The Great Resignation
Unless you’ve been living on Mars recently, then you’ll have heard of The Great Resignation.
Most articles and news reports were referring to the rate of people quitting their jobs in the US. But as is often the case, we soon followed suit here in the UK.
According to HR news, 85% of UK businesses have been affected, with negative impacts on employee wellbeing and problems attracting new talent being amongst the problems.
But the biggest challenge?
Retaining staff.
The most common reason for people leaving their jobs:
- Not feeling respected
- Not feeling trusted (often because they’re working from home)
- Not feeling heard
- Feeling undervalued
- No development prospects
- And who is responsible for ALL of those things?
Their leader.
Yep, not the HR department, not the MD, not anyone other than their direct leader, who may not be being supported by THEIR leader…..
And do you know what the most common career route is for people leaders?
They’re blooming marvellous at the job they were doing before. So they get promoted and suddenly they’re people leaders.
There’s just the slight oversight as follows:
Leading people effectively requires a different skillset from doing the job that those people are doing.
Let’s just say that again for the people at the back:
LEADING PEOPLE EFFECTIVELY REQUIRES A DIFFERENT SKILLSET TO DOING THE JOB THAT THOSE PEOPLE ARE DOING.
If these new leaders are open to learning and developing this new skillset then hoorah! But if they’ve been promoted purely based on their skills while they were doing ‘the job’ (and often ‘because they’ve been there the longest’) then the impact of the skills gap will be felt by their team members, themselves (it’s rubbish going from being great at your job to being a bit crap!) the team’s results, the company and ultimately the cost of replacing the people who will inevitably leave because of all the reasons above.
So….. if you’ve got a challenge with retaining your staff, how much support/training/coaching have your people leaders had?
How much work have you done on creating a culture where people feel supported, heard, valued and trusted?
Need some help?
Let’s chat.