CEO - David Alterman takes a moment to reflect on The Great Resignation

There has been a lot of chat recently about The Great Resignation. Time has started to give us a perspective on the impact of Covid on working patterns and (especially) younger people’s attitude to work.

Which apparently resulted in The Great Resignation – a mass departure from paid employment to …. something else.

The economic and social impacts of Covid won’t become fully clear for several years. Education is likely to be the area where we see the longest and most damaging impact, as children from disadvantaged households may have lost up to 12 months of education at a critical time, whilst well-resourced and supported middle class children remain largely unaffected.

But about this great resignation. Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the association for human resources professionals, found that between April and June 2021, 3.2 percent of the UK working population made a job to job move. Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index found that 43 percent of employed people surveyed said they were somewhat likely or extremely likely to consider changing jobs within the next year.

As a quantitative researcher I am the first one to poke holes in statistics like these – and there are lots of holes to poke.

No question there have been some changes to work practices, mainly for the better. Most businesses are now settling in to a grown up version of hybrid working – building greater flexibility into an office-centric working week. And issues like mental wellness have shot to the top of the agenda as responsible employers recognise the need to take a more holistic approach to employee welfare.

What I am seeing in our business is a return to a healthy churn of staff – (10 – 15% is optimal) as some of our partners are ready to move on to the next thing and we welcome some fresh new faces.

But as for a great resignation – the only one I have spotted is on the faces of the commentators who love forecasting seismic societal changes and are resigned to it not happening.

Watch out for the Great Unretirement – coming soon.