The COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for an employee exodus of unparalleled magnitude. Some have even called it "the biggest crisis in the history of HR" and they're probably right. The mass departure of millions of employees spanning every industry and reaching every corner of the globe has been so significant as to warrant its own moniker: The Great Resignation.

Research by Birn+Partners suggests that employees remain confident in their prospects in the current market. Whether due to retrenchment or remote work, the pandemic and associated lockdowns provided employees with the opportunity to evaluate their professional lives and time to explore alternatives. And employers in a post-pandemic world are not only finding it very difficult to entice talent back into the office but they are struggling with retention too.

Some of the major reasons for resignation cited by employees during exit interviews include a lack of work-life balance, inadequate salaries and meagre benefits packages, lack of prospects for career advancement, feeling overworked and undervalued, and general dissatisfaction with management and company culture.

With the market strongly in favour of employees, employers are in a desperate race to develop value propositions, not for customers but employees. Employee retention is so highly valued because the cost of recruiting and training new employees can be astronomical. What's more, resignations have the potential to strain remaining employees as they inevitably have to absorb the workload while replacements are found.

If your business is struggling to hold on to talent, it's probably time to review your employee retention strategies. Some of the most effective ones include sanctioning remote work and flexible scheduling, reducing workdays and encouraging a healthy work-life balance, adding wellness offerings and other job perks, publicly recognising employees for milestones and achievements, creating an attractive company culture that maximises employee engagement, and establishing clear pathways for career advancement and professional development.

However, the most important retention strategy, without a shadow of a doubt, is proper compensation. A salary worthy of hard work and personal sacrifice consistently ranks as the number one priority for employees. Do your research. Find out what your competition is paying. If you're not beating or at least matching their remuneration packages, you will likely lose your best-performing employees and be forced to replace them with inexperienced recruits, which is guaranteed to be significantly more expensive in the long run.

Birn+Partners specialises in helping businesses of all sizes retain top talent. If your objective is to optimise employee performance and ensure long-term career satisfaction, give us a call.