Life is beginning to normalize in most cities in the USA, forcing a transition from working remotely to going back to the office. With vaccination rates rising each day, cities reopening, and mask mandates rolling back, offices are beginning to call back their employees to what used to be their typical office lives pre-COVID. Research, however, shows that a significant number of employees are opting to quit jobs rather than head back to the offices. The resignation wave can be associated with a few reasons.
Reasons for the Resignation Wave
1. Burnout From the Pandemic
When the pandemic hit us, the world seemed lost in a day. Most people were retrenched, others were forced to work remotely while the front-line workers put their lives at risk to calm the situation. Most healthcare workers turned their workplaces into homes in a bid to protect their loved ones from contracting the virus. Those working remotely were mounted with work to try to cover for the retrenched ones. This accumulated anxiety and stress led to burnout, making most people step back and relax a bit.
2. Working Remotely Worked for Many
The pandemic forced most of us out of schools and offices to study and work remotely. With this being a new concept, most tried to adapt to it, and with time it proved more productive. Working from home turned out to be great for many people, especially for working parents and caregivers who could now kill two birds with one stone.
With offices reopening, most feel like going back to the office would be tedious and, thus, prefer switching to jobs that will let them work remotely.
3. Uncertainties of Life Made Most Reconsider
We can all agree that the pandemic was the most overwhelmed, scared, and confused humanity has been in recent history. It forced people to see things differently and reconsider the essential things in life. For example, busy parents started realizing that family matters most and started freeing their schedules to be with their loved ones. Most are now preferring to quit or switch to less busy jobs to help them re-align their priorities.
How Benefit Providers Can Help With the Resignation Wave
Benefit providers are in a unique position to help companies navigate this time. After all, they also risk losing their clients if companies keep losing employees. It’s therefore important that benefit providers add value to retain and grow their client base. And what better way to do that than helping their clients retain their employees?
Here are four ways you can help your clients handle the resignation wave.
Ask Clients to Conduct a Burnout Audit
The mental health issues, financial instability, and general struggles that characterized 2020 are taking their toll on employees today. Employee burnout is on the rise, and consequently, many of them are quitting their jobs in the resignation wave.
One of the best ways to help companies retain their employees would be advising them to conduct a burnout audit to find out where their teams are struggling and what is making them feel burnt out. This way, employers can come up with practical ways to ease employee burnout and retain their workforce.
You can, for example, offer counseling services to these employees or advice the clients to increase their employees’ pay to help keep the burnout at bay.
Advise Clients to Offer Flexible Work Schedules
Shifting from working remotely to total office hours can be challenging. To solve this, companies can introduce staggered shifts or revise their existing time-off policies. For example, employees can get an additional full day off after resuming office hours. Taking some days off work can help reduce the risk of burnout.
Offer Good Retirement and Health Insurance Packages
Everyone is motivated by a good benefits package. Employees want the confidence that their retirement years will be easy and enjoyable, and if an employer can offer this to them, they are more likely to stick around.
Benefits and wellness go hand in hand to avoid the resignation wave. Good health insurance that fully covers hospital bills is also a great incentive to keeping one’s employees. Therefore, any benefit provider or broker looking to help clients retain their employees should be keen to add value and offer quality benefit packages.
Facilitate Employee Motivation
The best way to retain employees in this era is to increase their motivation and enthusiasm towards work. Things like mental health, financial wellness, and other benefits can keep workers’ spirits up. But simply offering great benefits packages will not be enough if the employees don’t know about them and use them. Therefore, providers can help employers communicate benefits to their employees and encourage them to use them.
We Can Help During the Resignation Wave
Benefit Zone, our digital benefits platform, brings together companies, HR teams, and benefit administrators to increase employee participation and build stronger personal connections. Contact us today for a demo to learn more.
