Healthy Org Design: The Simple Solution To Today’s Great Attrition
According to a January 2022 employee survey and analysis by McKinsey & Company, more than half of people who quit their jobs in the previous six months left because they didn’t feel valued, lacked a sense of belonging and wanted to work in an environment with stronger relationships and connections.
Turnover is still an issue for many businesses and the lack of skilled migration over the last few years has made filling roles even more challenging. We are living through a period of extraordinary uncertainty. One consequence: an undercurrent of emotional disturbance characterized by rising levels of anxiety, depression, fear, and stress. At the same time leaders are confronting these challenges on an individual level, they also are responsible for supporting a wide cross-section of people, all of whom have their own range of experiences, emotions, and resources for responding. If you lead a large team or a company, remember this: the Great Attrition is real, will continue, and may get worse before it gets better. Yet this unique moment also represents a big opportunity.
We’re stuck in an Industrial Revolution mindset. Since the previous industrial revolution during the 20th century the pipeline of education up to work or business placement has been aiming continuous increased productivity, efficiency, and operational excellence. What is “the why” behind it? We used to think that it is aimed at achieving more material value creation, increased tangible commonwealth, and progress to have more and more. Ideally it all should have brought development to humans who have been driving this vehicle for centuries now with a significant over speed in the recent two decades.
The crumbling elements of both education and workplace call us upon action and repurposing of the value and business models. This is impacting the current workforce, however C-leaders tend to draw attention to the flexibility and adaptability they have managed to achieve within the short period of time. There are experiences signalling the coming complete failure of the performance of employees in terms of motivation, beliefs, mental health, and performance as a consequence in the mid-long term (next 2-3 years).
Despite the challenges of hiring right now, mobility is ultimately a good thing, acting as a type of healthy circulatory system for organisations and economies. It has increased the stakes for companies to retain and develop their own talent. A new approach can start with reconsidering human from the individual worker's perspective. Companies that make significant investments in training can build workforce skills more systematically—and employees who are learning are more likely to be engaged and want to stay. Building experience capital is good for employees and good for companies. In addition to offering training, employers can retain and develop their talent by making job movement within their organisations more fluid.
While all of these things are great and many companies probably need to invest in these priorities anyway, the simple but unpopular truth is that the key to attracting and retaining top talent lies with leadership management and organisational design within the company.
Change is inevitable and constant. Today's organisations work like living organisms, constantly adapting to the environment and changing for the future - to help not just thrive today but scale for the future.
