This blog is with some resignation after experiencing a challenging Spring & Summer.
Energy, space, and time has been devoted to family care, digitizing our marketing and products while providing our financial advisor clients with the extra service required during these challenging times. Yet, I continue to be amazed that it has been 18 months since I have spoken live.
It is my hope you gain strategies to avoid The Great Resignation along with a new level of inspiration and passion for your business and career.
Financial advisors and their teams are looking for ways to gain a new level of inspiration and passion heading into The Great Resignation along with the 4th wave of Covid 19. Unfortunately, business, as usual, does not look like it will be happening any time soon.
“More than half of Canadian workers have one foot out the door. But they aren’t just shifting jobs — they are shifting what they care about.” – Jeremy Shaki, CEO of Lighthouse Labs, We have the ‘Great Resignation’ all wrong; The Financial Post August 24, 2021
The Great Resignation may not be an issue for financial services professionals. “The majority of investment professionals surveyed (81%) said they’d like to work remotely part of the time, and 53% said working remotely increased their efficiency. The report found that 91% of investment professionals said actively developing new professional skills is important to further their careers.” – CFA Institute Report, How remote work is changing the industry and advisors; The Investment Executive May 26, 2021
However, when the Covid 19 finish line is being moved further away while you are running, and there seems to be no end in sight, even the most well-trained and hardy can be forgiven for crumbling.
Financial advisors may be caught short-handed if they don’t re-inspire themselves, what they care about, and care more about their teams. An inspirational foundation will enable financial advisors to re-inspire their teams, to help their teams realize what they care about, or their team members may be out the door.
But Out The Door to What?
One has to learn how to fall in love with their career or profession all over again. Doing so will help your team. Why is this important? From the employee’s perspective; The grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side of the street. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” – Pete Townsend, The Who; We Won’t Get Fooled Again.
From the employer’s perspective; It takes six to nine months to onboard someone.
From both the employee’s and employer’s perspectives, whatever you don’t clean up in one relationship, you bring to the next.
What is The Great Resignation?
The Great Resignation, a term first coined in 2019 by Texas A&M’s Anthony Klotz to predict a mass, voluntary exodus from the workforce, is here, and it’s quite real. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, during the months of April, May, and June 2021, a total of 11.5 million workers quit their jobs.
It is no secret The Great Resignation is being accelerated by COVID 19.
Why?
“Particularly in the beginning of Covid, people started spending a lot more time at home and that gave them a lot more downtime,” he says. “When you’re in the office and it’s hectic, you don’t have as much space and time to think. It’s hard to zoom out and think about the next month, year or five years of your life. Being at home kind of forces that on you, for better or worse. It made people start to question: how can I live a life or have a career that’s in line with what I’m actually interested in?” – Jon M Jachimowicz, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School; Why so many workers have lost interest in their jobs; BBC Worklife August 31, 2021
During this pandemic, within the remote work environment, in particular, jobs have been stripped down to the essentials, with employees working 60 hour weeks.
With an absence of values like culture, social and people, that are not easy to translate remotely, many employees realize that they were not there for the work.
Work increased, and recognition decreased. People feel burned out, overworked and unsupported, feeling like they are not heard or supported by their employer. The psychological contract has been breached.
The psychological contract, by definition, represents the understanding of mutual expectations between employees and employers. In theory, the psychological contract is used to maintain a positive employee-employer relationship by founding a set of mutually agreed ground rules.
The Great Resignation is revealing those that had a poor relationship with or who hated their jobs, pre-pandemic. People want more value from their work environment, or they may quit. “Our data over the years has always shown that the thing people care about most is how companies treat their employees.” Alison Omens, chief strategy officer of JUST Capital, The Great Resignation: How employers drove workers to quit; BBC Workplace July 1, 2021
The Josh Bersin Company, in their new Definitive Guide to EX (Employee Experience), states, “The post-pandemic era is becoming defined by employee experience: How your organization shapes the way people work and live, from productivity to flexibility, wellbeing, and everything in between.”
Beliefs around work and life have changed. Old-school leadership tools won’t cut it in the new-school reality. The battle for talent won’t be won with simple fixes like a salary increase or a foosball table in the break room. – Alain Hunkins, How To Avoid Getting Swept Away By The Great Resignation; Forbes June 29, 2021
New strategies like these will help you to avoid The Great Resignation;
- Provide flexibility with in-person, hybrid, and remote work vs. salary
- Discuss switching routines
- Include incentives; flexibility, mental health days, pto and salary options
- Assist your employees with both personal and business goal setting anchoring their business goals to their personal goals
- Update the company vision, mission, purpose and core values
- Link core values to company and employee goals
- Create new initiatives or projects
- Create a path to grow with outward and upward growth opportunities
- Provide coaching/mentoring and onboarding mentoring
- Maintain a positive workplace
- Conduct stay interviews
- Commit to solid leadership/management
- Include team collaboration
- Build trust in the organization
Stay tuned for my next blog on strategies to gain a new level of inspiration and passion for you and your team.
International Values and Behavioral Analyst, Business Coach, Speaker and Author
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