About The Future of Recruitment…
We’re passionate about helping you get the most out of your day-to-day processes, so we created this little bit-sized mini-series to chase down some of the recruitment’s most prominent figures and get their opinions on highly valued topics throughout the industry.
So without further ado, we present to you Jan Tegze, author of Full Stack Recruiter. We closely follow his opinion on the impact of the ‘Big Quit’ or ‘Great Resignation.’
A little bit about Jan…
Jan is an international speaker, sourcing trainer, blogger, and author. Jan has a proven ability to streamline recruitment processes with an emphasis on developing innovative sourcing strategies.
He’s an expert when it comes to full cycle recruiting with a broad knowledge of international recruiting. You can purchase his book by visiting this link here.
What are your thoughts on the Big Quit or Great Resignation?
“The ‘great resignation’ or the ‘big quit’ isn’t just a phase. It is also not a one-time thing. If our world is not going to be impacted by some economic crisis, we will see a similar movement in the labor market within the next few years.
I would not be surprised to see a similar big move in 2023. People will be changing their jobs during 2022 purely down to remove opportunities (working from home) and inflation.”
Was the pandemic the cause of the Big Quit or simply a catalyst?
“Simply put, the pandemic brought forward something that was simply long overdue. It gave us time to slow down and reflect on our lives and what we want career wise.
Remote work gave employees the time needed to think about whether they were still actively enjoying what they were doing and many of them purely realized how much time they would save every week by cutting out menial things like the commute to work and back.
My conclusion is that the pandemic was purely a catalyst that accelerated something that might’ve otherwise taken a good ten years.”
In your opinion, what was the greatest contributor to the Big Quit/ Great Resignation?
“In my opinion, there are 3 main contributors to the onset of the Big Quit / Great Resignation.
Work Life Balance
The want of a healthy work-life balance has become one of the biggest driving factors for employee satisfaction and how you treat your employees is closely monitored now more than ever. Employees are now less loyal to companies that they feel don’t treat them with respect.
Remote & Flexible Working Arrangements
Employees want more certainty about post-pandemic working arrangements and not just a promise that they can work remotely. They know that the company could change their minds pretty quickly and force them back into the office. Flexible working is now no longer seen as a benefit and is now seen more as an essential.
Managers
Many managers were not ready for a new, remote world. The constant employee tracking and micromanagement from their side pushes employees away to the point where they no longer have a mutual trust with their manager.”
What impact do you think the Big Quit or Great Resignation had on Recruitment?
“To every change hosts both positives and negatives. The positive impact from the Big Quit or Great Resignation on recruitment is that many businesses discovered how crucial their recruitment team is for future growth and suddenly, talent acquisition roles are more important than ever before.
The negatives, in my opinion, is the pressure that is suddenly applied to TA teams from hiring managers. They spend more time explaining that more and more people are looking for remote work and simply aren’t looking to sit in an office five days a week.
The positives, however, outweigh the negatives this time around.”
Finally, how do you see the talent space changing in a post-pandemic world?
“I always try to stay optimistic, so I think that in this case, the post-pandemic world will be centred around company culture and how transparent companies are about the wellbeing of their employees.
This ‘big quit’ showed companies that they could instantly lose 40% of their workforce within a year if they aren’t actively caring about the people that work for them.
I hope that in a post-pandemic world, businesses will be actively wanting to find out why people are leaving their jobs… Because in my opinion? It’s easier to fire a single ‘micromanager’ than it is to replace an entire team.”