Great Resignation and Big Quit Talent Loss? Five Success Actions Growth Leaders Take

How are you affected by the Great Resignation and the Big Quit? 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive disruption in employment, and mid-career technology and health career workers are among those with the most significant employer defection rates. Among the factors influencing turnover among Americans are increased workloads and burnout, pandemic-restrained demand for career change and growth, and the personal re-evaluation of career and work goals. My intent in this article isn’t to explore the causes or consequences of the current resignation trend but rather to explore your responses and actions to leavers. In other words, how are you saying goodbye to Great Resignation and Big Quit leavers?

Talent departures create pain and loss in different measures and ways. While all losses are consequential, losses receive unequal attention and treatment. Some managers and employees meet outs with indifference, others with envy, and a few with last-ditch offers and promises.

In the face of these challenges, there are significant actions that exemplary talent and worker-centric leaders are taking in response to talent loss. These five actions move leaders from sustaining cultures to developing communities that create long-term organizational value.

1.     Treat separation with grace and sincerity

Leaders recognize that departures are unique opportunities to recognize individuals for their contributions and talents and wish them success in their new endeavors. The departure presents an opportunity to genuinely express interest in the leaver and the significance of their career. Of course, this should have occurred throughout an employee’s tenure. If it’s true that you would welcome the person’s return to your team or organization, let them know. Situations don’t always work out with new employers, and rebound employees bring new insights and perspectives on career choices and directions that may contribute to talent retention within a group or team.

2.     Involve others in Continuation and Next Steps

Departures create an interruption in workflows. In addition, exiting employees disrupt relationships and alliances. Clients, colleagues, and other stakeholders rely on the leaver’s contributions and outputs. Leaders acknowledge anxieties rather than sweep them away. It’s essential to have insight and knowledge of planned and in-progress work to ensure successful transitions. The leaver’s colleagues may be anxious about new burdens. Will your managers approve a replacement hire, or is there a different solution for customer and process excellence? Nearly every departure provides an opportunity to understand the work process and to drive betterment. It’s also an opportunity to connect stakeholders to your employees and teams powerfully.

3.     Manage transition with Purpose, Mission, and Values

Every departure is a change event that creates uncertainty. Successfully facing uncertainty requires acknowledging loss, managing the transition, and the presence of hope. Personal and corporate values regarding fair treatment and equity are essential considerations in transition. An organization’s values can provide the guardrails for decision-making relative to the distribution of task assignments and reorganizations that might result from talent departures. Leadership actions demonstrate and reflect corporate and personal values. When purpose, mission, and values remain at the forefront and center of activity, they provide constancy and an enduring call to action or surviving or remaining employees.

4.     Research and Learn:  Follow-Up in 3 to 6 Months

Most exit interviews provide the wealthiest information when conducted between three and six months following an employee’s departure. That time frame offers a range for relative connection strength and yet enough psychological distance for appraisal without fear. When leaders harness the data from these critical insight interviews, they can leverage observations and insights to improve their leadership practice. Gallup’s long-term employee engagement research demonstrates that 70% of employee engagement is within managerial control. Successful leaders incorporate insights from departures into new organizational and collaboration practices.

5.     Invest in Relationships

Departures remind us of the centrality of relationships. Relationships are at the heart of all enterprise activity. When employees know that their leaders are their champions and supporters, employees give it their all, increasing the contribution of discretionary effort, a hallmark measure of engagement. Many managers avoid career conversations because they operate from a scarcity mentality. When leaders fuel relationships on care, they generate loyalty, retention, and the development of contribution. Influential leaders also differentiate talent, taking care to apply an even hand to rewards often in short supply. Departures remind us that investments in others yield intangible psychic rewards that sustain leadership performance.

Successful leaders have always built organizations for their long-term success and vitality. Setbacks brought on by the Great Resignation and the Big Quit will give way to new approaches and inventions to creating prosperity. When managers acknowledge that talent is at the heart of all human enterprise, they cross the threshold from supervising to leading on the systemic issues affecting firm performance and organizational wellbeing.

Departures call us to improve tasks and relationships, providing a diagnostic into team and organizational dynamics. In responding to current employment and talent challenges, we can chart a course of progress in personal, group, and organizational effectiveness with new insights while celebrating change and renewal. How are you successfully managing your leadership responses to the Great Resignation and Big Quit?