Written by: Lisa Moore, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It’s no secret that the Covid-19 pandemic has uprooted the lives of many working professionals.
Enter the Great Resignation ‒ millions of people are leaving their jobs every month, with the latest resignation rates showing 4.4 million employees quitting in November.
Naturally, the number of employees who are leaving the job market has been alarming for businesses that are struggling to stay afloat.
But there is an opportunity for all businesses to benefit from the Great Resignation ‒ so long as they approach the ever-changing conditions with a growth mindset.
While the external factors of the pandemic are not within anyone’s control, business leaders still possess complete autonomy over how they choose to run their company.
And it is this freedom that gives the chance to grow their business out of a challenging situation. The Great Resignation can teach all of us how to make our businesses ones that the post-pandemic generation of workers wants to be a part of.
Below we examine 7 ways that businesses can change the way they function during the Great Resignation based on a growth mindset perspective.
What is a Growth Mindset?
If you’re familiar with the concept of a growth mindset, you’re welcome to skip this section. But here’s a quick refresher of fixed and growth mindsets for those of you who may not know.
In a fixed mindset, people believe that they don’t have control over a situation. The negative things happening around them cannot be solved, and their abilities and talent are fixed traits.
In a growth mindset, people believe that they do have control over improving a situation, despite the external factors. Abilities can be developed with hard work, effort, and time. The key to a growth mindset is that you can always find learning opportunities from negative circumstances that you can then improve moving forward. The goal is to be a better version of yourself or your company the next time around.
To build a growth mindset, you must understand that you and your business always have the potential for development. New skills come from practice and an open mind.
1. Go Sustainable
Employees want climate-positive action from companies. Almost two-thirds of individuals are more likely to work for a company with strong environmental policies, according to Reuters.
What does this have to do with the Great Resignation?
Employees are quitting their jobs en masse. Millions of employees are leaving their jobs each month, with no sign of the turnover rate slowing down.
Businesses that are struggling to fill positions find themselves with employees who are under-qualified or may not fit well with the company’s values.
This is because the power has shifted from the business to the employee ‒ unless their needs are met, they won’t even bother applying.
So when the majority of Americans say that they value sustainability, companies should listen. And they should listen with the mindset that this is an opportunity to build a new set of values with the modern workforce.
2. Provide Different Non-Wage Benefits
The Great Resignation isn’t happening in every sector. Industries including construction, information, finance, and real estate have relatively low quit rates.
It’s young people who are making up the largest share of people switching jobs. Data from ADP shows the highest turnover is among 16 to 24-year-olds. Their turnover rate is 3 times higher than the national average.
Why is this? Consider that most workers this age are entry-level and won’t be receiving the high pay that established employees earn. For them, the non-wage benefits like company outings and the chance to network disappeared during the pandemic.
When the only element of their job that remained was the unpleasant tasks for which they received low pay, making a switch would seem like the obvious move.
Companies can respond to this by providing non-wage benefits that can survive a pandemic or other unexpected circumstances. Perhaps membership to gyms or clubs, extra holidays, more flexibility, and high-quality mentorship programs will be the way to retain younger workers moving forward.
3. Prioritize Employee Well-Being
The Covid pandemic and the Great Resignation emphasized what many businesses already knew but didn’t act on: the work-life imbalance.
Employee well-being is one of the hallmarks of a successful company ‒ employees are more productive, engaged at work, and happier. Employees who are struggling and suffering are twice as likely to leave their place of employment.
Employees need to arrive at work feeling well both physically and mentally. Performing well, delivering expectations, and going above and beyond requires a healthy state of being. Sick and exhausted workers simply cannot contribute to the company at the same level of quality.
Companies can approach the Great Resignation with an appreciation for the employees that did stay within their business. Most of them are likely feeling burnt-out and stressed.
It’s time for businesses to emphasize the importance of employees’ health. Mental health support should be available to all employees, even if it’s just helping an employee find a professional they trust discreetly.
4. Offer Remote Options
Even before the pandemic, remote work was becoming more popular. Now, though, remote work is likely to become the new 9 to 5. The majority of employees wish to work remotely going forward, with some even suggesting that they would take a 50% pay cut if it meant that they didn’t have to return to the office.
The pandemic is a health emergency, so it is only natural that employees want to continue working remotely. Many individuals are still concerned about contracting the virus and spreading it to their loved ones. Even though those who don’t believe themselves to be at risk do not want to put the people they work with, in harm’s way.
While it may be frustrating to accept that company culture won’t be an office full of employees, it can be a great growth mindset opportunity for businesses.
First, businesses will be able to save on overhead costs. If employees work remotely or only come in a few days of the week, businesses could rent out office spaces and earn additional income.
Furthermore, working remotely has been shown to increase productivity levels. Employees who are working remotely can choose a flexible location that will prevent them from getting distracted and will allow them to get comfortable.
5. Prioritize Equity and Transparency
The Great Resignation is the result of numerous changes that occurred within the US within several months: the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, and then a general change in the public attitude.
It became more clear than ever that inequality and lack of transparency in the workplace were no longer an option for businesses that want to remain competitive.
Now is the time to review your market’s pay rates to determine what your employees should be compensated for based on their credentials and experience.
Think about your company’s diversity and inclusion efforts. Do you have policies in place to support people of all backgrounds? Encouraging growth mindset policies and practices can even help encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Don’t forget that transparency is a key element of the evolving workforce. Communications should be free ‒ employees shouldn’t feel like major decisions about their work aren’t being made without their knowledge.
6. Emphasize Team Culture & New Values
The Great Resignation is partly the result of employees feeling uncared for and alone ‒ remind them that they’re not by fostering your team culture.
Be honest with yourself when you reflect on the relationships your employees have with you and with each other. Have you been prioritizing a healthy team culture?
Take time to meet with your team and go over your company’s values and mission statement. Look for feedback. Perhaps you can even develop a new list of values that the team will focus on together.
Think about opportunities that allow you to reward your employees for a job well done during difficult times. The future of your company is based on the relationships which you create now.
7. Reimagine Advancement Opportunities
The Covid-19 pandemic took the meaning of “stuck” to an entirely new level. People were physically bound to their homes and isolated from the people and activities they enjoyed. And while that happened, businesses were laying off workers as business slowed to a crawl.
Data from Lattice reveals that 43% of respondents felt that their career paths had stalled or slowed down completely. It’s no wonder that during a time of little control over so many external factors people quit their jobs as a way to gain control in some way.
Businesses can adapt to this now common feeling by re-imagining the ways that they provide growth opportunities at their companies. Maybe it’s time to add a new position or department that should be spearheaded by employees looking for a challenge.
And even if you don’t want to change the structure of your company, you can provide changes to grow elsewhere. Options like free training or offering to help employees pay for an online degree will help them build their resumes.
Applying a Growth Mindset to Change
Whether it's adapting to unpredictable situations or building better employee relationships, the guide to a growth mindset is always to recognize how much control you do have at any given time.
Learn more about how you can develop your growth mindset while growing your business ‒ get in touch with someone on the Success Tangent team.
Lisa Moore, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Growth mindset and the power of the brain are Lisa Moore’s passions. As a former Corporate Trainer/People Operations Executive, she has 16 years of experience working with organizations to help them develop their people. Lisa's areas of expertise include Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Organizational Behavior, and Cognitive Neuroscience. She received her graduate degree in psychology from Harvard, where she studied growth mindset in organizational settings, especially as it relates to employee performance evaluations. She now uses that knowledge as CEO of Success Tangent Business Consulting to help businesses and individuals on their path to success through training programs, content, and coaching framed through the lens of a growth mindset.
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