As the Great Resignation continues, how are leaders going to attract and retain talent? The importance of emotionally intelligent and compassionate leadership right now can’t be understated.
Wall Street Journal reporter Kathryn Dill, who has been covering the effects of the pandemic on workers, reported last week on two studies suggesting that women and minorities continue to exit jobs at higher rates than other employees.
Dill reveals a common experience: women and minorities are consistently feeling a greater negative impact from the pandemic. There is an upside for them, too, in that the pandemic disruptions have freed workers to find, often, better jobs or to rethink their priorities so taking a break from work is an option.
For managers, it’s all downside as people leave.
Here’s where we need leadership to kick in.
Going back to October, Dill reported on the importance of good management in retaining women in and minorities, citing the effectiveness of empathy in managers. A human factor that could stand up to the lure of higher paying competition.
Good management traditionally plays an outsize role in keeping employees from eyeing the exits. Gallup found that it took a pay raise of more than 20% to hire most employees away from a leader who engaged them. Women with highly empathetic managers have experienced less Covid-19 related burnout, according to a study released Wednesday by Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on women’s advancement at work. The Catalyst survey also found 57% of white women and 62% of women of color who feel their life circumstances are respected and valued by their company have never or rarely thought of leaving.
To address this unprecedented exodus of women and minorities, organizations must assess their values in “contract” focused on kindness with workers including:
1) It’s a good time for everyone to ask, “why are we here?” Is our work important in some way? Is it fulfilling to ME? What is our mission?
2) Ask, “how can we make this a place where people feel heard?” Make empathy a KPI for all managers. Make sure managers get to know everyone’s home situation – childcare arrangements, special needs, family pressures.
3) Ask “how can we help people stay?” If you can afford it, it’s a good time to do development work, such as assessing employees for matches with their jobs. Whatever way you do this, the idea is to make sure people are in jobs suited for their motivational drivers, so people aren’t wearing themselves out in ill-fitting roles.
Salary increases never hurt, but also, as one study suggests, establishing this kind of employer-employee commitment may go further than simply throwing money at the problem.
