The Great Resignation wave in the United States, with employees quitting their jobs without a new offer, has now hit Europe. During the pandemic, many employees moved away from the cities into rural areas or smaller towns where they would have more space for living and working remotely with lower housing costs. In the process, they have gotten used to working from home while employers were dealing with crisis management and often did not have time to invest too much into their staff’s well-being.
According to a survey from Personio, with 2000 employers and 500 HR managers across the DACH region, 45% of the participating employees mentioned that they are planning to quit their job, 13% in the next 6 months, 15% in the next 12 months and 17% as soon as the economy has recovered. A part of the employers are aware of this tendency and 39% are concerned that they will lose their employees as soon as the job market is stable again. 34% are planning to invest more into employee retention and 58% are planning to hire new staff in 2022.
War for talents
As many employees are well aware of the war for talent and confident to quickly find new jobs, they are more prepared to take the risk and resign without a new offer. According to a survey from Gallup, only 17% of the participating employees feel loyal to their employer, which means that the remaining 83 % are open for job offers. As a result, companies are enticing each other’s employees competing with their offers and headhunters are in high demand and the offers by headhunters have been tripled since 2019.
Reasons for the resignations
Employees resign for different reasons and as the study has shown, employers often had deviating assumptions regarding the cause of the resignations. While both sides identified a lack of work-life balance as significant reason, employers underestimated the employees’ wishes for personal development and appreciation for their work. Instead they are happy with their efforts in those areas and assumed that salary and benefits shortages as well as redundancies would be driving employees away from their jobs.
As a result, more and more employees becoming estranged from their company as they feel that their needs are not being met sufficiently.
Which industries are most affected?
The service industry, as well as retail and consumer goods, are most affected by resignations, while employees in IT and especially those working in the automotive industry are mostly loyal to their employers.
A good company culture and an efficient personnel strategy is key to keeping its employees
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a good company culture has become more important than ever:
According to a survey from XING E-Recruiting with 1.004 interviewed employees, over 50% of them consider an employee-centered leadership style as decisive criterion to stay with their employer, along with a flexible work-model including remote working and personal development opportunities.
In sum, what employees wish are less digital tools, but a more human-centred approach including flexible work-models, support, and a higher appreciation for their work. For ideas on how to maintain happy satisfied and balanced employees check-out our blog on why maintaining employee engagement is essential in a hybrid workfoce.
How People2.0 can help?
People2.0 (formerly TCP Solutions) is the leading provider of contingent workforce engagement solutions within the EMEA, U.S. and globally.
Should you like further information about how we could assist you and your company regarding working with temporary workers and contractors compliantly following local tax rulings, GDPR and work safety regulations, do not hesitate to contact us via info.emea@people20.com or send us a message via our contact page. We would be delighted to speak to you regarding the possibilities.
