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Tag: Great Resignation

  • The ‘Great Resignation’ Is Taking a Major Toll and Changing the Workplace

    The ‘Great Resignation’ Is Taking a Major Toll and Changing the Workplace

    The “Great Resignation” continues to take a major toll on companies and their return-to-office (RTO) plans but is benefiting a key demographic.

    Companies have been dealing with the Great Resignation since early 2021. Many employees’ view of work was forever changed as a result of the pandemic and the realization their jobs could be done remotely just as well. A new report by A.Team and MassChallenge is shedding light on just how disruptive the Great Resignation has been.

    According to the report, “44% of tech founders & execs say that a significant number of their top performers have exited due to the Great Resignation.” To make matters worse, 67% say traditional hiring methods don’t work, and 62% say it takes an average of four months or more to hire top talent, especially in product and engineering.

    Despite the challenges the Great Resignation is causing, freelancers are one demographic that is benefiting as companies increasingly rely on them to fill in the gaps. In fact, 73% of tech companies now report blended teams consisting of full-time employees and freelancers. What’s more, 71% say that freelancers help their business be more agile, especially in the face of economic uncertainty.

    Failure to Fully Embrace Remote Work

    Interestingly, despite recognizing the benefits of flexible and remote work, many companies are still eager to return to the status quo.

    The report shows that 62% of companies surveyed believe they are seeing better results from a flexible work model, yet 37% want to increase the amount of time employees spend in the office. The number is even higher among more established Series B, C, D, E and public companies, reaching 55%.

    It’s a safe bet that as long as companies continue pushing for a return to the pre-pandemic status quo, the Great Resignation will continue. In other words, companies’ insistence on returning to normal will likely end up destroying the very “normal” they’re trying to achieve.

  • Skilled Labor: The Next Supply Chain Issue for Chipmakers

    Skilled Labor: The Next Supply Chain Issue for Chipmakers

    The last two years have been difficult for the semiconductor industry, but chipmakers are facing one of their biggest challenges yet: a skilled labor shortage.

    Chipmakers the world over have been struggling to keep up with demand since the outset of the global pandemic. Lockdowns in regions of China responsible for much of the industry’s manufacturing took their toll, as did general, pandemic-fueled supply chain issues.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, via AppleInsider, the industry is now facing a shortage of skilled labor. As with supply chain issues, the labor shortage is being driven by the pandemic.

    Eager to avoid the kind of issues that arose at the outset of the pandemic — and with cybersecurity increasingly becoming a national security issue — many governments are wanting to promote local semiconductor production. Unfortunately, because the industry has been focused in China and Asia for decades, there is a shortage of skilled workers outside that region. The WSJ estimates 70,000 to 90,000 silicon workers will be needed by 2025 in the US alone.

    To make matters worse, the labor shortage comes at a time when demand for workers is at a high across many different industries. As a result, employees are becoming far more selective about the jobs they take and are leaving undesirable jobs. This trend has been so widespread it has been called the “Great Resignation.”

    The WSJ says chipmakers are “stepping up [their] game” in an effort to attract more talent, increasing wages, improving recruitment, and developing closer ties with universities. With software and services getting all the limelight, however, it remains to be seen if these measures will be effective.

  • Hybrid Work Disparity Is Fueling the Great Resignation

    Hybrid Work Disparity Is Fueling the Great Resignation

    Disparity between hybrid work requirements for managers and employees is leading to near-record dissatisfaction, further fueling the Great Resignation.

    Despite many companies thriving during the pandemic, most large companies have fought to bring employees back to the office as soon as possible. Many employees, while wanting the option to go into the office, have pushed back against efforts to make them return five days a week. This hasn’t stopped many companies from moving forward with their plans, and now employee dissatisfaction is hitting near-record highs.

    In Slack’s latest Future Forum Pulse survey, the company found that 34% of knowledge workers have returned to the office five days a week. This represents the highest percentage since the surveys began in mi-2020. Interestingly, along with this shift in the workplace, “work-related stress and anxiety is at its worst since our surveying began.”

    One of the main issues many employees have is the unfair disparity between executives and employees. Non-executive employees are almost “twice as likely as executives to be working from the office five days a week,” while their “work-life balance scores are now 40% worse than their bosses, plummeting at five times the rate of executives over the last quarter.” Those same employees are experiencing more than twice the work-related stress and anxiety as their bosses.

    Unsurprisingly, this dissatisfaction is likely to start costing businesses in the form of higher turnover. The survey showed that “knowledge workers with little to no ability to set their own work hours are 2.6x as likely to look for a new job in the coming year, compared to those with schedule flexibility.” This trend could especially impact working parents, people of color, and women, all of whom are more likely to want flexible schedules.

    Slack’s latest survey should be a warning to companies large and small, and force them to reevaluate their in-office policies. At the very least, it should cause companies to focus more on implementing their policies fairly.

  • Kentucky Is at the Center of the ‘Great Resignation’

    Kentucky Is at the Center of the ‘Great Resignation’

    The Bluegrass State is at the center of the Great Resignation, as pandemic-fueled changes disrupt the workplace.

    When employers sent their workers home in the early days of the pandemic, few could have imagined the long-term impacts that move would have on the workplace. With return-to-office dates being pushed back time and again in the face of new COVID surges, many employees have no desire to return to the status quo. There is also near-unprecedented demand for workers as many are quitting jobs that no longer serve their needs.

    As reported by WAVE 3 News, Kentucky is leading this “Great Resignation,” with a ‘quit rate’ of 4.5%, double that of New York or Pennsylvania.

    While some politicians are quick to blame COVID unemployment benefits, others are not convinced.

    “The challenges in our labor market are complex,” Gov. Andy Beshear said. “Some people wanted to say it was unemployment and the unemployment pay; you can’t get unemployment if you quit.”

    As WAVE 3 News points out, Kentucky has one of the highest hiring rates in the nation, which would seem to indicate many people are leaving jobs they’re not happy with in favor of jobs that suit them better.

    “I’m not going to stay somewhere that treats me badly just because it’s a consistent job. I’m not going to do it,” Cory Bosemer told WAVE 3 News. “I think a lot of people now, Kentucky or not, are starting to realize that.”