Sammy is the founder and CEO of YuLife, the lifestyle insurance company providing life insurance, well-being and rewards in one simple app.
Businesses have had to deal with many things over the past couple of years. Just as the world began emerging from the pandemic, employers needed to deal with both the Great Resignation and the Great Return.
With restrictions lifted, many came out of the pandemic with worsened mental health and dealing with burnout. Droves of employees began to reevaluate their workplace expectations and search for opportunities that offered greater flexibility, healthier workplace culture and more lucrative salaries, among other benefits. In 2022, more than 50 million employees in the U.S. alone participated in this mass workplace migration.
But given today’s economy, many might have predicted that workers would switch gears by playing it safe—favoring stable employment even if it means enduring less-than-ideal workplace conditions. Although the rate of quitting has indeed slowed down, unsatisfactory work culture is still more than capable of burning out employees, economic downturn notwithstanding.
As the CEO and founder of a company in the employee benefits space, I’m always seeking to better understand how employee turnover affects individuals’ perceptions of their workplaces. To that end, my company partnered with YouGov to commission a survey that investigated the scope of employee turnover and its impact on the U.S. and U.K. job markets. Our findings reveal that, while the peak of the Great Resignation is behind us, the root causes that provoked it in the first place—high stress and low flexibility—have far from disappeared.
The Data On Turnover
Our survey assessed the attitudes toward employers and workplace mobility from working adults in the U.S. and U.K. It revealed that more than half—60% and 56%, respectively—have either started a new job within the past year or are seeking to make a switch in the coming year. This aligns with data from Bankrate, which reported in April that 56% of workers plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months, according to the company’s 2023 job seeker survey.
These results suggest that economic volatility is not as great a measure of employee retention as it used to be. This is even more so when it comes to younger people, which might be surprising given how much more vulnerable they can be to market shake-ups than older, more established employees. Specifically, my company’s survey found 79% of U.S. workers and 74% of U.K. workers ages 18 to 24 have either taken up new jobs or are actively seeking a new one. CNBC also reported in January that millennials and Generation Z are “leading the ‘big quit’” this year.
Tackling Stress
In both the U.S. and U.K., high stress levels stemming from any number of reasons—such as unrealistic workloads, interpersonal conflicts or work-life imbalances, among many others—contribute to an employee’s decision to quit or start looking for another job. More than 80% of respondents to my company’s survey reported feeling stress in the workplace, an issue for which they claimed upper management did little to mitigate. This underscores Gallup’s “State of the Global Workplace 2023,” which found that employee stress is at a record high and “managers play an outsized role in the stress workers feel on the job.”
In fact, we found that only 19% of working adults in the U.S. and 12% in the U.K. agreed that their employers are active in preventing and managing stress. Less than one-quarter said their employer doesn’t help employees manage their stress at all. Considering the correlation between stress and otherwise preventable illnesses and adverse health conditions, these findings underscore the need for improved health and well-being provisions in the workplace.
There are steps employers can take to help mitigate the factors that commonly cause employees stress, including:
• Maintain open communication. The more self-aware a team is around its behavior, the better equipped it will be to handle interpersonal challenges as they arise. You can explore management classes that foster leadership or personal coaching to give teams and managers the tools to work with employees in a positive and constructive way.
• Consider your benefits. Provide employees with benefits that can support their mental and physical health. This can be in the form of life and health insurance, financial well-being, access to virtual doctors, mental health apps, etc.
• Provide flexible working hours. Flexible work schedules give employees the opportunity to plan their workdays in a way that is best for them. This could help lower workplace stress and increase productivity.
Tackling Burnout
Once employees decide to pack up and leave, turnover also begins to impact those who stay behind. This is why it’s critical that employers identify the signs of burnout early on, but this isn’t always easy. Symptoms of burnout can include exhaustion, loss of productivity, an inability to focus and constant worrying or anxiety. Learning to manage and support employees who are experiencing burnout is vital to prevent it from becoming problematic or long-term.
Contributing factors of burnout include unreasonable workloads, poor communication and little or nonexistent manager support for workers. Here are a few steps companies can take to help address burnout:
• Consider providing employee assistance programs. EAPs are meant to help employees resolve challenges. Whether these are personal, medical, financial or other psychological stressors, providing employees with support can help enhance productivity and lower absenteeism in the workplace.
• Encourage work-life balance. Set aside time for your own family and self-care to create a role model system that shows other employees how to balance their personal and professional lives.
Tackling Pay
Then comes the issue of pay. Unsurprisingly, an average of 54% of U.S. and U.K. workers feel that subpar compensation can be a deal breaker, our research found. However, it is worth noting that salary increases alone are rarely a viable solution to counter turnover.
• Go beyond financial compensation. Consider offering policies that grant annual leave, flexible working schedules and expanded employee benefits, such as holiday allowance and health benefits.
These are the bedrock provisions that can help foster a truly supportive, compassionate workplace culture, and employers would do well to proactively invest more time and resources into them if they wish to retain their staff long-term.
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