Is This Really the Great Resignation?
Hiring great people is completely within your control.
According to many, we are in what is being called the 'great resignation' era within the workplace.
The last few years brought with it a time of reflection and personal growth. It became a time when people took inventory of what matters most in life.
Guess what many learned through this reflection and growth?!
What matters most is NOT working a dead end job where you are underpaid and undervalued. What matters most is fulfillment and appreciation and affirmation and permission and opportunity to grow.
More than ever, people desire a job that brings fulfillment and purpose. Joy and hope. Opportunity and success. As a leader, now is a great time to take inventory of the culture you have created, the opportunities you are providing and showing incredible value to your team.
If you are struggling to keep people during this ‘great resignation’ era- there are a few problems that you must first explore and change:
1- Workplace culture
What does the culture you have designed look like?
Have you ever strategically designed the culture within your organization? It not, who did? And if you don't know what culture means or looks like or its purpose within your company, as a leader you better find out.
2- Opportunity for growth
Every one of us wants opportunity to grow. Personally. Professionally. Mentally. Spiritually. Mentally. There are many opportunities you can provide for your employees regarding growth. Those opportunities could be as small as partnering with a local gym to offer discounted membership or as large as offering scholarships for continuing education.
I have seen organizations take small steps like helping their employees attain library cards to buying coffee for community Friday's. The opportunity lies within creating opportunities. So start small. But do something that offers people hope.
3- Poor leadership
Poor leadership is the #1 reason people leave jobs. #2 is lack of opportunity for growth. This is the story being told year after year, decade after decade, exit review after exit review.
The bottom line is simple: if you want to retain your best employees and attract more like them, learn to be a great leader. And you CAN learn to be a great leader.
Poor leadership will kill your business. Great leadership will take you to levels of success you never thought possible. You get to choose.
4- Showing appreciation
It is written within our human DNA to want to be included and be shown appreciation. Showing appreciation, sincerely and consistently, is the passageway to accountability and the most effective way to influence performance. Regardless of your industry, if you desire better performance, show appreciation.
5- Showing value
It is impossible to call out greatness in others if you don't prove to them the value of their work. Here are a few starting points to understand how to describe value to someone:
- how does their work help build success regarding the overall vision of the organization?
- why should they take part in this work each day?
- what role does fulfilling their job play in helping the team?
- how is this work providing quality and not wasting their time?
Provide answers to these questions for each member of your team. Then share these answers often and consistently. Knowing their effort and job provides great value is a highly motivating factor to success.
If you don’t take these 5 areas seriously- you will be on the downside of the great resignation era.
But this is also the golden age of hiring for organizations that understand the value of people, culture, leadership, appreciation and value.
You get to decide which path you will take. You get to choose if this is the golden age of hiring or the era of the great resignation.