The Great Resignation.

What is going on?

Surely you’ve heard of The Great Resignation?

Well if not, then to summarise; The Great Resignation is a GLOBAL pattern in 2021, where we are seeing droves of people quitting their jobs and moving on to pastures new. In the UK we reached an all-time high of 1 million vacancies in July 21. In the United States 4 million resigned in April, with an exponential 10 million jobs being available by the end of June 2021! [Wired].

A recent study from Microsoft cited that;

“[…]over 40 percent of the global workforce considering leaving their employer this year.”

So what is going on? Why are we seeing this Global movement? And how is it SO big that it’s even had it’s own name coined The Great Resignation. The Financial Times put it rather bluntly;

“The Great Resignation is a sort of workers’ revolution and uprising against bad bosses and tone-deaf companies that refuse to pay well and take advantage of their staff.”

It’s safe to say that we are not unfamiliar with these reasons being a motivation to quit jobs. At Greenfield IT, we predominantly work with the passive market, those who are not actively looking. But we soon get to the crux of the issues when we do speak to candidates, and more often than not the opportunity and need to leave for something better becomes more enticing than coasting in a role that’s “ok”.

The most common requests for candidates who are passive and *maybe* considering a move, hang on three core motivators;

Fair market salary, or even better – above market salary (after all, money does make the world go round)
Flexible or hybrid working, or even better – fully remote working
Working with innovative tech, especially in the IT and Digital sectors
Culture – are they going to be work with ‘bad bosses’ or ‘great bosses’ (and teams)?

You’d be right in thinking, surely this is nothing new in recruitment? You see thousands of candidates, and surely all those motivators are the same, regardless of The Great Resignation?
And that is kind of true, however, the pandemic has for all of us caused this major shift in our relationship with work, our relationship with balance, families, free time and beyond.

You’ll have seen a lot of talk recently about whether the Monday to Friday 9-5 is dead and whether this is too outdated for the modern, post-pandemic world? Short of running (yet another) LinkedIn poll about the 4 days working week…we’ve decided to read up into these patterns and see what the actual research is saying. And it’s exactly that, people’s motivators have not necessarily changed, but the context has.

The pandemic was terrifying, it forced us home, isolated us, it caused thousands of people to lose their jobs. But for those who were lucky enough to survive the pandemic, physically and in employment, bosses were forced to relinquish some control and trust their staff to stay productive

and work from home…and by all accounts….it worked.

What The Great Resignation is shining a light on is the companies and the bosses who either never relinquished the control and imparted trust, or have forced staff back into an environment to pre-pandemic days which does not fit with the modern way of working. So people are leaving.

In the Microsoft study they (quite rightly) say that employers and companies need

“[…]a thoughtful approach to hybrid work will be critical for attracting and retaining diverse talent.”

And they are right, if they want to retain or attract the right people and a brilliantly diverse workforce, hybrid working will be critical for that.

We know that some companies and roles are not suitable for this, it can go with the nature of the role. But with flexible working now becoming part of employees’ rights in the UK as soon as they start in a new role companies are going to have to step up and offer some kind of flexibility to staff, otherwise they risk of falling victim to the great resignation, and in turn, being left behind – which is unthinkable in the IT and Tech sectors!

If you want some advice on how we can help you diversify your workforce, and perhaps address flexibility for your new roles, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We have helped countless businesses over the last 2 years approach and execute brilliant hybrid, flexible and remote roles.

Eleanor Carter
[email protected]
Direct: 01743 296 537
Mobile: 07795024067
Office: 01743 234 029