What does this powerful workforce trend mean for individuals and growing organizations?
We’ve made it to 2022. If you have mixed feelings about this year, you’re not alone. Many are uncertain about what the year will bring. As individuals, we’re determined to find meaningful work that makes us happy, but what career decisions do we need to make for this to happen? As high performing teams, we’re determined to stay ahead of the curve and grow, but what kind of people do we need in our teams and how do we find them? We’re excited to tell you that there’s hope…
Welcome to the year of the Great Redirection. A powerful workforce trend set in motion by a powerful group of many, most likely including YOU, and it’s all for the good. To understand what the Great Redirection is, let’s take a quick look back at its predecessor.
How it started: The Great Resignation
Aside from the pandemic, the Great Resignation was a hot topic that could single-handedly ignite fear, uncertainty, inspiration, and of course, the desire to quit your job - even if you didn’t have a backup plan. The buzzword has been around since late 2020 but resurfaced in April 2021 with a vengeance, when more than 700,000 workers in white collar ‘professional and business’ services left their jobs in America. This was the highest monthly number ever recorded by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the numbers only grew.
From April to September 2021, America saw more than 24 million workers quit their jobs.
That’s a lot of churn!
No matter where you looked for the numbers, they all pointed to the same thing: People were moving on from their jobs. A Bankrate survey (August 2021) found that 55% of Americans planned on searching for a new job over the next 12 months, so this phenomena isn’t slowing down any time..
If you’re wondering why the Great Resignation happened in America, Australia, and all around the world - you’ve arrived at your next destination…
How it’s going: The Great Redirection:
The Great Resignation wasn’t just about endings, it brought valuable insights and AHA moments to help us all kickstart a new and better beginning for 2022. Whether you’re someone looking for work or a team leader looking to hire, the current ways of job searching and hiring have only worked for a small few and the Great Redirection is here to help level the playing field for all.
According to Josh Bersin, “employees are migrating from crummy jobs to better jobs and from companies that don’t seem to care to companies that really really care.” The global research expert in HR, recruitment, leadership, and technology coins these companies as ‘Irresistible Organisations’ that offer opportunities including growth and promotion. Meanwhile, research has currently found that only one in 7 organisations in the US can claim this ‘irresistible’ status.
So, what do people expect companies to care about in this Great Redirection and how will we see this play out? Here are 3 takeaways.
#1 Candidates won’t settle, and they shouldn’t have to.
While you’d naturally think that people were just leaving their jobs and starting new ones, many in fact are taking their time and not diving into new opportunities, because candidates will no longer settle. Culture Amp summarised some of the top factors fuelling the extreme turnover, including:
Dissatisfaction with current role and future development;
Looking for a new career or life path;
Lack of humanity and empathy at work;
Desiring more flexibility;
Disappointment in their company’s response to social movements.
If these reasons are behind people quitting their jobs by the millions, then it’s no surprise that they’ve got their priorities in place when applying for new jobs. From flexibility and work-life balance, to development, and alignment of values, people aren’t settling and they want companies to value them for who they really are.
What can employers do about this?
It’s no longer just about you choosing candidates, it’s about them choosing you too. Your strict laundry list of unicorn-esque job requirements may be scaring off candidates with amazing potential. Do they really need that fancy education or past employer listed on their resume? It’s about aligning on priorities for both sides for that holistic fit. Start by exploring the following:
Are your work styles and preferences aligned?
Are candidates genuinely motivated to do the best work of their career in your team?
Do they have the right underlying strengths to be a top performer?
#2 People want to actually get to know their potential employers.
Did you know that about 51% of candidates want to visit their potential employer’s office to learn more about the culture? Joining a new company is a big deal and candidates want to know what they’re getting themselves into, and if it’s worth it. Let’s say you’re looking for a full-time Sales Executive job - that’s you spending roughly 40 hours of your week committed to the role, the team, and the company. Wouldn’t you want to know more before jumping in? We spend less time test driving careers than we do test driving cars, that’s weird!
51% of candidates want to visit their potential employer’s office to learn more about the culture.
What can employers do about this?
You’ve got to give love if you want to get (application) love. Be transparent in your job descriptions and interviews, create realistic pictures of what it’s like to work in your teams - the good, the bad and the ugly. Share your team’s values and collaboration style. When you take the guesswork out of the equation for candidates, you’re more likely to attract people with a better fit for the role.It pays to be upfront!
#3 All-hands hiring is the new norm across leading companies.
Hiring isn’t just the HR team’s responsibility. Every manager, every head of department, and the CEO needs to know how to hire - even if it’s not their full-time job. Whether it’s for a team in Sales, Marketing, Operations, or Customer Success, we’ve seen less post-and-pray behaviour across job boards and more smarter approaches towards attracting talent, and knowing how to spot the best-fit candidates. Leaders have discovered that some of their best hires helped their teams excel in more ways than they could imagine, and none of this could have been picked up from skimming through their resumes. That’s because everyone started somewhere and there’s a goldmine of junior and mid-level talent with incredible strengths, abilities, motivation, and values, all waiting to be discovered.
What can employers do about this?
Open your door wider to more people.You simply can’t spot someone’s strengths, abilities, and motivation from screening a two-page resume. It starts with recognizing potential, and not privilege. Rather than focus on a person’s ‘years of experience’, look for their demonstrated skills by openly welcoming job applications that don’t tick all of your boxes, asking “how would you approach…” questions in interviews, and offer mini work tasks to get a better understanding of the candidate’s abilities. Giving candidates the ability to demonstrate these strengths across all facets of their lives (not just professional experience) can also open doors to great fit talent that wouldn’t ordinarily make it through your recruitment process.
The Great Redirection is here to level the playing field for a lot of people looking for work and it benefits employers too in both the short and long run. Leading organisations have used Hatch to find their junior team members with a genuine fit. Try Hatch for free with unlimited roles.
Are you on board for the Great Redirection? We want to hear from you! Tell us your career and team goals in our latest LinkedIn post.
Hi, we’re Hatch. We believe that everyone can find meaning in work. Our hiring tools help growing teams find junior and mid-level talent based on a genuine fit. We’ve helped some of the world’s leading organisations including Qantas, Atlassian, General Assembly, Airbnb, J.P.Morgan, and TikTok look beyond the resume to hire talented team members based on their strengths, motivation, and abilities. Born in Australia, our new product is now available in the United States.
