Employees Are Ready for the Great Resignation—Are You?

The pandemic has transformed our lives. And for many people, it’s also prompted a serious reconsideration of their work. One in four employees said they plan to quit post-pandemic. In fact, management professor Anthony Klotz coined the term “the Great Resignation” to describe this phenomenon, saying, “How we spent our time before the pandemic may not be how we want to spend our time after." 

The shift away from regular routines has given employees time to evaluate their priorities. Some have realised that their organisation doesn’t behave in a way that’s aligned with their personal sense of purpose and values. Others have seen limited chances to learn and develop on the job. And today it’s easier than ever to find roles in other companies that do provide the alignment and opportunities they seek. Especially since candidates are no longer limited geographically—they can now easily apply for jobs in other cities or even other countries.  

So how do you attract and retain the talent you need to be successful? You don’t necessarily need to be a big-name brand to achieve this. It all starts with an operating model that creates the right environment.  

What does a motivating and stimulating environment look like?  

In his book, Drive, author Daniel Pink outlines the three main elements of motivation: purpose, autonomy, and mastery. Let’s look at each element in more detail. 

Purpose

Beyond having a viable business model, what higher purpose and authentic values can people be inspired by and rally behind? 

Is it clear to everyone what that purpose is and how that comes to life in their daily work? Is there alignment between what they are being asked to do and the broader purpose of the organization?

Many companies have mission and vision statements, but these can often feel disconnected from everyday work. Is yours simple (yet powerful) enough that employees can relate it to the tasks they do on a daily basis? For example, healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente uses the following: Kaiser Permanente exists to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve.

Autonomy 

How are you creating the space for everyone at work to solve meaningful problems? How are you communicating what success looks like when those problems are solved?

Do you trust your teams to make decisions and measure outcomes, not outputs?

Many leaders say they want teams to focus on outcomes, but when it comes down to it, they still rely on outputs to measure their work. This can manifest in everything from insisting employees are in the office (or available online) for a particular number of hours to micromanaging every project a team is working on. It doesn’t really matter what feature they’ve built or initiative they’ve launched because employees should be experimenting and trying several different tactics. Leaders should really only focus on the outcome and impact their employees are having. Employees are much more engaged and motivated when they’re empowered to work this way.

Mastery 

How do you help your people to grow and learn? How do you support them in building their competencies? People want to have a sense that they’re making progress. And this can be easier to provide for entry-level or more junior employees. But how do you support more tenured employees to keep giving them new and fresh challenges?

And similarly, how do you help people do their job well, with the right tools and choices at their disposal? I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories about obstacles and blockers that prevent employees from being effective. Perhaps you can think of a few examples from your own organisation, whether it’s trouble with procurement, governance, IT, or funding. How many steps do employees have to go through (and how much time and goodwill is wasted) in order to simply acquire a tool or resource? We need to create company cultures where employees are given the trust and guardrails that enable them to make their own decisions.

Create an operating model that works for everyone

To create an environment that people want to run towards in this competitive market, you can’t leave it to chance or expect individual managers to shoulder the burden. You have to make conscious and deliberate decisions about each of these aspects of your operating model. 

Wondering how to make this happen? Get in touch to learn how Northshore can help you create an operating model that works for everyone.