What Leaders Must Do To Turn The Great Resignation Into A Retention Revolution

The Great Resignation has impacted businesses across the nation. And new-age leaders are failing to grasp the correlation between employee satisfaction and retention - especially in the height of distributed workforces and remote work. ThoughtExchange, the only enterprise discussion management platform, utilizes its technology to ensure that employees can weigh in on the decisions that will ultimately affect them.

Dave Macleod, CEO of ThoughtExchange, has been leading a distributed workforce since the inception of his company in 2009. Throughout his tenure, he has learned pivotal information regarding employee retention and satisfaction – and I had the pleasure of picking his brain to discover what he believes will help leaders turn the Great Resignation into the self-coined “Retention Revolution.”

Gary Drenik: Why are employees choosing to stay or leave companies?

Dave Macleod: Choosing to stay at or leave a job is a weighty decision that is often never cut and dry. The reasons that go into these choices tend to be very personal, multilayered, and nuanced. Sure, we can try to lump them into simple categories, like “ability to work from home,” “a supportive manager” or “compensation and benefits.” But ultimately, this doesn’t capture the complex and real reasons people stay on or exit.

That being said, one major reason I believe people are leaving companies is simply because they feel blatantly ignored. Companies are tripling down on listening tools, but they’re not tripling down on action tools. Leaders must take those troves of data they’re collecting via traditional formats like surveys and take action—or at the very least explain why they didn’t take action in a way that satisfies employees.

Drenik: Where are traditional surveys and employee listening platforms falling short in terms of true employee engagement?

Macleod: The problem with traditional closed-ended surveys—consisting of multiple choice, yes or no, or such types of questions where respondents choose from a set of predefined responses—is that you have to know the answers before you create them. However, these are paradoxical in that if you knew the answers, you wouldn't have to ask the questions in the first place.

Meanwhile, with open-ended surveys, almost always, leaders don’t organize them in ways that they can take action on the results. Companies are conducting plenty of surveys and implementing other listening exercises. However, truly engaging employees doesn’t stop with the asking. Taking action on employee feedback is a critical component of engagement.

A recent study focused on The Great Resignation asked thousands of workers specifically for their opinions on employer surveys. Results showed that nearly half of all respondents said that they don’t believe their feedback to employer surveys leads to any meaningful change. Of those respondents, over a third are looking for a new job. Employees want to see action taken on what they have shared. They not only want to be listened to, they want evidence they have been heard. Without that, they simply conclude that their feedback was ignored.

Drenik: How can organizations put systems in place that enable transparent conversations with employees?

Macleod: To uncover the reasons why their employees are unhappy or may be considering quitting, leaders often ask for organization-wide feedback via forums such as town halls or Slack. In doing so, they often mistake the loudest voices in the room—or the first to respond—to be the most important. This prevents leaders from gaining critical access to the true thoughts of their silent majorities. Only by raising all voices across their organizations can leaders gain a full understanding of the problems and take meaningful and accurate action that can prevent resignations.

There is a solution to this challenge, to which I am biased as the CEO of a next generation survey platform that ensures all voices are raised across the organization—not just the highest ranking, loudest, or more frequent. At ThoughtExchange, we work with leaders from some of the world’s biggest organizations to help them scale truly inclusive conversations across teams of thousands, in which respondents feel comfortable answering questions candidly because they are anonymous and allow real-time review by colleagues. Using our anti-bias collective intelligence platform, these organizations are able to uncover what all employees need most and identify tailored solutions to best support well-being across all of their diverse employee populations.

Internally, we also regularly use our platform. And I’m proud that while our voluntary turnover did increase during the pandemic, it was less than half of the national industry turnover rate. Another figure my team and I are exceptionally proud of is that of our over 50 percent female employee base, hardly any have left in recent years, with a 12-month female voluntary turnover rate of just 0.5 percent.

Drenik: How can leaders tap into their people’s collective intelligence to revolutionize their retention strategies?

Macleod: There has been some recent talk of The Great Resignation slowing down, but so far over 4 million Americans have quit every month for 11 months straight and the trend didn't slow in April, the latest month the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released data for. And according to a brand new global survey by PwC, the trend is set to continue, with 1 in 5 respondents saying they will likely switch jobs in the next 12 months.

This means leaders would be wise to keep the pedal on the metal with their retention activities, including fostering true understanding and engagement with employees at scale and on a frequent basis.

Leaders at large companies with ample time and resources can implement comprehensive face-to-face facilitated dialogue practices, bringing in highly trained facilitators to run high-quality focus groups. Such expertly facilitated activities offer an effective way to deep dive into employees’ mindsets, drive engagement and build strong retention strategies.

If the manual approach of expertly engaging thousands of employees isn’t affordable (and it certainly won’t be for most organizations) then avoiding the pitfall of traditional surveys will be key to retention efforts. Leaders must diligently seek out and vet tools and tactics to add to the fold that can surface quality collective intelligence from their employees, that is actionable. Then they must be sure to close the loop by taking action, or at least if they don’t communicate exactly why not to their teams.

Drenik: Are there any generational trends in employees leaving or staying with their employers?

Macleod: According to a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, 29 percent of Gen-Z are planning to start a new job within the next 6 months. This is markedly high when compared to some of their generational counterparts, with 16 percent of Millennials and only 1.8 percent of Baby Boomers reporting having the same intentions.

Furthermore, the same survey revealed that Gen-Z are experiencing the highest levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness from the impacts of the pandemic, vs. other generations.

While this may seem concerning, I think these trends offer important insight for employers. As other similar studies have highlighted, the world’s most populous generation is different from their predecessors. Gen-Z is firmly recognizing what they want and don’t want in work and life. And they’re challenging workplace standards, whether seeking more flexibility or higher pay from their employers, or intrinsic benefits such as being heard and doing meaningful and impactful work. A recent study my company conducted on Gen-Z in the workplace showed that 85 percent of respondents want to work for a company with a mission, and 89 percent will leave a company that doesn’t include them. As this generation increasingly shifts into the workforce, it will be imperative that employers take note, especially when it comes to attracting and retaining new talent.

Drenik: Thanks, Dave for sharing your unique insights on The Great Resignation and employee retention. It was a pleasure to speak with you.