How the Great Resignation is Forcing Leaders to Think Differently About Teambuilding
Now is the time to think and act differently when recruiting people, structuring teams and retaining top talent.
The Great Resignation means companies can’t build teams the way they used to… that might actually be a good thing.
In a new report on job openings and labor turnover just released this month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shared that more than 4.4 million people left their jobs in September of 2021. That’s a slight increase from the month prior and represents about 3% of the total American workforce.
If you’re an employer paying close attention to these historic numbers, you might be asking yourself, “what’s driving more people to quit and how might the Great Resignation impact my business?”
With resignation numbers accelerating each month and no foreseeable end in sight, employers can’t afford to ignore the issue. But don’t let the headlines fool you—the Great Resignation isn’t all doom and gloom like many would have you believe—instead, it’s an opportunity to think and act differently when recruiting people, structuring teams, and retaining top talent.
The Great Resignation: What’s actually happening?
Many people list the COVID-19 pandemic as the main reason for the increase in employee resignations this year, but in actuality, there are a handful of other factors that also contributed to the birth of the Great Resignation.
Some sources point to the fact that the U.S. workforce, for many decades, has been slowly moving away from a focus on production-based manufacturing in favor of a service-based economy.
Whereas production-based jobs call for specialized labor at a physical job site, jobs in a service-based economy focus more on transferrable computer and communication skills that can be performed virtually anywhere.
This brings us to another factor influencing the Great Resignation: the growing ability and acceptance of remote work.
In the past few decades, advances in technology and wider accessibility of the internet have enabled more people to work full-time jobs from the comfort of their own homes.
The acceptance of remote work by employers was accelerated dramatically as a direct result of the stay-at-home orders and social distancing guidelines that came with the pandemic.
One study found that before the pandemic, fewer than 6% of Americans worked from home. During the pandemic, however, “57% of workers in management and professional occupations worked from home due to the pandemic.”
This dramatic increase in the necessity and acceptance of remote work brings us to yet another factor driving more people to quit their jobs: employee wellness.
The pandemic didn’t just force people to figure out a new way of living and working—it also empowered many to think critically about bigger topics related to work, such as who they work for, where and when they work, and what benefits matter most to them.
Almost overnight, employees began questioning whether the company they worked for was the company they should continue working for, and for many, that answer was no.
How employees are responding
In recent months, dozens of companies have surveyed U.S. workers to better understand resignation and labor trends.
One survey done by Bankrate found that 55% of Americans said they are “likely to look for new employment in the next 12 months.”
Another survey from Microsoft found that 41% of the global workforce is likely to consider leaving their current job for something else in the next year, and 46% are planning a major career pivot or transition.
In a survey of freelancers, we worked with Opinium Research and found that 50% of freelancers voluntarily quit their traditional job to pursue freelance and that 40% are not interested in returning to a traditional full-time job.
With these Great Resignation statistics in mind, we as employers must realize three things:
- We’re in the midst of a total labor revolution.
- Employees are more likely to leave than ever before.
- To survive, we have to be willing to change the ways we build and manage teams.
How employers can benefit from the Great Resignation
If you have employees working for you, it’s likely that you will be impacted by the Great Resignation in some way or another in the next year.
Your best employee may leave you in search of a different opportunity. If this happens, you can respond in one of two ways: you can spend months trying to find someone to fill their place, or you can adapt to the changing landscape of work.
Take a minute to consider how many people are leaving traditional 9-to-5 jobs in favor of independent consulting. According to Vox, the number of independent workers grew 34% this year.
These are experienced, talented, available professionals who are actively searching for businesses to help.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars and months of time trying to replace a FTE, why not consider adding an independent consultant to your team instead?
This concept of building teams with both full-time employees and independent consultants is not new—it’s a strategy that big companies have quietly been implementing for years.
Take Google, for example. In 2018, contractors reportedly outnumbered full-time employees for the first time in the history of the company.
They aren’t alone—many of the world’s biggest companies build hybrid teams that leverage independent contractors, freelancers, and consultants because it allows them to keep hiring and employee benefits costs down, spin up and scale back teams quickly, and work with highly sought-after experts in specialized fields on an as needed basis.
As the Great Resignation rages on, smaller companies would do well to consider adopting this hiring and team structuring strategy.
By adapting to the changing behavior and desires of professionals, you can continue working with a world-class team of high-performing experts who help make your business stronger and more profitable over time.
The Great Resignation is changing how employees and employers choose to work together. Embrace the situation, be willing to adapt by building hybrid teams of FTEs and independent workers, and your business will continue to succeed.
Bryan Karas is founder GrowTal, the talent marketplace for finding and hiring marketing experts in the most seamless way possible. GrowTal brings together talented marketing experts, who are looking to be fairly compensated for their ability to contribute to an organization independently, and companies, who have an immediate need but do not want to invest in hiring in-house talent.