People do business with people they like. As a recruiter you must be sure to come together with your clients and with your applicants to build strong long-lasting relationships. You should be seen as having their best interests at heart and as the go-to source for exceptional customer service. Understanding the motivational factors driving applicants to change jobs is an important aspect of the services you can provide. Come together with integrated solutions and improve your business!

Citing Zoominfo: “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” Take care of your clients and they will continue to do business with you. Word-of-mouth is by far the best advertising medium because people want to talk about companies that are exceptional in customer service. They will share your information with others and post recommendations on social media. Of course, this works both ways… bad service results in bad reviews and less business. Referral business is the best business.

What is causing people to change jobs? According to Wikipedia:

“The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse, beginning in early 2021, primarily in the United States. Possible causes include wage stagnation amid rising cost of living, economic freedom provided by COVID-19 stimulus payments, long-lasting job dissatisfaction, and safety concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The plot below illustrates the magnitude of the trend.

Resignations as Percent of Workforce

Wage stagnation in the face of rising cost of living hits where it truly hurts… in the pocketbook. Many employers feel constrained to control costs, including wages, to help them survive the challenges posed by the pandemic and have left themselves vulnerable to increased staff turnover. The labor marketplace has become one of worker shortage and the shortfall in supply has led to opportunities for workers to get a raise by making a move. For many people “there’s more competition across industries, so workers are feeling more empowered than ever before…”  Employees looking at changing life goals, having better flexibility, gaining better career satisfaction, and working with better leadership are impacting the new American work ethic. people are Recruiters should be aware of and understand this key factor.

Starting this trend were the state and federal COVID-19 stimulus payment programs and increases in unemployment benefits. These well-intentioned, but perhaps misguided, efforts to ease the pain of COVID-induced market distortions facilitated the trend to resignations. Many people did not have to worry about their short-term incomes and could stay home to get well, help sick members of their family, and watch their children who were home from school. Wikipedia’s sources noted that the roll-back of the unemployment benefits did not result in significant job creation as anticipated.

Satisfaction with one’s job is an important factor in an employee’s long-term employment. Wikipedia noted that Millennials (ages 26 – 41) and Gen Z (ages 10 – 25) are those most likely to be dissatisfied with their work, with more than half of Gen Z reported to be wanting to change jobs within the next year. Data from Harvard Business Review showed that the group aged from 30 to 45 years had the highest resignation rates. Much of this dissatisfaction can likely be attributed to various factors, including increased work-loads due to staff reductions, workplace pressures due to COVID impacts, and the desire for more work-life balance. 

Safety concerns posed by the COVID pandemic, especially among those on the “front-line” such as retail, healthcare, service industries, and childcare workers have contributed to the Great Resignation. Many of these workers have felt at risk and unappreciated, leading them to desire a change. Confusion and chaos over vaccinated versus un-vaccinated and masked versus un-masked status of workers has contributed to the discontent and added impetus to the trend of increased resignations. Sensitivity to and awareness of these factors can help recruiters better manage their client’s needs.

You can better serve your client’s needs for staffing by offering a range of solutions, including direct-hire, contract-to-hire, contract, and remote or in-office. Come together with integrated solutions and improve your business! You can partner with an employer-of-record service provider such as Evergreen Contract Resources to enable you to offer these solutions. If you are set up in advance, you can provide services to your client companies at once. Call Evergreen today, and we will set you up. There is no cost or obligation. Use us when you need us. You can better serve your clients if you COME TOGETHER … WITH TEMP AND CONTRACT PLACEMENTS!