40% of Your Employees Are Thinking About Quitting.
According to a recent survey by Microsoft, 41% of all employees — as well as 54% of Generation Z employees — are currently contemplating quitting their jobs. Why, you ask? Well, the simple answer, as Microsoft discovered, is that it’s not them, it’s you. The way you’re running your business, coming out of the pandemic, is causing your employees to want to quit.
More to the point, the survey revealed the following key points:
Flexible work is here to stay;
Leaders are out of touch with employees and need a wake-up call;
High productivity is masking an exhausted workforce;
Gen Z is at risk and will need to be re-energized;
Shrinking networks are endangering innovation;
Authenticity will spur productivity and well-being; and
Talent is everywhere in a hybrid world.
But it would be unwise to view this list and simply think it’s a cry for remote work opportunities. Being completely siloed and working from home all the time runs counter to the human nature that makes us “want to get together, bounce ideas off one another, and experience the energy of in-person events.”
More to the point, the landscape has changed. The working environment that will exist on January 1, 2022 will be distinctly different than the working environment that existed on January 1, 2022. A pandemic, by its very nature, changes perspectives. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one or friend to COVID-19, or the fear of getting sick, or being let go from a job as the economy shuttered, people look at things differently than before. It is not unusual for people to reassess what is truly important in their lives … as opposed to what people THOUGHT was truly important, before 600,000 Americans were killed as a result of the virus.
How does this affect the business owner? Simply put, you can’t manager your employees like you used to. You can’t expect your employees to behave like they used to. And you can’t be inauthentic. As the survey notes, work has become more human. Fostering a workplace where people are comfortable to “be themselves” allows for better relationships and high productivity. And that starts with you — the owner. The more authentic you are, as a person, when you run your business, the more authentic your employees will be. The more authentic your employees are, the better they will be at their jobs.
And your business will prosper…
