What’s behind the ‘nice resignation’?

What’s behind the ‘nice resignation’?

The American Great Resignation goes on, with around 4.5 million employees leaving their job in March 2022, meaning vast numbers of unfilled positions. It’s not people jostling for pay and promotion, or because of grievances, but because they’re looking for a better life — which is why the phenomenon is now being called the ‘nice resignation’.

HR in the US now recognise the role of burnout as a major cause. A study has claimed 50% of workers felt burnt out from work within the past two weeks; 57% were mentally and bodily exhausted; 51% emotionally drained. For 43% of US executives their new job search had been brought about by a need for “higher work-life stability”.

Replacing people means extra bills for employers already facing inflationary pressures. Evidence suggests costs of around a half to twice the annual wage in recruitment costs, management time and coaching, as well as disruption to operations and cover needed from other members of a team.

Flexing offers

In response, US employers have been looking to provide more flexibility as a retention tool: more home-working, more flexible routines, more holidays, more paid sabbaticals.

There has also been a greater emphasis on staff recognition schemes, encouraging more peer-to-peer rewards, and training for managers awareness of psychological wellbeing and listening.

HR have been under pressure to measure the impact of investing in employee wellbeing and other initiatives, using spreadsheets to track the financial savings from reduced absenteeism and staff turnover.

EAP first

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Introducing blanket offerings around flexible working, holidays etc are a scattergun approach, and won’t necessarily bring the ROI that HR are hoping for. People are all different — and while there is the broad trend of the nice resignation, the causes and thinking behind it are very individual. And again, getting managers involved to spot signs of burnout isn’t an answer in itself. Struggling employees still don’t want to open up or admit to what might be written up as a kind of weakness.

“The best ROI will always come from EAPS — because they provide a confidential way of speaking up and getting to the root causes of problems, the mix of work and home issues, and a track for dealing with them in practical ways.”

What’s behind the ‘nice resignation’? – EAPA UK