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The i4cp Productivity Blog
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May 20, 2021 Lorrie Lykins - Managing Editor, VP of Research, i4cp
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RESEARCH CONFIRMS IT: YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE FRIED

What's the number-one reason employers will likely lose talent in the
post-pandemic era? In a word: Burnout.

The latest data from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) shows that
burnout is the primary driver pushing workers to look for relief in the forms of
a new job, opportunities for advancement, more pay, and above all else,
continued flexibility.

For many workers, the post-pandemic period means a fresh start is in order,
especially if their employers can’t or won’t offer the possibility of flexible
work arrangements.

This spells major talent risk for organizations that are intractably insistent
on getting all their employees back into the office as soon as possible. And the
cost of potential talent loss could swiftly become significant enough to hobble
a company’s ability to compete in the market.

In the words of a survey respondent: “It's about lower productivity, slower
release of new products, and ultimately lost revenue. This is a top-line growth
issue, not a bottom-line issue.”

Of the nearly 350 professionals surveyed by i4cp, the sizable majority (67%) of
those from larger organizations (employing >1,000 people) cited burnout as the
most significant driver of potential talent loss for their organizations.

The other top factors cited as potentially pushing talent out the door:

 * lack of advancement opportunity (48%)
 * compensation (46%)
 * requiring employees to return to the office after a period of working
   remotely (34%)
 * lack of development (31%)
 * dissatisfaction with their work (29%)
 * no flexibility in working arrangements (28%)


NONE OF THIS COMES AS A SURPRISE.

We’ve gone from the adrenaline rush of crisis mode at the start of 2020 to a
plodding, surreal COVID spring-summer-fall-winter. We’ve stared out our windows,
been cooped-up with little to no human contact. We’ve run the unrelenting
hamster wheel of hell: trying to home-school kids, care for family members,
track down sources of toilet paper and pasta, all the while showing up for our
jobs.

We’ve spent hours upon hours in Zoom meetings that melt from one into the next
with no letup. And we’ve ridden the rapids of continuous uncertainty,
polarization and strife in our civic lives that has spilled over into our
personal lives and relationships, and loss and grief at unimaginable scale. We
are all to one degree or another recovering from trauma, and this fact should
not be overlooked or minimized. 

Another concern is the unevenness of the fallout the past year has wrought.
Stress and exhaustion have cut markedly along gender lines; working women have
been harder hit by pandemic-related stress due to innumerable pressures such as
home-schooling and caregiving on top of work demands. 

We are fried.




THE CRUCIBLE OF THE PANDEMIC HAS ALSO BEEN A PERIOD OF CONTEMPLATION.

This is a very critical time for employers. Many people who have had time away
from the office to take stock of their lives will likely decide to leave their
employers if flexibility is suddenly snatched away. And now that vaccinations
are widely available (over a third of the U.S. population have been fully
vaccinated to date), and businesses and offices are reopening, the pressure is
mounting on employers and workers alike to make some tough decisions.

There's a lot to consider. Women and parents are much more likely to want
flexibility, and this will impact their decisions if they work for organizations
that demand they return to the office fulltime. There's no perfect solution;
organizations are clearly at risk of losing talent no matter what they
ultimately decide. Should they move forward by creating blanket policies about
flexible work arrangements? If exceptions to a return to the office mandate are
negotiable, who should make those calls and under what circumstances? What
impact will all of this have on organizational culture? 

Factoring in what we’ve learned in the past year, it's an easy prediction that
employers that don't offer some form of flexibility in work arrangements going
forward will be on the losing end of the talent attraction and retention game.
It's the degree to which this happens that's still cloudy. But we at i4cp are
already hearing from talent leaders and C-level executives that competitors are
luring talent away by promising flexibility in work arrangements not offered in
their organizations. As one survey respondent commented: “[The risk of talent
loss is] very high if we don't get vocal support of a hybrid work environment;
moderate if we get it right.”


RECOMMENDATIONS:

 * If you’ve been holding off on conducting a pay audit, now is a good time to
   get started (and adjusting for inequalities that are identified).
 * Conduct employee sentiment analysis specifically about return to the
   workplace and flexible work arrangements. If your workforce is clear on
   needing flexibility, what that might look like going forward?  
 * Conduct an audit of internal movement. Who is getting developed and promoted?
   If inequities surface, action should be taken. Check out i4cp’s bias audit
   checklist series (available to i4cp members only) to help guide this work.
 * Conduct a culture audit—assess culture health by uncovering areas of strength
   and improvement needs and benchmarking these against high-performance
   organizations. Identifying cultural problems and targeting where they are
   occurring and why is key to shaping the culture you envision for tomorrow.
 * Assess the effectiveness of your employee wellness and well-being offerings
   and invest where there’s a clear need for augmentation. 

Lorrie Lykins is i4cp's Vice President of Research

 

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