Are your staff planning to leave?
The chances are your top performers are considering leaving.
A study by Microsoft has revealed alarming statistics for employers, indicating that close to half (45%) of the global workforce is considering switching jobs this year.
The World Trend Index found that business leaders are out of touch with their staff, with Gen Z, women and new employees faring the worst.
In Australia and New Zealand, business leaders are doing it tough, with many industries struggling to recruit talent, especially in hospitality, aged care and retail, and keeping hold of top performers is going to be challenging.
Team relationships are getting stronger in the ANZ region, and people feel more freedom to be their authentic selves in a hybrid world. Covid has seen hybrid working really take off, and most companies have managed to get past their lack of trust around employees working from home, as studies show that productivity can rise in these situations.
People in the ANZ region are also more likely to move now that remote work is on the table, with half saying they’re open to relocating. Discussing the findings with HRD, Emma Williams, corporate vice president of Microsoft Office Modern Workplace Transformations, said the pandemic has allowed people to live local but work global.
“There’s no way people are going back to a 9-5 working day, five days a week, with a heavy commute” she said. “People just love the flexibility and they’re not going to want to change.”
Microsoft’s research confirmed hybrid work is here to stay. But to be successful, leaders must address the glaring inequalities between their staff. Despite high levels of productivity, 54% of the global workforce feels overworked and burnout is rife. Workers are struggling with the blurring of work/life boundaries and the onslaught of communication across various platforms. In the last year, Microsoft found a 42% rise in people communicating via work chats after hours between 5pm and midnight.
“There is high productivity but it’s an exhausted workforce,” Williams said. “The afterhours communication is leading to an elongated working day and working week, where there’s a blurring of your work and life boundaries.
“There’s been a lot of expectations on the employees through this time and yet there is a lot of burden on them because their days are getting longer.”
While it’s clear employees are struggling across the board, the research indicated that Gen Z need the most help right now. More likely to be single and starting out in their first jobs, many find it hard to be heard in a hybrid world. They struggle more than older generation workers across all aspects of work, including engagement, career advancement, collaboration and work/life balance.
“In many cases, the company they’re in today is the first company they’ve ever joined so they’ve got this sense of feeling burdened and they’re looking for something new,” Williams said. “This is really where we want to do a call to action to BDMs. You’ve got to lean in and understand what’s happening with your Gen Z. You’ve really got to optimise your culture and your workplace because they are the future of the organisation.”
This is where developing a Culture of Appreciation, and giving real time positive feedback that can be celebrated across the organisation can help. Many forward thinking organisations are actively working in this area to create a competitive advantage to retain and attract top talent and are turning to platforms such as Brownie Points to help employees feel “inclusive.”
Williams said the high level of attrition forecast this year should be a “wake-up call” for employers.
With Australia and NZ’s borders still shut to a great extent, and the number of vaccinated candidates is lower than needed in the market, the war for talent is only getting harder to fight.
To retain and attract top talent, employers need to be strategic about how they redesign the future of work.
If you don’t take care of your employees your competitors will.
Tony Delaney, CEO Brownie Points
info@browniepoints.com.au or call +61 (0)3 9909 7411
