You may have read about “The Great Resignation”— droves of employees quitting their jobs for new opportunities, to start their own businesses, or to avoid a long commute and/or a return to the office. Associations are not immune to this trend.
According to workforce analytics company Visier, resignation rates hit a significant spike and are rising most frequently among mid-career workers. All age groups experienced an increase in resignations between July to September 2020, except for those ages 20-25, and trend data for 2021 show that rates have begun to climb, signaling an even more pronounced increase this year than previous years (especially in the fields of tech and healthcare).
Ian Cook, vice president of people analytics at Visier, said “Our recent research supports predictions of a post-pandemic resignation boom, with early indicators showing increasing resignation rates as early as March 2021. With this data in mind, it’s safe to say the ‘great resignation’ is already upon us, and businesses…will need to address voluntary turnover while they continue to grapple with post-pandemic recovery and return-to-office plans.”
Though some claim “The Great Resignation” is exaggerated, in an article titled, “As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying ‘I Quit,’” Andrea Hsu wrote, “As pandemic life recedes in the U.S., people are leaving their jobs in search of more money, more flexibility and more happiness. Many are rethinking what work means to them, how they are valued, and how they spend their time. It’s leading to a dramatic increase in resignations — a record 4 million people quit their jobs in April alone, according to the Labor Department.”
If your association has lost employees due to resignation, consider:
- Hiring for new skills. Don’t simply replace skills. Take the time to evaluate what skills are needed going forward. The need for reskilling in associations has existed for a decade or more. Turnover is an opportunity to obtain needed talent to match future opportunities.
- Reskilling current employees. If you have current employees you’d like to grow and challenge in order to keep them, consider offering them the opportunity to learn skills that have departed.
- Purposefully abandoning. Not everything you’ve done in the past is worth doing in the future. Employee departure is an opportunity to analyze the relevance of programs and services. When a program manager departs, it’s a natural time for reevaluation.
As the pandemic continues to rear its ugly head (or should I say its Coronavirus spike?) and association staffing changes, use this as an opportunity to make sure you not only have the right people on the bus (as Jim Collins advises in Good to Great) but the right skill sets on the bus as well.