Borders are opening and airlines are dusting the desert sand off their planes. People are starting to plan trips and my inbox is full of ads for overseas holidays. We’re on the move again.
But it’s not just family reunions and holidays that are the cause of the movement. A record number of employees are quitting their jobs and rethinking their life choices. Recent research by McKinsey shows that 40% of surveyed employees are likely to leave their jobs in the next six months. Employers clearly think it’s a long-term trend, as 64% of them expect turnover to increase or remain at high levels in the coming year. It’s being called ‘The Great Resignation’ and it’s happening across all sectors of the economy.
The Great Resignation presents a challenge for you, your team and your corporate partners. Can you turn this into an opportunity?
Your corporate partners
Corporates are struggling with a double whammy. Their most experienced employees are preparing for retirement, and they’ve had a 20% increase in attrition from their middle level managers. Unusually, up to 36% are leaving without a firm job offer elsewhere, so corporates are urgently having to address the root causes for employee attrition. The McKinsey research shows that pay is not the issue: feeling valued, having opportunities to grow and a sense of belonging all rate much higher.
This is where the opportunity arises. Your non-profit provides a level of emotional engagement that a corporate only dreams about. You offer the opportunity to bring teams together, create connections in a landscape that’s been fractured by COVID and inspire a corporate’s staff and stakeholders. But you need to raise your game on staff volunteering. It’s great that you can provide a day’s experience of cooking for the homeless, painting a classroom or hosting a BBQ. How can you create meaningful experiences for large numbers and tap into the need for belonging and purpose? The success of activations such as the Push Up Challenge, May50K or One Foot Forward shows that people are craving things that bring them together for a meaningful cause. You can work with a corporate partner to be part of the solution to their staff attrition problems. Once you’re starting to solve their business problems, you’re moving out of the narrow corner of corporate philanthropy and into the core of their business- which means bigger commitments.
Your team
It’s been a tough couple of years for anyone working in non-profits. You’ve had to contend with soaring demand for your services at the same time as uncertainty with budgets and the challenges of delivering everything online. You’ve all juggled the same challenges of remote working and home schooling at the same time as trying desperately to meet the urgent need of your beneficiaries. No wonder you’re all booking holidays. There is a war for talent and a particular shortage of people skilled in corporate partnerships. If you want to avoid the Great Resignation, think about how you invest in building your team’s skills and giving them opportunities to grow. Do you have people in the right roles- especially managers? Corporate partnerships are unique hybrids and managers with backgrounds in traditional fundraising often don’t understand them. Can you build the skills of your managers, to ensure they’re providing the right support to a corporate partnership team?
You
What’s driving you right now? Do you have the opportunity to grow in your role and continue to learn? If budgets are tight, are you getting the chance to build your skills or make professional connections? Are you making the commitment to yourself to continue to grow? If you’re thinking about new opportunities elsewhere, make sure the organisation has the right culture and commitment to support you.
The war for talent is very real and the Great Resignation is going to be a challenge for the year ahead. Invest in making your team and your partners feel connected and inspired and you’ll be on the path to a stable workforce and satisfied corporate partners.