Focus on Community: What is the Great Resignation and how is it affecting financial services?

Lined and I discuss what the Great Resignation was back in 2021 and how is affecting us today in our personal lives and in business. 

*Did you know that during this timeframe, approximately 24M Americans left their jobs!?*

What did people do once they left?

-Some retired
-Some changed jobs
-Some are staying home with family
-Some are just not working

So what can we learn from this? I was surprised to learn that the #1 is toxic corporate culture was a bigger issue than wanting more money. I see wanting a better culture, often when working with people during #Gallup #Strenghsfinder that not feeling engaged is a % of people leaving their jobs.

#FocusonTalents #FocusonCommunity #Ameritasleadership #BisonStrong #AmeritasWomenEmpowered

Transcript

Unknown 0:01
Hello pathways to peak performance audience. Welcome back. I have learned Mason's here. She is a repeat guest. Thanks for being here.

Unknown 0:09
Lynette Thank you, Amber. Happy to be here.

Unknown 0:12
We have you here today to discuss what a great resignation is, and I think it's a great second. Well, our first episode together we discussed the foundational elements of Dei, which is diversity, equality and inclusion, and today we're going to discuss what is the great resignation, and I thought you'd be a perfect person to discuss this with because not only have you done extensive research, but as an executive with a large insurance organization. You're seeing some of these things real time. And so because we've talked about dei more of a foundational episode for so for those of you who haven't listened to the first episode, please go check that out. It's a great resource that really helps segue into this conversation today. What is the great resignation? So Lynette I'm gonna pass the mic to you and let you talk about just the topic itself. And I know you've done some research, so you're going to have some juicy stats for us too. But let's just have you kick it off with kind of answering that question. What is the great resignation?

Unknown 1:19
Thank you, Amber. Happy to be here. So the great resignation, this was between April and September of 2021. Even though a lot of us are still going through it. But during that time period, more than 24 million Americans left their job, which was painful, and like I said, we're still going through it right. So it's another question becomes like, why did this even happen? Right? And what does exactly so, you know, it's after reading a lot of articles, there's a number of reasons why we think it happened. And when I say resignation, it's not just people leaving just to find another job, but it's also people that have just decided, You know what I want to retire right? This happened right after the big head with the pandemic. Life was really put into perspective for a lot of people, right? A lot of people enjoy being home with their kids, right, even though they were working, but they were there when the kids got off the bus. They were kids on the bus. So the way people want to be employed today is very different than what it was three years ago. Alright, the turning. Absolutely. And then you know, people also are looking for jobs that help with you know, different things like you know, mental health issues. They're leaving to start their own jobs. You know, they're they're leaving because they only want to work from nine to 3pm. Right, because they want to be there for the kids like I mentioned earlier. Um, so from a, you know, from a talent standpoint, and you know, from a manager of people it's difficult even today to find not only people to apply for your jobs, but to the right people with the right skills, and then also retaining right how do we retain folks and, and, you know, I think it goes back to diversity, equity and inclusion. Right, I read a fantastic article, where it went through what are the top predictors for the great resignation. And I'm not going to go through the whole list but I'm going to go through the two that absolutely blew me away.

Unknown 3:39
So okay, so before we jump in, not to interrupt you, but the 24 million you are talking about. This is not young people middle aged. It's a combination of young middle age, people that might retire in a few years if they just went ahead and retired. And they're not just quitting and sitting at home not doing anything, that this whole title means that maybe they did nothing. Maybe they switched into something else, or start a business. So it's kind of a cluster of a lot of different variables. And so when you're talking about this article, now businesses are trying to figure out what is this balance to bring in talent and not have so much turnover? have wonderful setup so you can have that inclusion piece a quality piece, but not overdo it too? Because this is the workplace we're trying to find this balance of understanding what the families need, but also respecting the bottom dollar of running a business.

Unknown 4:43
Okay, yes, absolutely. And what this article said, and I guess I'm not gonna go through every single predictor, I'm just gonna go over the two that really blew me away. Sure. Well, the two were, they were leaving due to compensation and also the other one I want to focus on is they're leaving due to being in a toxic corporate culture. So one was on the top being the number one reason and one was number 16. So you'd be surprised that number 16 was compensation? No way. Yes. And toxic corporate culture was number one. Crazy,

Unknown 5:28
okay, so we might need to think about what we're doing within the workplace. So, I mentioned in our first episode together that sometimes I'll get this push back or like an eye roll when people hear dei they go off, what do I have to do to make some changes, but I see that sometimes when I go to conference, and I'm talking with people about certain things that we're involved with, and so I know that you might feel that way to a little bit with feedback after you speak. But we have to really pay attention that this is a real thing. And it doesn't mean you have to completely change everything about yourself, but we need to make some tweaks and implement from an personal development perspective and then pull that into the business and the leadership. Really, it sounds like really needs to focus on this if this is number one.

Unknown 6:19
Yes, yes. Right. And then we got to think about so what does this mean like toxic culture, right? And we know it has to do a lot with you know, not feeling included and the quality and everything we've discussed before. But it's also you know, understanding, you know, not playing, you know, favorites and how do you communicate to people? You know, this whole world of having people working remote, some working hybrid. Are you paying attention more to the people that are working hybrid versus the people that are remote because you don't see them every day? Right? It's just really making that conscious effort to include people. Yeah, we talk about diversity and inclusion, right. The majority of the people are been sitting there or you know, wake up in the morning saying, Gosh, I am really not gonna pay attention to those four individuals today, right? It's right but it's just making that conscious effort to stay. You know, I have five people that I haven't talked to it two weeks or you know, they're out of sight out of mind because they're working remote. You're gonna make it a point to you know, just send them you know, a quick email or, you know, set up a 15 minute touch base, you know, with them, just to make sure that that they realize that you're there you care about them. You know, that's when this dialogue happens. You know, they could bring up concerns. You could do a pulse check to see like, how are they doing? Right Like, it's not until you see people face to face, even if it's, you know, in these little boxes on WebEx that you're able to really see, you know, did they see drain that are they not making eye contact and they seem a little bit disconnected, right? And just having that open dialogue to make sure that that they're okay. All right.

Unknown 8:07
So, but some body language could be part of the deal, too, especially if you're not face to face, you can still sense certain things or if you're not sure, you probably should be checking in. So I really liked that because, sadly, well, I always say you're not going to fix what you're not but in my my talents or when I do my personality assessment, I don't carry a lot of like the compassionate I'm more of like let's get to work high achiever. So I have to tell myself, stop and smell the roses and let's pump the brakes. And let's take a pause and check in with people that really need one on one time. Some people need high surface conversations. Some people need to dive in one on one. Some people like a bigger group. So there's different there's different ways people need to receive information and be engaged and so everyone can stop and we talked about active listening in the first episode, active listening and just kind of just paying attention that we all could use a little pump the brakes slow down, even if we have to carve it out in our calendar, try to talk to some of these people that matter in your life and on your teams. So that that you can participate in this. I mean, I've been in the corporate world and I remember wasn't so much about the money but there were some interactions that just made me feel a certain way and I didn't like it and I eventually left and went on out to do something else and so I'm sure I'm not the only one apparently that this is a this is happening. So that's that's so I love that takeaway. We can we can start with that today. And the beauty of it is you're not changing who you are. You're just checking in with people. There's that's great. It's a great idea. And that's that shouldn't be too hard to do.

Unknown 9:48
No, no, it shouldn't. And to your point, just putting it on your calendar. We're all busy, right? Everybody's busy. You know, the people you're trying to connect with are busy, but just putting it out there. Every month just set time for just that way the touch base or you know, maybe you want to do a more in depth a one on one and try to make an effort also not to cancel it or if something does come up in here reschedule because I know like my calendar gets crazy and there are times I have to push out meetings. But make sure that you don't cancel it you automatically put it in another slot in that week or else if it's yours in a totally forget I definitely think that that's key as well. Right? Just don't care about people and just have them in front of your mind. You know, that's That's all right. This is it's, it seems so simple, but sometimes it just becomes really difficult because of our crazy schedules. We just have to make time

Unknown 10:45
Yeah. So I suppose we've a couple friends, friends and I we've talked about even like how we like writing a card a thank you card and how that's kind of a lost art. So I suppose whether it's carving it out in your calendar, maybe if that doesn't work for you, but doing something like sending a card or something else that's fun for you, you're probably going to be more apt to do it if it's a fun activity that you want to share with somebody else but you're still checking in so whatever that might be, have a little fun with it. That would make it a little bit. You could form that habit to have it built into your week. If you're choosing to do something that you really like. So

Unknown 11:26
I love it.

Unknown 11:29
Yeah, so I think I love the fact that we can implement this pretty quickly. Anything else that was really just kind of a shocker in that article. Before we wrap up today.

Unknown 11:41
I would say just were that that rang to me just this blew me away because you always hear about compensation right being high on the list. The other one that was on there was flexibility of work schedule was high, which I could totally understand. Why do you have a lot of folks now that want to work 100% remote. You have people that don't want to work a full nine to five job right? They want to work in the mornings or six hours a day. We just got to think about things differently because it's it's just a different world from an employment standpoint. So we got to get creative to retain these good folks.

Unknown 12:24
Yeah, I mean, we've all been together the last few years going through all these changes. So let's try to do something positive with what's happened. And so I think this is one of those takeaways where we can really try to implement some change for the better. And maybe this will make that work life balance just a little bit better for everybody. But we have to just build in those habits and carve in the time for people. So thanks so much for sharing a little bit about the research that you've done and what you guys have been doing within your organization. So I really appreciate it.

Unknown 12:53
Thank you. Appreciate you. Excellent. Thanks, Linda.

Unknown 12:56
We'll see you soon. Bye.

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