The Great Resignation is a symptom of a Great Empathy Gap

Nov 27 

Written By Galeno Chua

Credit @thoughtcatalog

The Great Resignation has shown a clear empathy gap between employers and the workforce in the hospitality and retail sectors. What we’re seeing is not just mass  resignations but an unprecedented workforce correction as workers find alternatives in higher education, self-employment or in industries which adopt more empathetic practice such as in the tech industry. Many businesses simply aren’t keeping up with the market changes, they might know their customers’ preferences, but clearly don’t know their employee preferences.

The Great Resignation has been extensively covered by western media for many months from Forbes to the Wall Street Journal and has been quickly repackaged into a fresh variety of other ‘Greats’ from The Great Reprioritization, the Great Change-Up, to The Great Realization, and many other iterations.

Why did it spur writers to concoct all these ‘great’ alternatives?

Because the word ‘resignation’ only serves a small slice of the cake. Most people who read ‘resignation’ instinctively felt that it just wasn’t the full picture - people weren’t just resigning and retiring rich, and yet this buzzword continues to hum, Jena McGregor captures why the term is so ‘sticky’ quite well in this Forbes article. It’s clear that people haven’t just been quitting, they’re rethinking/reprioritizing/changing-up their lives because COVID made many of the bad things in their sectors much worse, and employers simply did not or could not readjust to relieve workers’ fatigue, frustration and feelings. The number of articles and news on employees quitting or even being terminated because they had to close their stores early due to a lack of staff were criminally high.

Could these empathy gaps have been prevented?

Not likely, in our most recent report on empathy in the workplace over 90% of employees stated it was important to explicitly talk about empathy and values in the workplace, and not surprisingly, not a single respondent could recall a campaign on empathy in the workplace. It’s something we know is important to do and talk about, and yet we don’t practice or exhibit, nor have the time for. 

Vulnerability-inducing topics such as empathy and compassion are still not common practice in corporations; research from OnePoll found that 62% of workers in America are afraid of being judged by their bosses for taking mental health days. It’s no surprise that many companies were not ready for the mass exodus.

What lessons can be learned from the Great Resignation?

1 - It’s not about paying people more money, it’s about compensating their needs.

In other words a minimum wage, or a survivable wage as it should be called, is not equal to a livable wage, or ‘making a living’. Are they truly able to live comfortably with what we’re offering? Are they insured? 

We can start by reviewing our compensation and HR policy to consider the full context of the person we’ve employed for the best portion of their lifetimes. Is what we’re paying enough for them to have personal hobbies? Can they provide for their children’s education? Can they afford to go on holiday with their family? If what we’re paying isn’t enough, then who are we to decide that they shouldn’t do those things? A simple empathetic practice is to imagine yourself telling your employees that they can’t take their kids on a holiday or even spend time with them because the company isn’t willing to pay them enough or give them enough time off to do so. Is this really living? And is it what your company really stands for?

2 - The workforce has changed

Millenials and Gen Z account for just over a third of the workforce, and in the next decade, this will increase over 58%, meaning if you’re not already hiring Millenials and Gen Z workers now, you most certainly will be in the near future. This new workforce, particularly in developed nations was raised in environments of abundance and not scarcity unlike their predecessors, and thus perceive and value work very differently to their parents.

3 - Consumers are happy to pay more

Our aforementioned report found that 7 out of 10 consumers are willing to pay more for companies that are perceived to be empathetic and values-driven. This means companies can enjoy higher margins, or in other arguments, can justify the perceived increased cost of investing empathetic practice into their organizations.

Conclusion

In order to take ownership of their human resource strategy in the coming decade, companies must adopt empathetic practice in their day-to-day work and HR policies, not just in their recruitment campaigns or on motivational posters in the office. To give their team members the trust and faith that they have their best interests in mind, organizational leaders and managers must put themselves in the shoes of their workforce and ask the tough and vulnerable questions to see what kind of employment they’re truly offering. If not, they might find their employees in the next wave of mass resignations.