that would enable them to be less stressed, engage more, and be less inclined to leave.

You Matter Too

What about you? Even if you aren’t actively thinking about leaving, you likely have been affected by an unsettled atmosphere with colleagues disengaging, reassessing, or actually departing. Unless you are a significant shareholder in the company, it would be unusual for you not to have at least wondered about a departing coworker’s desires and situation considering and comparing them with your own. We are all connected within our corporate communities and across our business ecosystems, so others’ agitation and moves certainly have ripple effects.

Deepening your work relationships with an empathetic approach yields personal benefit in creating more connections for yourself at work. You establish stronger ties and have more meaningful conversations which increases your own integration within the corporate community. You also start to become proactively involved in making improvements to the working lives of colleagues and yourself which is rewarding both as an act and a result, encouraging your further positive participation.

It will be the human relationships that make work matter at your organization. It will be the trust, connections, and empathetic understanding of each other’s situations that changes the culture, mindsets, and outcomes—including retention. Relationships at work bring people together encouraging everyone to be involved in crafting a new future for the business and themselves and enabling a successful transformation for the new era of work.

What will you do this week to end resignations at your company?

Today, I am thrilled to announce you can now PRE-ORDER my upcoming book "Empathy Works: The Key to Competitive Advantage in the New Era of Work". Click here for more information about the book which is available wherever you buy your books. Please also check out the latest episode of my podcast "Transforming Work with Sophie Wade" where is all about relationships at work .