Why employee engagement and retention are the keys to improving profitability
Triggered by the pandemic, two years of continuous turmoil across industries has led to an acute labor shortage. It isn't good news. But there's hope. Let's explore the keys to improving profitability
Introduction
| In September 2021, Harvard Business Review published a thought-provoking article titled "Who is driving the great resignation?" considering a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The report analyzed more than nine million employee records from more than 4,000 companies and found that in July 2021 alone, four million Americans quit their jobs. Resignations peaked in April 2021, and since then, abnormally high resignations have been turning in continually, as per news reports. In March 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of Americans quitting their jobs in February was nearly 100,000 higher than in January and just shy of the 4.5 million who quit their jobs in November 2021. |
| Employee retention has always been a concern, but not as much as now. Earlier, most people wanted a stable income, regardless of the stress associated with their jobs. Then, the capitalist economy could have been the driving forcepeople wanted to own houses and cars and take vacations. |
| What's causing the change now? After the global pandemic forced many people to stay at home for extended periods, they realized that life could be lived without excessive pressure from deadlines, always being on the move, and working long hours. This realization kicked in, and many people became reluctant to return to work even when work conditions improved and the economy normalized. |
| The great resignation has triggered a flurry of activity in the business world, as employers and recruitment firms try to figure out what makes employees leave. There have been a lot of speculative arguments, but no conclusive answer has emerged. However, what can be said with certainty is that managing talent is a challenge. If your company doesn't have a system that gives you insight into your employees' minds and what problems they're grappling with, you'll lose employees at an alarming rate. That's bad news because no organization would want to waste effort, time and money training new employees frequently. That's a losing streak for any businessboth in terms of finances and talent. |
| But there is hope if organizations work on employee engagement to retain them for a longer period. Inspired and engaged employees are more likely to be motivated and remain committed to their employer, which leads to achieving more business goals and helping to drive the organization forward. |
