According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, over 47 million Americans voluntarily quit their jobs.

The Great Resignation is a term used to describe the record number of people leaving their jobs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. After an extended period of working from home, for many people, work-life balance became a priority.

The great resignation is not over. According to PwC's Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey, one in five employees globally is planning to quit in 2022.

However, the Great Resignation is just the top of the iceberg. What doesn't count are all the employees who are working but disengaged from their jobs. People who are quiet quitting. Employees who don't enjoy what they do. Who perceive that they are not growing or that their job doesn't provide the meaning and purpose they seek.

We can find hundreds of initiatives and processes to try to improve retention. The trouble is that most of them don't go deep enough. We are so immersed in a culture of standardization that we forget that people are driven by different motivations.

Somewhere in the back of the mind of some policy-makers, these proposals are like industrial processes that can be improved just by having better data. They have the idea that if they tune the process well enough if we get it right, engagement will all hum along perfectly into the future.

It won't work. It never did.

The point is that this is not a mechanical system. It's a human system. It's about people. Every employee who resigns has a different reason for doing so. There could be trends, but the stories are always unique.

We need to recognize that engagement doesn't happen in a committee room. It occurs in the daily basics, and the people who do it are the leaders and the team surrounding them.

Where to start:

Listen to your people to better understand how they are doing: Have 1-to-1 conversations, ask them what they need, and how you can support them better. Connect with them.
Care and be a coach: helping your team and aligning priorities, removing the roadblocks, and asking them questions that help them.
Don't ignore the basics: Focus on well-being, high-quality connections, understanding what people need, if someone has a personal situation, etc.
Create a psychologically safe environment where everyone can feel safe to say what they think and speak up if needed.

As a leader, your role is to bring out the best in people.