The Great Resignation has gotten the attention of business owners in every industry as a record 47.8 million employees voluntarily left their jobs in 2021. Low unemployment and turmoil from the pandemic created a movement of people reevaluating their lives and priorities and making career moves for balance, purpose and fulfillment.
With no signs of slowing in 2022, Lake Minnetonka area resident Jaime Taets, CEO and founder of Keystone Group International advises, “It’s not a ‘wait and this too shall pass approach’ that business leaders can take. We’re in a societal shift, and we can head some of it off by doubling down on being better leaders, caring for employees, focusing on culture and proactively having the right conversations.”
Keystone helps entrepreneurial companies experience growth and has assisted local companies achieve their goals. To address staff concerns, Taets suggests shifting the mindset of the Great Resignation to focusing energy on a great retention. “People are leaving leaders that don’t care about them,” she says. “We don’t prepare leaders to have those types of conversations and to really care about their people. I think we’re seeing what happens when you don’t invest in that.”
Tom Lampe, director of field operations at Bauer Design Build in Plymouth, says when the pandemic hit, his team had conversations with its staff early and often. “Anybody will step in and do anything to help anybody, and that’s how our culture is built,” he says. “That’s why I think we haven’t seen much impact from the Great Resignation because people genuinely want to be here, and they want to be cared for.”
Being in the design and construction industry, Lampe’s 22 field workers must feel empowered to speak about safety and mental health issues to mitigate workplace risks. “At the end of the day, if we don’t have people mentally healthy and mentally capable on the job site, it’s not only hurting them, it’s hurting us, as well,” Lampe says. “You have to be looking out for your people.”
Action Plan
Taets recommends approaching the Great Resignation in three steps:
Care about employees. Talk to people. Ask how they are doing, not just at work, but as a whole person. Conduct stay interviews. It’s often too late in exit interviews.
Create stability and a psychologically-safe place where people can have honest and transparent communication. “When the rest of the world feels uncertain and scary to your people, you have the opportunity to make your business and your work environment a place of certainty, a place of stability. You have the opportunity to meet their basic human needs when the rest of the world can’t,” Taets says.
Focus on a strong employment brand. Talk to people. What’s working? Are they getting what they need? Listen. Be open to changes. Ask if the actual employee experience matches what you say it is.
Think about the future of your business model. We’re in this through 2050. “On top of the Great Resignation, Department of Labor statistics indicate we have four baby boomers in the next 10 to 15 years retiring for every one human that can replace them,” Taets says. “It’s going to cause structural changes in businesses and how they do business.”
Keystone Group International
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