The “Great Resignation” – What do the workers want?

I wonder if you might have heard about “The Great Resignation”. This phenomenon apparently has happened because of the pandemic by covid-19 and it is about the massive quitting by workers around the world.  I hope this newsletter might show you what The Great Resignation is, what the experts are saying and what expectations employers have of starting a fight with others for winning human talent already.

The years 2020th and 2021th were difficult for humanity, thousands of people passed away and life priorities changed for everybody. The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that describes record numbers of people leaving their jobs after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.
Sociologists suggest that people have been particularly introspective as a result of the pandemic, which can often lead to job and career changes- and others believe it has been building up in the background for some time.
The origin of the phenomenon is unknown yet, but an article published by “cnn.com”, said: “The Great Resignation.” Is because the workers show Dissatisfaction with working conditions, uninspiring jobs and bad bosses as they have a desire to seek out a better deal from companies short on staff.

The consultancy EY wrote: Also “The Great Resignation is people saying, ‘Whatever the situation is, I want better,’.  “It’s this recalibration that people have had where they’re rethinking the role of work in their lives,” said Brian Elliott, a senior vice president. “They’re rethinking — not only in terms of things like compensation — but also, clearly, things like flexibility, purpose, balance.”

The data suggests people aren’t quitting their jobs to exit the labor market and sit on.  They really ask for a balance in their lives, which means better conditions such as remote working, flexible schedule to spend time with family, better salaries and extra benefits.

The consultancy PWC wrote “Then the companies need to protect themselves from the full force of The Great Resignation, and attract the right skills, organizations must identify what their workers really want and reimagine their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to deliver on these expectations”.

And that is the point:  what do workers want?

As I said before, the workers expect to continue  in remote working.
A recent Gartner poll showed that 48% of employees likely work remotely at least part of the time, then the organizations shift to more remote work operations, consider whether and how to shift performance goal-setting and employee evaluations for a remote context.

The workers figure out for quality times on family even in weekdays

The companies foresee that 80% of workers will be more efficient in their job if they spend time with family or friends even during the weekdays.  Little things for mom workers like picking up their children to school at least one day makes the difference.

The workers don’t want to spend time in traffic jam

For workers it doesn’t make sense to spend two or three hours in traffic jams, the major cities have increased their population and there are thousands of cars moving in rush hours. For this reason, it is better to work in a remote office.

Finally, the experts foresee that 38% of workers will plan to leave their current employees during the current year in the whole world! I hope the companies understand the main problem and I expect them to offer better conditions.  After the pandemic by Covid 19. The workers don’t feel fear anymore. We are ready to rebegin our careers every time from now.

Isis Granados
Directora de Auditoria
Ecovis Colombia
isis.granados@ecovis.co