The Chefs Warehouse

The U.S. has had one of the most challenging labor markets in the last two years. In 2020, COVID 19 forced employers to lay off their employees or close their businesses. Unemployment was at an all-time high and government-provided unemployment benefits during this difficult time.

In 2021, the U.S. economy started to reopen, companies needed to rehire their employees. However, they were surprised to see employees not as willing to return to work or their current employees resigning from their current jobs. According to Lawrence Katz, an Economics Professor at Harvard University, "We haven't seen a quit rate this high since 2000 when the U.S. Bureau and Labor Statistics began the current Job Openings and Labor Survey data series."

Covid impacted people's health and the way they looked at their lives. Many people were caught in the hustle and bustle of life and had very little time reflecting on what they wanted. 

"It's essential to understand what employees value and audit your current company culture."

Covid allowed people to pause and rethink what was important to them. But during this time, they faced additional challenges.

Some of the reasons people either quit or failed to return were:

• Burnout is one of the top reasons people have quit or failed to return to the labor market. People were working long hours with long commutes. Employees were not happy with their current company or position.

• Mental health issues became an issue due to isolation from others and regulations. Lack of money and food issues and domestic violence were other contributing factors. Covid began to wear on everyone, and people began acting out on social media.

• Lack of childcare and online school became problematic for parents. Covid forced childcare centers to close and schools to turn to online classes. Relatives who once provided childcare for people were no longer able to due to covid. Parents had to help or teach their children with online learning.

• People started to migrate to more affordable states. As a result, the labor shortages became more prevalent in states like New York, Illinois, California, and New Jersey.       

In 2021, we started to see patterns in which job seekers were looking for better pay and benefits, better life balance, and reduced commuting. Competitive pay and benefits have always been a top priority for job seekers, and people were willing to consider another job opportunity if the payor benefits were better. 

Many also realized that they could do their job from home and potentially more effective than working in an office. It allowed the flexibility to work and provided life balance. This new model conflicted with many companies' traditional work model of being in the office. 

The request to be 100 percent remote or hybrid from job seekers grew and being 100 percent onsite was no longer attractive to them.

So how can employers utilize this information to retain employees in this new normal? It's essential to understand what employees value and audit your current company culture.

1. Make sure you are paying employees the market rate. Employees will leave a company for better pay and benefits. It is the number one thing employees consider essential. While you are paying new employees market rate, there should be a market-rate analysis for current workers. This is to ensure your employees feel valued and avoid wage compression.

2. Work with your managers on increasing their empathy and holding people accountable. Employees need to feel that their managers care about them as people and are treated fairly. Employees tend to leave their managers and not their company.

3. Train managers to identify mental health issues. If your company has an EAP, that is an excellent resource for employees.

4. Creating an inclusive and fun environment begins with onboarding. How you bring employees into your organization and connect new employees to other employees. Employees want to feel that they belong and the atmosphere is inclusive.

5. When possible, it is vital to inject fun into the workplace. We spend more time with the people we work with than our own families. Leaders and managers are essential in making this happen. 

6. Find a way to provide flexibility in the workplace. While not all jobs can be remote, companies need to reevaluate and be creative in incorporating flexibility in those roles. Consider job sharing or flexibility when they come to work.

7. Be proactive and do Stay Interviews to understand the engagement of employees. Employers need to reach out to employees before they leave the company. Once an employee chooses to go, it is challenging to retain him/her. Offering more money is not always an incentive for an employee.

8. Create a culture of respect and appreciation. Leaders in the organization need to set the standards of respect for all employees. The area that many employers lack is where employees feel appreciated. Saying "Please" or "Thank you doesn't cost a company anything. However, it goes a long way for employees.

The most important thing an employer can do to retain employees is open and flexible to new ideas during this period. Those companies unwilling to modify or change culture may encounter missed opportunities on talent or a revolving door. Whether companies decide to implement some or all the suggestions above is something they want to consider maintaining the competitive advantage for talent.