The Secrets to Remote Employee Retention Post-COVID

The Great Resignation is in full effect. In April 2021, over 4 million Americans left their jobs in search of broader horizons or new career aspirations. Building upon this idea, the Work Trend Index estimates that 46% of employees are planning a shift to a new industry while 41% may leave their job in the next year. For employers, these numbers aren’t just eye-popping; they’re downright scary. But instead of blaming employees or ushering them out the door in a heap of resentment, employers must make a concerted effort and plan for remote employee retention post-COVID.

Yet this isn’t without its challenges. Understanding the reasons behind a shift in thinking about employment, career, and life are only part of the battle. Building appeal and a positive work culture that fosters these types of attitudes and thoughts is equally as important. Yet for companies that have maintained an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, pivoting to a new work culture isn’t an overnight process. But whether you like it or not, change is on its way. Embrace it, or you could be left with a workforce that’s understaffed or struggling to meet deadlines or complete projects.

The times change, and if you don’t change with them, you get left behind.

Bradley Walsh, English Actor

The Reasons Behind the Mass Exodus: A Statistical, Objective, and Subjective Analysis

While older generations worked a single job for their entire career and were happy with a singular career, younger generations are jumping ship for a variety of reasons. Yet contrary to popular belief or the media, mass resignations aren’t confined to the flighty reputation of the Millennial generation.

In fact, younger Millennials were essentially absent from the Great Resignation while Gen Z saw a sizable decrease in resignations since April 2021. Perhaps somewhat suprisingly, older Millennials and Gen X’ers were the main age groups that have left their jobs since April in a breakdown that looks like this:

Job Resignation Breakdown by Age Since April 2021

Furthermore, the high-tech and healthcare industries experienced the greatest percentage increase of resignations to 4.5% and 4.6%. Manager resignations also increased significantly, increasing 12% since April.

Putting the Numbers Aside: The True Reasons for a Lack of Remote Employee Retention Post-COVID

Let the finger-pointing begin. Amidst the Great Resignation, employers are blaming employees for underappreciating opportunities while employees feel like they’re unheard or unappreciated by their employers. From a different perspective, perhaps workers don’t have the same fear of being unemployed as prior generations. To some degree, all points are valid. Therefore, understanding the shift in employee thinking is vital to employee retention, as well as creating a strong company culture that embraces the reasoning behind mass resignations.

For sake of ease, these individuals are broken down into personalities or reasons for leaving to more accurately understand the motives behind why employees quit, and what you can do as an employer to retain them.

The Unheard

During the pandemic, many companies transitioned to remote work with varying degrees of success. In the wave of this movement, many employees felt like they lost their voice. With endless, pointless Zoom meetings that attempted to mimic a true office setting to a lack of communication and transparency, these individuals could no longer deal with handling issues alone. Seemingly isolated from others in the company, these workers slowly withdrew to the point of burnout.

The Dreamers

When you have time to think what you really want to do with your life, the possibilities seem endless. And that’s just what happened to this subset of workers. Maybe they didn’t love their job, but it was a means to facilitate their spending or lifestyle. During the quarantine, the thought of pursuing a true dream job became too much to ignore. These workers didn’t necessarily feel withdrawn, but broader horizons beckoned. To some degree, employers had little shot of retaining these individuals, especially with broken communication channels.

The Life’s Too Short-ers

The “Life’s Too Short-ers” are similar to dreamers in that they had an epiphany during quarantine. Maybe their job wasn’t challenging enough or perhaps they didn’t see any chance for job advancement. These individuals are a bit different, however, because pay or benefits weren’t necessarily the reasoning behind their resignation or thoughts of resignation. Maybe they want more social time, new experiences, or opportunities to travel. As such, they decided to pursue jobs with flexibility or ones that are less stressful. To this effect, life’s too short to do something that detracts from personal or social endeavors.

The Family Man or Woman

The quarantine brought family life to new heights. By working at home, men and women with young families realized how important interaction actually is. This group of workers may have been fine with continued remote work, but resistance persisted when the thought of returning to the office manifested. Like “Life’s Too Short-ers,” these people want flexibility to spend more time with family, and why not? You only get to see your kids grow up once, and each day spent working 12-hour days is one less day to see your children.

The Freelancer

Anything you can do, I can do better. Or at least that’s what freelancers might think. With a strong skill set and many years in their particular industry, the freelancer mentality is that these workers have the drive and ambition to find their own customer base. By doing so, they can get the proper work-life balance they want, get the pay rate they desire, set their own deadlines, and work with clients that they hand-pick. While improved pay or flexibility in a job may bring them back to full-time employment, the option to become a digital nomad or live wherever they want also propels them to continue the freelancing lifestyle.

The “I Don’t Want to Go Back To the Office” Crowd

Even some of the world’s best companies to work for have felt the squeeze and backlash from employees who don’t want to go back to the office. These workers found that remote work was the best thing that happened to them in their professional lives. Moreover, many of them may have felt lied to when managers or executives stated before the pandemic that working from home was an impossibility. So when you announced a return to the office, the fight-or-flight response kicked in. Many chose flight in the pursuit of 100% remote job opportunities.

Why Retention Should Be Your Top Concern

Employee retention has always been a smart move from both a financial and personnel standpoint. You want people that understand your work culture and business model, as well as those that can fit into the jigsaw puzzle of the perfect team. When these invidiuals quit or make a drastic career move, especially en masse, a smaller candidate pool remains. Unfortunately, these individuals may not have the same skills as the employee you once had.

From a financial standpoint, retention is the more business-savvy move. According to multiple studies, the cost of hiring and training a new employee is about 33% to 40% of the original employee’s salary. This cost only increases as you go through the hiring process. The longer you take to find a replacement, the more cost you incur. And that’s beyond lost productivity from the employee who quit. It’s also a financial result of the struggle that other employees might face finishing projects or a tarnished reputation. To some degree, this loss can be so significant that it can’t even be presented in a monetary figure.

A Brief Look at the Perks of Generational Retention

Millennials, in particular, value their personal time and experiences perhaps more than any other generation. Many of them remember the age without internet and the now-constant inundation of internet and social media today. Not only does this make them a valuable asset to your company, but it also bridges the gap between older and younger client bases and target markets. Thus, remote employee retention post-COVID for this age group in particular isn’t just smart; it’s a good business practice.

Gen X’ers are also an integral group to remote employee retention post-COVID. They’re more experienced than their Millennial counterparts and may also have managerial backgrounds, strong communication channels, and understanding that transcends the gap between Millennials and the baby-boom generation. As such, these individuals may return to the workforce if the job offers the right mix of family time, pay, and benefits mixed with the flexibility of a remote or hybrid job.

Short-Term Solutions for Remote Employee Retention Post-COVID

If you’ve already had a number of employees quit as part of the Great Resignation, your goal becomes short-term solutions. A major factor of the mass exodus from the world of employment was the announcement of a return to the office. After a better work-life balance, no commute, and more time with family, employees don’t want to return to the office and with good reason.

Employers must embrace this idea in the short-term. Announcing a mass return to the office, even with months of advanced notice, is akin to pulling the rug out on your team. Thus, you may want to consider a hybrid work model. This model has several different methods of execution, but at its core, it’s simply a mix of remote work and onsite work. Not only will this keep your employees generall more happy, but it will also give you time to build long-term remote employee retention strategies that work for both you and your employees.

Long-Term Planning for Remote Employee Retention Post-COVID

Long-term planning for remote employee retention is integral to the success of your business. But in unprecedented times, creating such a plan requires creative thinking and a newfound dedication to your employees. As a result, you’re going to need a multi-pronged approach that mixes planning and strategy with the needs and feelings of your staff.

Maintaining Flexibility and Work-Life Harmony

If your company can maintain at least some form of remote work, it’s in your best interest. Up to 75% of employees would take a pay cut to continue working from home, which can boost your bottom line, increase profits, and decrease overhead. If possible, you should also consider a flexible schedule that centers around production rather than set hours. This can improve employee morale, as it allows balance and work-life harmony.

Beef Up Your Company Culture Efforts

Company culture, or the attitudes and behaviors of your company at each level or personnel, is integral to your success. Without it, you can suffer from lower employee morale and burnout. It also leads to enhanced employee engagement that can boost your productivity levels and reputation as a great employer or a top company. Beefing up your efforts goes hand-in-hand with flexibility, as well as creating a strong sense of community and collaboration paired with transparency.

Foster Development

Another way to plan for remote employee rentention post-COVID is to foster the development of your staff. Lack of career growth is a major hindrance for most workers, especially if they begin to view their position as a dead-end job with little support from management. By offering learning and development opportunities, you essentially quell these fears. If you’re willing to invest in your employees, they’re willing to stay and give their best efforts.

A New Approach to Praise

Not every situation requires you to praise an employee, especially if they’re just doing their job. However, praise and employee recognition programs are an ideal choice to improve employee morale and retention. By identifying employees that go above and beyond, you’re essentially creating a system of encouragement that everyone wants to be a part of.

The Dynamic Method to Employee Retention

Even as COVID appears to subside, other variants of the virus and a changing view of employment in general necessitates a dynamic approach to employee retention. Instead of a “set it and forget it” mentality, treat your long- and short-term planning as a living, breathing entity. It requires contingency plans and may need consistent reviews to assess its efficiency and effectiveness.

No one knows exactly where the world will be a year from now. But the best advice is to have a plan for every type of scenario. By doing so, you can build a stronger work culture, have well-documented ideas for the present and future, and hopefully, tackle remote employee retention post-COVID head on.

What’s the best way to encourage remote employee retention post-COVID? How do you motivate employees to stay with your company if you want to move back to the office? Connect with Virtual Vocations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube to share your thoughts and tips. We’d love to hear from you!