Work Culture and The Great Resignation

Work Culture and The Great Resignation

S. Chris Edmonds is a sought-after speaker, author, and executive consultant. He’s the founder and CEO of The Purposeful Culture Group, which he launched in 1990. Chris helps senior leaders build and sustain purposeful, positive, productive work cultures. He is the author or co-author of seven books, including Amazon bestsellers Good Comes First (2021) with Mark Babbitt, The Culture Engine (2014), and Leading at a Higher Level (2008) with Ken Blanchard.

As leaders face challenges with the great competition for talent today, they have to do more than just focus on results. Here in the midst of a global pandemic economy, the battle to attract and retain talent is reaching fever pitch. The practices and mindsets that defined most successful work cultures in the late 20th century are no longer working for companies, especially since Covid entered the scene.

Some have called it the “Great Resignation” – a startling number of US workers, 48 million people according to a study by the US Department of Labor, voluntarily left their jobs in 2021. This was record-breaking and a wake-up call to employers.

What can companies do to retain talented, engaged team members? There are five factors that would cause about 1/3 of employees to stay with their current companies according to a recent Harris Interactive Study:

A higher salary
A better company culture
Better relationships with colleagues
More enjoyable work
More appreciation from their employer

Leaders of organizations today are faced not only with evolving performance requirements from aggressive global competitors but also with generations with widely differing preferences.

CHRIS EDMONDS

To retain and attract talented, engaged team members, it’s clear that senior leaders must improve the quality of their work cultures. The good news is that clients that have implemented my proven culture refinement process enjoy increases in:

Employee engagement (gains of 40% and more),
Customer service (gains of 40% and more)
Results and profits (gains of 35% and more).

These big three – engagement, service, and results & profits – directly benefit three of the five factors employees want: a better company culture, better relationships with colleagues, and more appreciation from their employer.

So, what are senior leaders waiting for? The problem is that senior leaders don’t know how to proactively manage the quality of their work culture. They’ve never been asked to do that.

The only thing most senior leaders have been asked to do is to manage results. Yet if leaders only pay attention to performance, people can behave badly while getting those results. They’ll yell, throw tantrums, withhold information, and worse – more so if they see their leaders behave badly, as well.