Turning Around the Great Resignation
This email is longer than most but I believe it is important. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. I appreciate you taking the time to read and consider.
I stood in line at the Post Office behind a small business owner shipping 50 identical boxes containing what he described as “Christmas gifts for their best customers”.
I watched as each identical box went out into the world with the intention of letting each customer know they were valued. I don’t know what was in the boxes, but I wondered, do all those customers celebrate Christmas? Do they all value what is being sent? Maybe it’s a canned ham going to vegetarians or maybe it’s nuts going to a home with nut allergies. Perhaps it is Christmas fruit cake going to a Muslim business owner who does not celebrate December 25 as the birth of Christ. While the gesture is likely appreciated, the one size fits all solution likely missed the mark with many.
I wondered if all of the clients felt truly valued by the well-intentioned gift.
A friend of mine recently finished a long volunteer stint that required skills, knowledge, and a commitment of several months living on-site. On her last day she was handed a very valuable “Thank you” gift: a gift certificate to a luxury golf course for 2 rounds of golf with a golf cart included.
Here’s the kicker. Not only does she not golf, she was actually leaving the area in the next few days to drive back to her home state with no plans to return. While the gesture was appreciated, she did not feel appreciated. Quite the opposite. She felt like she was not seen nor valued.
We are facing the greatest challenge in employee retention in years. We too must learn that when it comes to retention, one-size fits all solutions often don’t make employees feel valued.
Here’s a Fact
Employees dedicate more than three-quarters of their waking hours to working.
My prediction is that in 2022, employee recruitment and retention will become even morechallenging, not less. It’s time to take a long, hard look at the gap between what’s in the hearts and souls of workers and how we choose to reward them. Because the “one size fits all” approach isn’t going to keep people anymore.
What’s Changed?
The pandemic changed us. Most humans no longer accept that their value is that of a commodity or a “human resource”, yet business owners, corporate entities, and unions, are still operating as if employees are a commodity.
During the pandemic we came to realize that we truly are giving over our most vital, healthiest, and productive years to work. And many people have decided to make a different choice because of it. The pandemic brought about one vibrant realization for workers: the profound awareness of what they are giving up for work.
I know this because I’ve spent the pandemic talking with dozens of employees. LIke someone who traveled so much for her high paying and exciting work that she didn’t even realize the joy she could feel eating dinner with her family every night. She fell in love with that time. The possibility of giving that up again is not something she’s
willing to consider.
Another person increased his health and wellness dramatically by sleeping a little later and then going for a walk during the morning hours when would have been in a daily, stressful commute. He’s not willing to do that again.
A young woman whose loved ones are in India has realized that the non-negotiable policy her agency has of no one taking more than 2 consecutive weeks vacation, serves the agency, but it doesn’t serve her as a human. She’s now looking for a new job.
There’s the educator whose health and wellness is negatively impacted because they must be the face of decisions made by higher ups, even when they don’t believe those decisions are in the best interest of the staff or the children. And after dealing with this stress throughout the pandemic, they’ve decided they just can’t continue in that role.
There’s the healthcare worker who has been comforting patients throughout the pandemic while rarely getting home with the time or energy to nurture her own children and is so burnt out, she feels despair. All she wants to do is quit.
The list goes on and on. Yet the only solution that many employers come up with is to offer more money or a few extra personal days.
As you can see from the brief examples above, what will help employees get whole again is as unique as the employees themselves.
So What is Required to Turn this Around?
The solution isn’t easy. It will make employers uncomfortable. In fact many who read this may dismiss what I’m saying while thinking “Beth, you are dreaming. This can’t be done,” having a multitude of roadblocks in mind: unions, profit margins, fairness, productivity, accountability, shareholders, and on and on.
Saving the workforce from absolute implosion, requires a massive shift in perspective. A literal shaking up of all we know.
Let’s start with the fact that employees are whole beings. Heart, soul, mind. And acknowledge that they commit the premium hours of their days and the best years of their lives to working.
The companies and institutions that depend upon humans to do work need to realize that the old transactional model of “you should be grateful to work here” is no longer the way employees see things.
Humans have had a great awakening around how valuable our time is.
We’ve lost a lot in the past 2 years and now yearn to focus on the people and experiences we value. Work comes second.
Time with family and friends, hobbies and talents, health and wellness, sleep, travel, raising and preparing our own food, justice and equity, the earth and nature. Whatever it is we value, we’ve become more intimate with it and are less willing to lose touch with it again for money. A bonus, a raise, or profit sharing have frankly decreased in value as our perception of what we value continues to increase.
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been shown that we can live with less and do more of what we previously thought impossible. Caring for elders in our own home, homeschooling our children, living on one salary, keeping that car a few years longer, baking from scratch, growing our own food, and wearing the same clothes a few years longer.
We’ve also learned that what fills one person up and makes them whole again, isn’t the same for others. In fact, it’s quite unique. And yet, employers are still hooked into fair being that everyone is treated the same way. Regardless of unique needs.
The last two years have shown us clearly that there is no such thing as fair. There is only what’s equitable. So how can employers move from trying to provide the same solutions to all employees and move to a place where solutions are tailored to individual needs?
What does each person need so their heart, soul, mind, and body are full? What’s offered must take into consideration what the individual values and needs. We have to co-create remedies with the employee that help them balance what they value with doing the work. And accept that work is no longer the first priority for most people.
Yes, this perspective is far removed from the perspective we’ve lived with for years: the world in which everyone respectfully accepts the Christmas ham, even if they don’t eat meat or celebrate Christmas.
Steps to Getting Started
It’s uncomfortable to think about how this might work. But here’s some first steps.
Prioritize the time to get to know each employee on a human level. Find out what they value. What would make sharing their most valuable hours and years less burdensome on their heart and soul? How can the organization provide customized solutions based on individual employees?
Start thinking about the long-term payoff. What would be the long-term payoff if your rockstar programmer actually had ample time off to get fed and nurtured on an extended trip to be with her family in India? What creative ideas could you and she come up with that would mitigate the short-term impact? How could other members of the team help problem-solve this if they knew that they too would be benefiting from creative solutions for them to get what they need?
One size does not fit all. A staffer who is exhausted from caring for their special needs child may benefit from a 2 hour break in the middle of the work day so they can recharge their own spirit while the child is at school. An employee who is working two jobs to try and pay off $50k in student loans could benefit from a student loan repayment benefit.
Rethinking fairness. Leaders need to become deeply curious and interested in the hearts, souls, minds, and wellness of individuals. The pie that is cut in perfectly equal slices doesn’t mean that everyone gets what they need. It just means everyone gets the same. It’s time to rethink fairness over equity.
As I said, what I’m talking about as the remedy to save the workforce is not simple nor easy. But it is right.
There is room to do better. And for organizations and businesses that want to retain their employees, it means we have to think differently. No matter how scary or uncomfortable.
Where might you start?