3 Ways to Prevent the Great Resignation From Happening to Your Business in 2024

Worldwide, workers are leaving their jobs in their droves: the Great Resignation is in full swing, with even more leavers expected in the New Year. 

And, once you take into consideration the factors behind this, it’s not very surprising: a younger workforce are feeling tired, overlooked and unappreciated…and are voting with their feet.  

Gone are the days of a “job for life” or “putting up and shutting up”; since the pandemic hit in early 2020, workers are demanding their jobs work for them. 

While you, as a business, have to keep running with an eye firmly glued on your profits, they also have to recognize that the backbone of their businesses is their employees. And if those employees aren’t happy, then something has (and is) going to give. 

Avoiding the Great Resignation in Your Business

All of this begs the question: how do you, as a business, avoid the Great Resignation from happening to you? 

To answer that, we need to look at the cause. And for that, all you need is to simply look at the makeup of employees leaving and the source of their aggravations: 

• 11 million workers left their jobs between April-June of 2021. 
• In a study by Adobe, over 50% of Gen Z respondents (aged 18-24) were unhappy with their jobs, and unhappy with their work-life balance. 
• The pandemic has shone a light on the way business has been ‘traditionally’ done, and how employees fit into these business models. Respondents to the survey were more likely to want flexible working options, as well as more support and concern relating to the pandemic. 

The ultimate takeaway of these data sources is that a more mobile, younger workforce wants to feel appreciated and heard, as well as be more independent.

That’s because the pandemic has not only changed the way we work, but it’s also changed the way we think about working; employees’ previous priorities – a paycheck – are now replaced by wanting to feel appreciated, and work in a place that they feel align better with their values and wants. 

Because of this, financial incentives to retain your staff just won’t cut it anymore. And not only that: replacing just one of your employees can cost you as a business between 50% to 200% of their annual salary. 

So, the question begs to be asked: what do you need to do to retain your staff? 

Here are just a few ways you can potentially avoid your business from becoming the next victim of the Great Resignation and a solid way to implement all of them…while also removing the mental burden from you! 

Your employees are people first, employees second. They have their own lives and understandably don’t want to be considered just another cog in the machine. 

You as an employer need to think more holistically about your employees’ work lives and help them to feel appreciated. 

Take, for example, the now-infamous post from the Washingtonian’s CEO. Her employees’ staged a walkout after its publication…even though some of her assertions were pretty accurate.  

So why did her employees go on strike? 

To put it simply, due to a lack of communication. 

It was all in her approach: had the Washingtonian CEO discussed her concerns and feelings with her employees, rather than simply announcing them by dropping a bombshell, the whole situation would have ended very differently. 

Your employees want to be appreciated. And the easiest way to show appreciation is through communication. 

No one likes to be surprised out of the blue or kept out of the loop (and this isn’t exclusive solely to younger employees). Your employees are no exception, and communication runs both ways. 

Being able to communicate with all of your employees, be that privately across a 1:1 chat, in a group chat, or with your entire company at once is a way to keep everyone feeling connected, and more importantly, happy. 

Even better: having a way to track who’s seen your post and then automatically resend your a reminder to those who haven’t yet seen it (or who may be ignoring it) is an even easier, foolproof way to make sure everyone is in the loop. 

Of course, this also works from the other side: giving employees a feeling that they can get in touch with anyone they need to (whether that’s other colleagues or their managers) can go a long way in creating a more democratic and open sense of the company. 

No one likes a micromanager! That and your employees want to be able to prove themselves at work. It’s a win-win situation – you can delegate some responsibility, and they get to step up. 

Giving employees the power to self-serve whenever possible will go a long way and return their autonomy over major aspects of their work life. These include: 

Time Tracking 

Absolutely no one enjoys the feeling of being watched and monitored, especially not when it comes to sensitive issues like hours worked (and ultimately, how much money is owed as a result). At the same time, you as a manager almost certainly dislike having to constantly monitor (and worry!) about your employees’ short-changing you, stealing time, or having someone else punching in and out for them (not least because this causes payroll errors). Knowing that your employees’ time clocking is in their own hands gives employees a sense of freedom and relief, and might even promote more honesty in their actual clocking in and out. 

Scheduling needs 

Having to chase employees to create your schedule is a nightmare for you both, playing phone tag, and needing to edit and resend every time there’s even the slightest change is tiring and confusing for both sides. 

Having a way for employees to flag their availability and, more importantly, their unavailability, will make scheduling errors, unclaimed shifts, phone tag and thousands of edits and confusions a thing of the past, while also showing employees you respect their time. 

Absence requests

Something as simple as having to request time off (whether that’s for scheduled, regular PTO or an absence request) can be very stressful for an employee, as well as for you having to manage and coordinate all of the absence requests. Having a way to do this easily, quickly and even automatically, will go a long way to relieve that stress of requesting and waiting for approvals for your employees, and relieve the headache and constant need to coordinate for you. 

Building your company culture takes time, but we can tell you that your company culture begins with employee engagement. Whether via transparent communication (as we’ve mentioned above) or promoting a culture of feedback, companies must constantly remain on top of employee feelings, ideas, and suggestions for improvement. 

Some easy ways to do this could be: 

• Providing easy access to any employee benefits and wellness programs available – for example, leaving details of these on a company knowledge base, easily accessible for server employees to find and learn more about. 
• Providing self-serve courses, upskilling opportunities, and extra training for employees, looking for professional development, or even internal promotions. 
• Providing employees a way to give feedback and suggestions in a non-judgemental (even better: anonymous) way. Remember, your employees have a very different view of the company than you and the management team, so every insight can teach you a lot about your company, including the general feeling and engagement of your employees. 
• Having a way to praise, recognize and promote achievement. Not only is this a fantastic motivational tool, but it can go a long way to promoting a happy, open culture within your company. 

If an employee decides to leave your company or team, check out our article on how to announce their departure professionally.

Stopping the Great Resignation in its Tracks, with One App 

Even before the pandemic, attracting and hiring the best employees (even seasonal employees) was tricky, but the current labor market has made it even more difficult. 

Difficult…but not impossible. And the difference all comes down to how you engage (and engage with) your employees. 

The Great Resignation may be in full swing, but only as the job market is a buyer’s market; younger, modern employees seek employers that care about them, that demonstrate flexibility, and are willing to change with the (ever-changing) times. 

And demonstrating these qualities is by no means tough: all you need is a smartphone app to help you manage it! 

Connecteam is the all-in-one smartphone app that HR managers, business owners, and beyond love to use to manage their employees and scale their businesses. 

That’s because it has all of the tools you need to communicate, engage with, and delegate to your employees, and more! 

Here are just some of the capabilities you can get excited about from Connecteam: 

Communication: Chat and Updates

• Communicate across 1:1 and group chats, all from the click of a button. 
• Send company-wide updates, social-feed style…and track who’s read them (or not), and even set auto-reminders to those who haven’t read them yet to do so! 

Delegation: Time Clock and Shift Scheduling

• Put the authority back into your employees’ hands: the intuitive time clock is a one-touch, clock in and clock out, that records to-the-second timings, meaning your payroll will be super accurate, error-free, and stress-free! 
• Let your employees indicate their unavailability, so you can easily schedule around everyone. Get automatic notifications if a shift lies unclaimed, or allow other employees to claim it themselves. Enjoy a fully digital, error and headache-free schedule that you can deploy from your own mobile device! 

Self-Serve Professional Development: Knowledgebase and More

• Upload anything and everything you want your employees to see, read and remember: there’s no limit on file-sharing or uploads. Give or restrict permissions to specific groups of people, according to your needs. 
• Enjoy self-serve courses and quizzes – run your entire employee onboarding and training from the app, and allow your employees to go at their own pace! 

Even better: Connecteam requires no training to get started, can be downloaded and rolled out to your employees’ smartphones (no work email required!), and even has a 14-day free trial of its paid plans (and even a forever-free plan!). 

Connecteam is the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to help your business keep your employees engaged and more…it will help you work on your business rather than in your business.