Posthaste: Many bosses are spending almost half their day dealing with staff turnover, survey says


Noella Ovid
Fri, August 5, 2022

Businessman giving resign letter to his manager for quit a job.


Good morning!

Is the Great Resignation over?

Not according to the findings of this survey from California-based business technology firm Kantata.

The study interviewed 1,502 full-time employees and independent contractors in the professional services industry in June.

Forty-three per cent of the full-time employees said they were considering quitting their jobs to become freelancers. The percentage is even larger among younger workers. More than half (52 per cent) of millennial and gen Z employees were considering leaving their jobs to become independent contractors.

Three-quarters of the independent contractors surveyed had been full-time employees last year.

“The findings confirm that the Great Resignation is not just a trend, but a radical and permanent transformation of global workforces,” said Kantata.

It’s also a headache for management.

More than half of the business leaders in the survey (53 per cent) said they were having trouble hiring full-time employees. In fact, the senior executives said they were spending 40 per cent of their day dealing with employee turnover.

Of the reasons identified for the high-turnover, compensation was unexpectedly low on the list. Continuing education towards professional growth ranked more highly.

Above three-quarters (76 per cent) of freelancers stated that they want to work with businesses that provide financial support for their professional growth. This includes paying for certificates, continuing education and masterclasses.

The vast majority of full-time employees agree: 92 per cent said they would be more loyal to corporations that invest in their professional development.

Earlier this year, U.S. academic, Anthony Klotz, who coined the phrase “Great Resignation”, said he thinks resignation rates could stay above average for two or three years as employees adjust to the new ways to working that have emerged from the pandemic.

But those who do leave may not find the new pastures so green.

A survey of 15,000 U.S. workers by Joblist, an artificial intelligence job-search platform, found that more than a quarter of those who left work this year were reconsidering whether they made the right move, Bloomberg reported.

Among those who had found a new job after quitting 42 per cent said that it hadn’t lived up to their expectations.