As a Human Resources leader, it seems like I can’t open my email these days without another article, link, webcast or research inquiry about how we should deal with “The Great Resignation.”

During the year-long, forced ‘work from home’ period, fear gripped the minds of many employees: fear of getting sick, losing their job, concern about loved ones who had already lost their jobs, fear of there not being an alternative job to go to in a stagnated economy, etc.

Pivoting from a world where we had grown accustomed to 50% of the workforce saying they were dissatisfied with their employer and openly seeking new opportunities, discretionary job changes suddenly slowed. It was as if a large portion of the workforce decided to hold their collective breath and adopt a ‘let’s wait and see’ attitude.  

Great Resignation Regeneration

With that in mind, it should surprise no one that as we emerge from the first wave of the pandemic, the business climate normalizes and job growth returns to pre-pandemic levels, the pent-up urge within a significant proportion of the workforce to try something new and forge a new direction would spring back to life.

For some, the catalyst for this newfound desire for change may be returning to a traditional structured 9-to-5 in-person work schedule that no longer serves their needs. For others, the time they spent working from home in the comfort and safety of their family provided time to reexamine what they wanted to do with their professional lives.  

High turnover can be costly, time-consuming and disruptive to your productivity. So, whatever the reason for restiveness in the workforce, as a business leader, you should be thinking about effective programs, systems and processes to engage and retain your top talent. Some areas you can focus on that will deliver a maximum return in terms of employee retention include:

Building an Engaging, People-Centric Culture

Every company has a culture, just like every company (and person) has a brand. But great companies are purposeful in designing their culture. They provide programs, tools and activities to help leaders across the organization foster and perpetuate the type of culture you want your company to be known for within their team.

You will want your leaders to understand what you mean by empowerment, collaboration, living the values, building teamwork and relationships, fostering two-way communication, being vulnerable, transparent and inclusive, demonstrating empathy, taking calculated risks to drive innovation.

When your leaders understand the cornerstones of the culture you want to build and maintain, and you have helped them understand how to strengthen those qualities, your culture becomes a living, breathing asset to your company. Every leader of people can then become a steward for maintaining that culture.

Pursuing an Inspiring Purpose

Once upon a time, people came to work and did their job and then went and worked on what they ‘really’ cared about (like environmental issues or equality, etc.) in their free time. These days, employees want to bring their whole selves to work, and they want to work for companies that are as committed to making a difference in the world as they are.

So, spend some time figuring out what your company stands for and put this vision out into the world. Companies that can demonstrate a deep commitment to something bigger than ‘making money’ are becoming the employers of choice in today’s competitive employment market. 

Build Flexibility Into Your Workplace

In addition to giving many people a chance to reflect on what they want to do with their lives, the pandemic also gave us all a chance to realize that we can be just as productive working remote as we were previously in a traditional workplace. Sure, cultures changed a bit, and collaboration may have suffered – but nevertheless, the work got done.

Meanwhile, as compensation for any softening connections at work, people had a chance to reconnect with their families on a different level. Not to mention the CO2 that stayed out of the environment with fewer cars on the road during rush hour.

While it got lonely at times, and interpersonal relationships suffered a bit, employees enjoyed the empowerment and flexibility that the remote work environment afforded them.

Now, as we move into the post-pandemic era, ignoring this productivity conundrum seems short-sighted. Employers that successfully insulate themselves from the Great Resignation will likely have tried to develop a ‘hybrid’ work environment.

Such programs take advantage of the amazing workplace technologies that became mainstream over the past year to combine time spent working remotely with planned in-person collaborative work schedules.

Empowering Your Employees

By building a corporate culture where leaders intentionally empower their team members to make decisions on their own and recommend new ideas, leaders benefit from enhanced creativity, teamwork and critical thinking. This leads to building more confident, equipped, and engaged teams – and it also happens to be an excellent way to meet and exceed your enterprise goals!

But empowerment has even more significant implications from a retention standpoint because it also leads to fulfillment – and fulfilled employees stay!

Offering Rich Career Paths Filled With Diverse Experiences

People are eager to stay with companies that deliver them with rich experiences - both upward and laterally - that lead to learning, development, long term professional growth.

If your organization is relatively flat, look for ways to provide your most valued employees with stretch assignments and team experiences that ensure their continued engagement and growth and set them up for their next advancement within the company.

Experiencing ongoing professional development and having a sense that they are on a forward career trajectory gives high potential employees a feeling of success and helps mitigate any urge to look outside the company for their next advancement.

Developing Robust Talent Review Processes

Some companies have little or no discipline around their Talent Review process. In my experience, this is a mistake. By asking company leaders to come together and discuss the talent on their team, you are ensuring that you have your top talent at all levels on your radar.

This level of visibility is essential to ensure you are investing in the right areas to develop and retain high potential employees and those in crucial succession roles. A robust talent review process delivers the essential talent information that enables you to take steps, so these individuals – your ‘best and brightest’ – are ready to step forward when an opportunity for advancement surfaces.

Let’s face it; you may not be able to provide the ‘right’ opportunities at just the right time to retain everyone who is entertaining thoughts of leaving. Some people may have different definitions of what they need and want from their employer and career, and nothing you can do will change that.

It is essential to recognize that on occasion, the time is right for some people to move on - and you and your leadership team need to get comfortable with this fact.  

While recognizing this is true, building out the above retention strategies will strengthen your employment brand, making it easier for you to attract exceptional new talent to backfill the employees who are determined to move on.

In addition to having a compelling culture, you will want to be sure that people at your company are ready to be promoted from within and that your total rewards package is competitive enough to attract top-tier candidates to fill each opportunity as it becomes available.

Republished with permission from the author. Original publication may be found here.