Using data-driven techniques to beat the Great Resignation

Much has been written about the long-term impact COVID-19 will have on how people do their jobs. Throughout the pandemic, people had the space and time to consider what really matters to them, and to ask the big questions such as “Am I happy?”

For many people, the crisis has acted as a catalyst for change, leading to the Great Resignation, or the Great Talent Swap for those that lost employees to a competitor or different company. Life goals people perhaps once only daydreamed about are now becoming a reality with the plethora of options and flexibility now available.

Our research at Workhuman bears this out: 30% of people looking for a new job say they are doing so for greater flexibility, and it seems that parents are particularly motivated to change, accounting for 65% of the total of job seekers. Clearly, many workers are looking for ways to better manage family and work responsibilities.

For instance, research we conducted for our Human Workplace Index revealed that 56% of respondents who want to stay at their company say it’s because they like their company and/or co-workers. Culture is therefore key to winning and retaining workers.

All of this is to say that businesses and leaders need to act. The Great Resignation has created an employee market where people have a wealth of openings available to them and they can be more selective about who they work for. Employers therefore need to give current employees a reason to stay and prospective employees a reason to apply.

Building a strong employer brand is now mission critical. Companies that fail to do so risk stifling their own growth for a want of talent, as this voluntary turnover could cost businesses around the world billions of dollars.

Here are three areas where businesses can leverage data-driven techniques to drive employee satisfaction:

Human-centered technology

Traditionally, HR technology has been transactional and focused on the task. The technology needed right now focuses on the people just as much as it does on their experience of the task being done.

Human-centered technology that powers actions such as continuous feedback, employee recognition, celebrating individual and team accomplishments, and building a more human workplace have measurable bottom-line benefits because they strengthen employees’ emotional ties to each other and the organization.

One approach could be to set up a peer-to-peer recognition platform where people can publicly recognize the work of their colleagues. The platform could potentially link to a rewards program whereby employees gain points toward goods or experiences. From an analytics perspective, the approach also provides valuable data on where good work is being done in the organization and by whom, enabling employers to identify high performers and ensure that they are adequately engaged at work.