Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in 2020, there has been a shift in how people think about their work/life balance. The phenomenon of “The Great Resignation” has meant employers have had to change tack when it comes to retaining employees. In this feature, we explore how business owners can retain staff
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed, perhaps forever, the way employees work. After the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there was a mass exodus of workers fleeing their jobs to focus more on a work/life balance starting in early 2021.
The “Great Resignation” (also known as the “Big Quit” or the “Great Reshuffle”) was a phenomenon seen across multiple developed countries where employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs to search for something better and more secure.
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In the US alone, over 47 million workers quit their jobs during 2021, with the most affected sectors being (perhaps unsurprisingly), hospitality, healthcare, and education.
COVID-19 put considerable stress on these industries as exhausted frontline workers or “essential workers” faced longer hours, let alone the very real risk of contracting the virus themselves and dealing with a public that was becoming increasingly panicked as the full extent of the pandemic was realised.
But as the crisis continued, the phenomenon spread to include those who were generally dissatisfied with their jobs. The most common reasons cited for the Great Resignation included stagnating wages in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, limited or no opportunities for career advancement, unsafe or hostile working environments, low benefits (or lack thereof), and work policies that did not promote flexible or remote working.
What did the Great Resignation look like in Australia?
Australia was not immune to the Great Resignation either. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), for the year ended February 2022, 2.1 million people left or lost a job, up from the 1.8 million for the year ended February 2021.
More than half of them (1.3 million people or 9.5 per cent of employees) changed jobs, marking the highest annual job mobility rate in a decade.
According to the ABS, a third of the people who left or lost a job (33 per cent or 697,100 workers) left their current jobs to find a better one or just decided it was time for a change. This is up from the 21.7 per cent recorded in February 2021.
The ABS further cited the other factors that contributed to workers leaving their jobs (excluding leaving to find better work) that included:
- Poor working arrangements
- Family reasons
- Retirement
- Students returning to their studies after leaving a holiday job
- Workers starting their own businesses
While some of these factors are outside of an employer’s control, providing flexible working arrangements should be a key point of focus for those wishing to attract and retain staff.
Knowing the warning signs
The warning signs of an employee considering calling it quits are subtle, which can blindside many employers when a member or multiple members of their team decide to leave.
Speaking to The Adviser sister brand HR Leader, Victoria Mills, the chief executive of coaching platform Hello Coach, said that some of these warning signs may include:
- A decreased level of engagement with their work
- Consistent lateness to meetings or shifts
- An increase of sick days taken out
- A general lack of focus
- Visible signs of frustration
Although it’s important to know how to identify these signs early on, it’s also key to prevent these situations from happening in the first place.
Nevertheless, the most effective way of responding to these signs should they arise is to sit down and have a chat with the employee in order to pinpoint the actual problems or grievances they have.
How are brokers retaining staff?
Queensland-based principal of Mortgage Choice Bundall, Antony Muir, recently spoke to The Adviser on some of the methods he’s used to keep his employees happy and motivated during the pandemic years.
Mr Muir had hired his last two team members right before the onset of COVID-19, around January 2020, and has managed to escape the impacts of the Great Resignation.
When asked about some of the techniques or methods he’s used to improve employee retention, Mr Muir said: “I think the key part for me was remuneration for my employees. It doesn’t matter if someone works in administration or in a broking role, no one person was treated better than the other, and received the same rewards as their teammates.”
As well as providing support to his team, he flagged that Queensland’s less stringent lockdown measures (compared to NSW or Victoria) meant he was able to continue to operate his business with little hassle.
“We got pretty lucky throughout the lockdown; we were still able to work from our offices. The office is quite large and we only had about four people working there at any given time,” Mr Muir stated.
When asked how he has been attracting employees, the Mortgage Choice principal said he had utilised more “non-traditional methods” for finding his employees.
“I used to advertise on Seek a lot but I found that wasn’t working. Nowadays, I tend to use more ‘unorthodox’ methods of finding employees. For example, word of mouth or simply finding someone who’s looking to work in the industry,” Mr Muir said.
“Two of my employees came from the hospitality sector, so I’m more interested in finding people with good sales experience and experience working face-to-face with customers rather than just experience in the industry.”
According to the broker, it’s paramount for a business owner or employer to learn how to “move with the times” if they want to keep their workers around.
“I’ve recently focused on bringing in a more flexible work, hybrid working environment. Personally, I enjoy being in the office and having that separation, but I know that for some people that doesn’t exactly work out,” he said.
“Being able to move with the times and actually listen to your workers and their needs is key to keeping them around.”
Mr Muir also stressed the importance of frequently rewarding employees, for example, offering more bonuses, to keep them motivated.
He concluded that frequently talking to staff, whether during work hours or outside, is an effective way to ensure team members are happy and healthy in their positions (read more about this in the February 2023 edition of The Adviser magazine).
“I like to buy lunch for the team every second Friday, I even organised for masseuses to come into the office at some points, before COVID-19 obviously,” Mr Muir said.
“Since I’m not in the office as frequently as I used to be, I think it’s very important to often have one-on-one chats with my staff and talk about life and not just work all the time.
“I’ve found that it’s been effective, but it’s a constant ongoing process that is the responsibility of every employer.”
