Can the Great Resignation be Reversed in 2022? Here’s What Employees Really Want

The Great Resignation is underway. As noted by the Harvard Business ReviewOpens a new window , more than four million Americans quit their jobs in April 2021 alone, and by the end of July, businesses advertised over 10 million open positions. With the tech sector facing a severe shortage of skilled people, let’s look at how the tide of workforce exodus can be managed or even reversed.

This large-scale resignation has particularly impacted the tech talent pool. Even pre-pandemic, skilled IT staff were in high demand, but as noted by research firm GartnerOpens a new window , business IT adoption has effectively fast-forwarded five years to meet remote work requirements. The result? Companies now depend on technology to drive business success. Still, thanks to growing skill gaps and increasing resignations, they lack the people they need to manage, monitor effectively, and master these solutions.

So, where does this leave organizations looking to thrive post-pandemic? Can they reverse the Great Resignation? And if so, how?

Fighting the Tide

While employers can’t avoid the Great Resignation, they can mitigate the impact. The challenge? Many businesses are doubling down on hiring and retention practices that were historically successful but don’t carry the same weight in a post-pandemic world.

Pay increases are one example. While raises are always welcome, employee engagement is the driving factor in many resignations. As noted by research firm GallupOpens a new window , even raises of 20% aren’t enough to convince engaged employees to leave. Still, those who don’t feel heard or seen at their current company will make the jump even if there’s no extra pay. And with 63% of employeesOpens a new window saying they don’t feel heard, it’s easy to see why so many are jumping ship.

The result is the need for a new approach. Simply raising wages is like fighting the tide — it may work temporarily, but companies will quickly run out of steam and end up going under. To effectively reverse the Great Resignation, businesses must identify the underlying issues and meet these challenges head-on.

See More: 3 Questions To Check if Your Digital Workplace Is “Great Resignation” Proof

Here to Stay: What Staff Really Want

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for keeping staff over the long term, there are five broad areas of focus that can help companies retain top talent.

Confidence

One of the biggest drivers of the Great Resignation is the realization by staff that their time — both personal and professional — has value. Having experienced the benefits of flexible schedules and hybrid work models, employees want to work for companies that trust them to get the job done on their terms.

“Potential new hires are seeking out organizations that treat them as trustworthy individuals and offer the flexibility to create work schedules that fit their lifestyle needs,” says Lizzie Burton, EVP of people and culture at Snow Software.

Compensation

The right compensation also plays a critical role. While better pay is always promising, there’s a shift away from traditional compensation packages — those that offer things like salary, bonuses, and stock — to frameworks more focused on people as a whole.

“Traditionally, companies would look to offer attractive compensation and rarely review and refresh benefit offerings,” says Burton. “Now, more and more organizations are differentiating themselves around the flexible ways of working they offer and their benefits, especially those around health, including mental, physical and all-around wellbeing.”

Coaching

Despite best efforts, it may not be possible for organizations to find and recruit tech talent in the marketplace at large. As a result, it’s now critical for companies to create coaching and training programs that offer opportunities for in-house talent to learn new skills and move up the corporate ladder.

As noted by Christine Spang, co-founder and CTO of Nylas, “The demand for software engineers reached an all-time high in 2021 on the heels of the pandemic, and there are no signs of it letting up heading into 2022. While compensation and benefits will always be critical components of attracting and retaining talent, companies will need to find other ways to stand out. This means investing in training programs and apprenticeships to give engineers guidance and career growth opportunities and showcasing company culture and innovation.”

See More: 1 in 4 Employees To Quit After Pandemic: 3 Ways To Deal With the Wave of Turnover

Culture

Culture is also critical to curtailing the impacts of the Great Resignation. “2021 showed us that it is now essential for company leaders to treat growth metrics and people metrics as one and the same,” says Gleb Polyakov, co-founder and CEO of Nylas.

In practice, this means creating a company culture that allows employees to be their authentic selves at work — and it starts with leadership. “Successful leaders will need to operate with emotional integrity, the control of emotions, and an honest acknowledgment of them,” says Polyakov. “As a result, the entire organization will have a strong culture where everyone can have transparent communication and be their authentic self at work.”

Comfort

Companies also need to consider the role of comfort in attracting and retaining staff. “I see the future of work as supporting an increasingly flexible workforce inside of an increasingly flexible workspace,” says Simon Taylor, CEO and co-founder of HYCU.

“What I mean by that is that I think people will now feel almost every employer will have a heightened sense of comfort. Comfort with hiring people in relatively remote areas. At the same time, I think there is going to be a working expectation that regular office visits will need to take place, again for that important face-to-face time and collaboration time.”

Getting Back on Track

Workplace evolution was underway pre-pandemic, but the events of the past two years have remarkably accelerated the process. The result is a technology workforce no longer satisfied with the status quo; having seen what’s possible when they’re given trust and time to do their jobs properly, staff have no interest in going back to the way things were.

This is the key takeaway for organizations looking to hire and retain more talent: Backtracking to old approaches around in-house operations and higher compensation won’t convince staff to stay. Reversing the Great Resignation requires a change in direction. Companies need to show confidence in skilled staff to get their work done, cultivate better communication, offer new paths for advancement, create an inclusive corporate culture, and prioritize employee comfort regardless of how and where they work.

Put simply; there’s no going back. The Great Resignation is a bellwether of business change — an indicator that moving forward requires a reevaluation of where enterprises are, where they want to be, and how making people a priority can help get them there.

Do you see The Great Resignation reversing anytime soon? Tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!