The Impact of the Great Resignation

Introduction

CHRO Strategies for Leading Through the Great Resignation

They say that if there is one constant, it is change, and that is certainly true for the impact of two years of a global pandemic on businesses and C-level leaders. In this constantly shifting environment, CHROs and their colleagues in the C-suite are navigating a complex workforce landscape. From remote work to hybrid models, and from culture to communications, issues of people management are at the forefront. 

Amidst all of this change, record numbers of workers are leaving their jobs in 2021. We asked CHROs in Evanta communities to reflect on the “Great Resignation” and its impact on their outlook for 2022 and beyond.
 

Employee Retention and Recruitment: 3 Themes

In a recent pulse survey, we asked CHROs if they are experiencing greater-than-normal attrition at their organization this year, and 64% of CHROs said yes. 27% said that it’s about the same as years past, and only 9% said no, they were not experiencing high attrition. 

As CHROs reflected on what is causing attrition and how to manage it, three themes emerged: 

1. Back to Basics: Communicate & Be Flexible

As Erin Feigal notes, “The current workforce landscape has been a moving target, and that trend will likely be here for some time.” CHROs and business leaders have to adapt, stay flexible and remember the basics of transparency and good communication to lead in this environment. 

1. The Retention Game Hasn’t Changed

Katy Theroux shares, “Appreciate the team you have, reward and recognize them, and make sure they are connected to something more than a paycheck.” CHROs are trying many strategies to retain employees – and one is to show appreciation for those who are staying. 

1. Becoming a Talent Magnet

“It’s hard to say what is most important right now – is it recruiting, retention, development? You need all three to be a talent magnet,” says Katy Theroux. CHROs are focusing on addressing the gaps between their roles and the market and ensuring there are opportunities for growth and development. 

1. Back to the Basics: Communicate & Be Flexible

How can CHROs lead effectively and plan for 2022 in this environment? Their answer seems to be in focusing on the fundamentals that they relied on early in the pandemic — frequent, transparent communication and flexibility.

Community Voices

Regarding outlook and planning, we’re focusing even more on agility, simplification and effective change management. As we set strategies and create plans, we’re asking ourselves if we’ve applied these focuses, and we also contemplate things like: Should we be doing this right now? Can we do something faster with less bureaucracy? Is this ‘best practice’ right for our organization? We know that we’re in a fairly unpredictable environment in many facets of our work; therefore, we’re learning to leave space for unexpected priorities. In the past, we would model out our strategies pretty ambitiously without a lot of room to flex.”

Erin Feigal
Minneapolis CHRO Community

At our production sites, we have seen the largest impact thus far. Hiring and retaining our hourly workforce has been unprecedented. We are taking another look at many practices – proactive wage and benefit review, onboarding and training, attracting and selecting talent, and communication. I believe leaders should focus on the fundamentals of onboarding and communication. For us, it is ensuring we are solving issues employees are having in production, as this is the greatest area for new employees to assimilate and learn quickly, and ease the burden for existing employees – helping them be successful.”

Melissa Lewis
New York CHRO Community

While we continue to monitor and respond to employee concerns, we have found that our proactive approach to employee engagement has helped us avoid the impact others have faced during the ‘Great Resignation.’ Empathy is at the core of our culture, and when teams feel heard and understood, they’re more likely to feel loyalty to an organization. Throughout the pandemic, ensuring our employees have felt that support has been one of our top priorities.”

Daniel Phelps
San Francisco CHRO Community

For our office staff, we have a very flexible return to office plan. This is probably one of the biggest drivers of retention. I hear from employees quite often that they really appreciate the flexibility they have with their managers… Our Executive Chairman, who was CEO at the time, asked me rhetorically how we could create our desired culture faster. I immediately answered, ‘one employee at a time.’ Every time we visit a plant we stop and talk to our colleagues, shake hands (pre-Covid) and listen. Recently, an employee I met on one of these trips emailed me about a problem he was having and a desire to leave the company. We were able to retain him. It alerted us to a challenge managers experience when they feel like they can’t address pay or role issues proactively.”

Katy Theroux
Houston CHRO Community

2. The Retention Game Hasn’t Changed

How can you keep employees in this environment? CHROs are listening to their employees, focusing on what matters to them, reviewing compensation and benefits where it makes sense, and helping to create hybrid and flexible ways of working.

Community Voices

The competitive nature of retaining and attracting talent intensified immensely in 2021. Staying connected with employees’ needs and perspectives, as well as the trends and movement of the external market, are both key focuses for an HR team. From there, formulating proactive recommendations, presenting with influence, and executing thoughtfully are next steps. At Prime, our Hub and Home™ hybrid working model was an example of putting those words to action. We quickly realized last year there are so many efficiencies and a great deal of empowerment and flexibility in working from home. We also realized we missed connecting with our colleagues in person to establish relationships, work collaboratively, innovate and have some fun together. Our Facilities team, in partnership with IT, HR, Legal and others, researched and came up with a hybrid work model that takes the positives of each, combined with a virtual system to connect both worlds in a seamless, modern way.”

Erin Feigal
Minneapolis CHRO Community

We are trying a lot of things. However, for us, the focus is on the fundamentals. This includes a clear understanding of where we compare to the market (in both hourly and salary roles), talent development (specific to identifying top talent, talent risks, and development plans), and then having discussions with employees to ensure we hear their career interests and support implementation of their development plans. In addition, we have spent a lot of time looking at work practices and benefits of value – specifically, implementing a hybrid work model and adjusting benefits.”

Melissa Lewis
New York CHRO Community

Allow your employees a mechanism to share their concerns, challenges, and even frustrations. Make employee well-being an ongoing focus and discussion point from your leadership team. Clearly communicate your strategy and make sure it translates so that each and every employee can see how they are aligned with the company strategy and goals in a meaningful way.”

Daniel Phelps 
San Francisco CHRO Community

I don’t think the retention game has changed. Our people are leaving for the same reasons that they did two years ago, but at a higher number. For our plant workers, we have used retention bonuses for new hires. They are necessary for attracting talent, but not necessarily improving retention. We have also focused on safety at our plants, and we hear from employees that this is very important to them, too. Our head of Operations has deployed retention playbooks at most of our plants. They are focused on creating a positive employee experience by leveraging tested practices.”

Katy Theroux
Houston CHRO Community

One other point CHROs are making on retention: don’t forget to show appreciation to the employees who are still at the company.

Community Voices

The uncertainty of the length of the pandemic has hindered the business in predicting scheduling, material flow, and inflation impact. We have unprecedented challenges; at the same time, teams have been doing incredible work. Our recognition and appreciation for this – in a creative way – is critical to support the plants.”

Melissa Lewis
New York CHRO Community

Leaders need to lean into empathy, transparency, and supporting employees as we all navigate the changes together. We call this ‘Flying in Formation’ at Genesys, and it is an approach that has served us well.”

Daniel Phelps 
San Francisco CHRO Community

3. Becoming a Talent Magnet

How can CHROs be proactive when it comes to changing employee expectations? Suggestions from CHROs include listening to your employees, addressing their needs and changes in the market, and making a connection between their work and the organization’s purpose.

Community Voices

Keep listening and taking action, focusing on meaningful career development and connection to company purpose and strategy, while paying attention to the market and assessing trends against the needs of the business.”

Erin Feigal
Minneapolis CHRO Community

In my opinion, this starts with attracting and hiring talent that is inspired by our purpose, values, and alignment on career interest. Then, it is having and practicing a robust talent development process. A process that is at the center of how managers lead and develop their teams. If that process is through the entire organization, it enables proactively addressing talent expectations and needs. In addition, building leadership skills to listen and adjust to needs – that are in alignment with, and support, culture and purpose.”

Melissa Lewis
New York CHRO Community

When we look at the results of how our responses to the challenges faced during the pandemic were received, we found that more than 90% of our employees thought the company was empathetic. We also found that nearly half of our employees feel more productive while working from home. As we look ahead, these learnings are at the core of our new talent-centric workplace model, which will allow employees to be office-based, fully virtual, or flexible (a combination of virtual and on-site work). This empathetic approach empowers teams to do their best work regardless of their location.”

Daniel Phelps 
San Francisco CHRO Community

Listen. I have a practice of returning every employee email and phone call. For some, this makes perfect sense; for others, it sounds crazy. I want to engage and understand what’s getting in the way of getting the job done. I’ve always been known as a pragmatic, business-focused HR person, but the first time I stepped into an operating role, it gave me a totally new perspective. I became a victim of my own policies. Involving or at a minimum understanding the impact you have on those who must follow the policies you create or the programs you implement is critical. This is being proactive.”

Katy Theroux
Houston CHRO Community

Conclusion

As Erin Feigal notes, “The pandemic and other related phenomena have had an impact on our work environments in so many ways.” CHROs are leading the C-suite on workforce issues through all of this change and offered these concluding thoughts to their peers.

It is extremely important that all leaders be approachable. It needs to be easy to gather feedback from employees and understand from every employee’s point of view what the relevant challenges, concerns, and worries are so they can be spoken to and actioned. Surveys are a great tool, but only if you have plans to create actionable insights and outcomes.”

Daniel Phelps 
San Francisco CHRO Community

There are several actions leaders can take to plan in the current environment:
1) Know the facts about your local hiring market. Leverage data to understand labor availability and trends. Even if it is dated, it provides a baseline; use anecdotal data you can collect to see where the market is headed.
2) Be flexible. Flexible schedules. Flexible work arrangements. Flexible on compensation. Flexible on job descriptions.
3) Stay calm. Set reasonable expectations using data. Time to fill metrics from 2019 are probably not realistic today.
4) Remember being a talent magnet is a team sport – we are all in this together.”

Katy Theroux
Houston CHRO Community

Erin Feigal sums it up well: “The world is changing rapidly, and those changes can be on your company’s doorstep in an instant.  As a CHRO, it’s more important than ever to be connected internally and externally, nurture strong networks to share with, lean on and learn from.” 

If you’re looking to join a conversation on the Great Resignation, employee retention, or recruiting, find your CHRO community and an upcoming opportunity to connect with your peers.

Special thanks to all participating companies.

by CHROs, for CHROs

Join the conversation with peers in your local CHRO community.