Our changing values | How to measure what employees really want in the time of the Great Resignation

What do your employees really want from work in a post Covid-19 landscape?

A lot of businesses think they know, but with resignations at 4.7% this year – almost one in twenty employees – the highest since 2016 – are they taking necessary steps to understand their employees’ needs, wants and expectations? Or are companies letting valuable talent go, simply because they don’t know what will make them want to stay?

People are calling it the Great Resignation: a term coined by Anthony Klotz, who predicted that a wave of resignations would follow Covid-19 lockdowns, driven by sudden, significant changes to our relationship with work. Poor work/life balance, work-related stress and career dissatisfaction were thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic, as working from home permanently changed our perception of working life and the way it impacts on our time, our priorities, our wellbeing and our motivators.

In short, the pandemic made us reconsider what was important to us – and it’s changed the values that drive employee motivation forever. The question now is whether employers can learn to harness those drivers, to enable a culture of high performance and employee happiness.