There is a phenomenon going on right now in the world. It’s being called the “The Great Resignation” …in some cases, “The Great Attrition”. And, for those employers who’d instead phrase it in a positive lingo, it’s being alluded to as “The Great Attraction”.
Most thought leadership and research have focused on what employers can do to stem this tidal wave of resignations that seems to be sweeping across the world after two years of pandemic fatigue. That this is happening is not debatable. That the employers need to do something about it is even less debatable.
But what does this mean for employees or people at large? After all, we are the other variable in this equation. Resigning from the job is one part but is that the endgame, or if we rephrase…should that be the endgame?
I think what we need is what plants need from time to time. As all those of us who are amateur gardeners would know that when we prune, we remove unwanted branches, leaves, and sometimes even roots so that our plants grow and flourish even more. Pruning helps in rejuvenating the plant. That is perhaps what we need right now…a bit of pruning for our rejuvenation.
I suggest three possible ways for your consideration as part of this rejuvenation:
1) Look within: When we used to be asked pre-pandemic to “ruthlessly prioritise”, we knew this was a good self-improvement tip but nothing more than that, and we all went about our multi-tasking and humming in the busyness of our lives, making ourselves feel more important and busier than we were. However, since the past couple of years, we’ve been forced to look within and decide what we want to prioritise and focus on…some of it has been out of choice, but most of it has been involuntary.
If we need true rejuvenation, though, we must go within ourselves willingly, voluntarily, and more frequently. The path to our rejuvenation begins inside out.
2) Learn continuously: Pre-pandemic, our jobs used to define us, which all said and done, remained more or less the same albeit with more tasks and more money added along the way. We’d “deprioritised” (we love this word!) learning because that implied not being already good at something from the start and who could afford not to look good always! So, we scoffed at learning new things.
But what we now know is that learning is all that matters in this changing and the evolving world because we don’t even know if the world will remain the same when we come out of this tunnel on the other side of the pandemic. So, learn…new skills, traits, behaviours, and mindsets. Learn to change, to evolve and to stay relevant.
3) Love yourself: Relationships have always been important to humans, irrespective of the pandemic. Whilst earlier, we focused on giving each of these relationships our time and investment and rightly so…we now need to pivot from external relationships to the one that is the most important of all…the relationship we have with ourselves. That tender love and care, which was our value proposition to our partners, children, and friends, need to be redirected to the most important person in each of these relationships, i.e. You.
Employers increasingly realise that the war for talent is a battle they are on the verge of losing, resulting in the great resignation tsunami. But it is the employee who can emerge as the real winner here, provided we prune ourselves. Pruning will lead to rejuvenation. It is time we call it “The Great Rejuvenation”.
Abhinav Prakash is Senior Associate Vice President, People & Culture at Revantage Asia and oversees talent strategy & execution of the company. A business-focused HR leader, Abhinav partners with the firm’s leadership to expertly align business needs with effective and innovative people solutions creating a compelling employee experience for people and building a competitive advantage in Asia. Prior to joining Revantage Asia, Abhinav has had crucible experiences in professional services and financial services firms such as Hewitt Associates, Bain & Co, RBS, and Aon across both consulting and corporate HR roles wherein he has been passionate about creating, implementing, and leading people strategies that drive growth, value creation and collaboration. He can be reached on LinkedIn.