The great resignation: real or rort?

The constant media buzz about the looming Great Resignation have all talent teams on guard, or at least curious as to their own resignation trends.

In our our recent 2021 State of Talent Acquisition Survey, 37% of talent teams reported that they were already experiencing a significantly higher number of resignations and a further 14% are experiencing somewhat higher resignations.

43% of companies reported same or similar number of resignations than previous years and 6% reporting fewer resignations making it an almost 50-50 split on the effects of the Great Resignation.

Interestingly, 37% of talent teams reported not having access to causal data on why employees leave.

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data reports that resignation rates in Australia are at an all-time low, yet LinkedIn announced a 26 per cent jump in Australian workers moving from one company to another in October, compared with the same time in 2019, before the pandemic.

Why so many inconsistencies? In the US where resignations rates soared, they were uneven across sectors. Hospitality and leisure resignations increased from 4.4% to 6.4% while finance, IT and government held steady.

Additionally, we have participation rates drop during Covid-19 due to childcare responsibilities and they have not yet returned to their former capacity. There are pockets of workers unwilling to vaccinate against Covid-19, disqualifying them for some types of employment. Lastly, as many companies move further down the path of mobility, we may see many role transitions but that doesn’t necessarily mean resignations as employees switch roles internally.

These data and reports are all signals – some weak and some strong. So will we see our own version of the Great Resignation?

Well, 51% of our respondents are already experiencing somewhat or significantly higher resignation levels. Does that mean we are there yet? There is no defining moment of arrival. For some, it may never arrive whilst at the same time, others have already arrived. One thing rings clearer than the rest, it won’t be an even experience across all sectors and professions. It would be foolish however, not to prepare, not only on the hiring front but also considering that someone has to onboard all of these new hires.

As with most other sectors of the economy, recruitment is constantly reshaped by the evolving workforce, continual changes to market conditions and government regulations.

When asked if they have been impacted by The Great Resignation, here’s what members of the talent community had to say.

“We are recruiting at record numbers but no one is closing the back door, retention needs to be addressed urgently.”

“Our resignation rates have sky-rocketed and demand is x5 what it was pre-Covid. We absolutely can’t use the same thinking and approaches that have proved successful in the past. The landscape and conditions now are completely different.”

This article is an excerpt from the 2021 State of Talent Acquisition Report which is being released on Thursday 2^nd December. For a more detailed analysis of these findings, join us on Wednesday 1^st December for our 2021 State of Talent Acquisition Webinar as we unpack the insights delivered in our recent survey and explore what they mean for talent teams in 2022 and beyond.