At the recent Unleash conference, Josh Bersin highlighted the challenges companies are facing in attracting, retaining, and making productive the talent they need to grow and thrive. Over the last few years, this has been encapsulated by the so-called Great Resignation, where the paucity of talent has given people the power to demand a better deal in the workplace.
Early last year, 3% of Americans were quitting their jobs, the highest in 20 years. Since July, it’s dropped to 2.3%, back to pre-pandemic levels, indicating a gradually normalizing job market.
Learning the lessons
While the Great Resignation appears to be ending, researchers from Vienna’s Complexity Science Hub are keen for us to learn the lessons of the period. In a recent study, they highlight some of the key forces behind the trend to help us provide better work in the future.
The researchers trawled through conversations about work on the Reddit platform between 2018 and 2021 in a bid to understand some of the factors that prompted people to quit in such high numbers during the pandemic period.
“One thing to note is that after recessions there is always a spike in quits. People switching jobs is not new, but the surge in quits in 2021 was a record high. So that brought the question, what makes this time different?” the researchers explain.
Real-time analysis
By using Reddit, the researchers were able to track the Great Resignation as it unfolded in real time. They focused their attention on the r/jobs subreddit, where hundreds of thousands of members share their thoughts and feelings about the world of work. They also believe that the semi-anonymous nature of the Reddit community, together with the unrestricted nature of posting, means that members are free to express themselves fully and in-depth.
The researchers used an approach known as topic modeling, which is a machine learning-based method that enables us to analyze a huge volume of text and uncover conversational topics and themes. This allowed the researchers to uncover common concerns in the discussions.
“Our main finding is that the pandemic exacerbated the already growing mental health concerns among workers, and we show that such concerns became disproportionately present in the discourse of quit-related posts since the onset of the pandemic,” the authors explain.
Dealing with stress
The study clearly shows that stress and mental health issues played a key role in the Great Resignation, with workers frequently expressing feelings of anxiety, stress, and a sense of being overwhelmed at work, with these strongly linked to the desire to quit and do something else.
So, when people were talking about resigning, they were much more likely to also discuss mental health issues than those who were happier in their jobs. As a result, the researchers believe there is a clear link between fears or concerns about one’s mental health and one’s likelihood to quit.
“Our findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed forces that contributed to quit behavior, such as mental health concerns, that were less salient during previous economic recoveries,” they explain. “These new forces could help explain the unusually high rates of quitting in 2021.”
More opportunities
The rise in concerns about mental health and stress during the pandemic coincided with a tightening labor market that resulted in many more employment opportunities presenting themselves. This meant that workers could increasingly be choosy about where they worked and could actively seek out roles that would help their wellbeing.
In addition to the growing number of opportunities available to people, there has also been the rising cost of living that has further encouraged people to seek a better deal at work. The research reflects this, with the study showing a growing number of posts around things like salary negotiations.
“People talked less about quitting because they hated their job, and more about negotiating salaries and discussing job offer issues. Some of the people quitting in 2021 might have strongly disliked their job in 2020, but did not quit until 2021, when there were better employment prospects,” the researchers say.
Moving forward
While the signs are that the Great Resignation is over, now is not the time for employers to rest on their laurels and feel that they don’t need to make robust efforts to attract and retain their talent. Indeed, focusing on employee experience is arguably more important than ever.
So, we should take the lessons from the Great Resignation and strive to ensure that we provide good jobs to people, both in terms of the conditions they work under and the pay they receive, with this including ensuring that technology is introduced in a way that benefits employees rather than restricts them.
“In light of the current debate about how new technologies are reinventing work, it is crucial to use technology to improve working conditions,” the researchers conclude.
