Want to help HRForecast team members from Ukraine? Follow this link
HRForcast
×
  • Why HRForecast Customers stories Learn more about our customer success stories HRForecast advantages Find out what makes us unique Trust & security See how we ensure security and data integrity bg

    Find out how Siemens has benefited from our services

    Know more

    bg50%

    of the DAX 30 companies work with us​​

    Know more

  • Solutions Cases IMG Use cases Answer to your HR questions. icon Know the future People Analytics Services We use labor market data to tune your business and HR​. icon Plan the future Strategic Workforce Planning Design your future workforce & create accurate headcount​. icon Build the future Talent Marketplace Platform Discover and develop the skills of your employees.
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Podcast, interviews
    • Webinars
    • Downloads
    • Events
    • Quiz
    • HR Glossary
    information technology skills in demand Eight in-demand IT skills you should gain in 2023 Trends in human resource management Top 5 HR trends for 2023 and beyond Areas of professional development: Key areas of professional development for employees with examples Img Post What is digitalization? Img Post Talk with Partha Neog Img Post Business restructuring in time of COVID-19 Img Post How to transform the HR with future workforce insights Img Post Building a future-proof workforce: what you need to know Img Post Plan the future of HR: your future workforce and talent demands Future of HR report Insights and trends shaping the future of HR Cover Succession planning Succession planning: current state and future trends Upskilling, reskilling, cross-skilling Upskilling, reskilling, cross-skilling Img Post HRcoreBarcelona Img Post People Analytics World Img Post Invite us to your event!
  • Company About us Know who stands for the most innovative approach. Press They talk about us, find out what exactly. Team Because our people are our true power. Speaker's corner Discover the hottest HR tech topics that we cover as speakers Career Hop aboard, maybe this is what suits you. bg

    See why 100+ companies choose HRForecast​.

    Know more

    • English
  • Search
  • Contact us
  • Get started
Back to Blog

The 5 Great workforce trends that have shaped and are shaping the future of work

The 5 Great workforce trends
Zahara
Zahara SayedFuture work expert23. February 202310 min read

Table of contents

  1. The 5 Great workforce trends
  2. #TheGreatResignation 
    1. What was the Great Resignation (aka the Big Quit)?
    2. What reasons did employees give for quitting their jobs?
    3. What happened after people resigned in large numbers?
  3. #TheGreatReassessment 
    1. What was the Great Reassessment?
    2. How did HR leaders deal with the Great Reassessment?
  4. #TheGreatReshuffle 
    1. What was the Great Reshuffle all about? 
    2. How did HR leaders deal with the Great Reshuffle?
  5. #TheGreatRegret/Remorse 
    1. What was the Great Regret/Remorse all about?
    2. Impacts of the Great Remorse 
  6. #TheGreatRetention  
    1. What does the Great Retention call for?
  7. Conclusion 

The 5 Great workforce trends

Few things stay the same over time, and the workforce is no exception. Between 2020 and 2023, nearly every aspect of the global workforce has changed. Every year, the workforce looks slightly different.

Here’s a look at the most dramatic trends that have shaken and transformed the global workforce.

#TheGreatResignation

What was the Great Resignation (aka the Big Quit)?

The Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, was a phenomenon in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in unprecedented numbers. It officially began in late 2020 or early 2021, after the quit rate (the number of monthly resignations divided by total employment) dropped sharply during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As COVID-19 vaccines became available and restrictions eased, many companies resumed business, and job openings increased. At the same time, the quit rate nearly doubled, from about 1.6% in early 2020 to about 3% in late 2021.

What reasons did employees give for quitting their jobs?

According to a Pew Research Center survey, “low pay (63%), no opportunities for advancement (63%), and feeling disrespected at work (57%)” were the top three reasons respondents gave for leaving their jobs during this particular wave of resignations.

What happened after people resigned in large numbers?

Where did all these people go after resigning from their jobs? The answer is not surprising — they got other jobs. Employees weren’t just resigning to resign; they were resigning to leverage their skills to get jobs with better pay, better benefits, and more flexibility.

With unemployment low and demand for labor high, companies had to compete with each other for job seekers by offering incentives. While some companies fought their way out by offering higher wages, others offered retention incentives by creating more flexible work conditions, such as the ability to work remotely.

#TheGreatReassessment

What was the Great Reassessment?

Millions of people have left their jobs since the start of the pandemic. Being at home, many employees began reassessing their careers and priorities and rethinking what they wanted to do with their lives. Factors in people’s reassessments include:

Health and balance. The remote office blurred the lines between work and home. Without any sense of separation or balance, mental health suffered.

Family priority. COVID-19 reminded people that family is most important, so workers reprioritized and left for jobs that allowed them to focus on their families.

Competition. It’s clear that people didn’t resign because they were tired of working. They were just tired of working in jobs that didn’t meet their needs. Many workers reached the breaking point, so they reassessed what was most important and took steps to align their work lives and personal priorities.

How did HR leaders deal with the Great Reassessment?

During the Great Reassessment, HR leaders grappled with the challenges of retaining and attracting the best employees by asking how they could build a culture and provide benefits that allowed employees to balance their lives, stay engaged, and be productive. The answers and solutions led to the Great Reshuffle.

#TheGreatReshuffle

What was the Great Reshuffle all about?

The Great Reshuffle was about employees leaving for something different. HR leaders were now asking: How do we attract quality talent, and what do we need to do to keep this talent? Here is everything you need to know about Great Reshuffle and how organizations can survive it.

The talent shortage causing problems in economies globally is a direct result of employees simply saying no more. No more stress, no more long hours, and no more feeling underappreciated. The Great Reshuffle is about employees reshuffling their jobs to fit a comfortable and flexible work–life balance.

In Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index report, we can see how much the job market has changed due to COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic, 47% of employees began to value their personal and family life more, and 53% said they would prioritize their health and well-being over their job now more than in pre-pandemic times.

How did HR leaders deal with the Great Reshuffle?

In summary, the Great Reshuffle marked a shift in work–life balance in favor of employees, not employers. Organizations are under increasing pressure to invest in employee engagement and well-being initiatives that will result in employee retention while attracting quality talent. For example:

Offering flexible work arrangements

Increased flexibility in their personal lives and no commuting have become the new norm for many employees, and losing these benefits could be a deal-breaker. This could mean embracing fully remote job opportunities, hybrid schedules, or four-day work weeks.

Fostering a positive work environment

Job seekers and employees are now paying more attention to an organization’s culture than ever before. Highlighting new or upcoming employee development initiatives or professional development opportunities in job advertisements or on your internal communications site is a great way to attract and retain quality candidates.

Predictable scheduling

Unpredictable work scheduling affects an employee’s personal well-being and leads to burnout. Organizations must start embracing digital transformation tools that can help keep track of and maintain efficient employee schedules. This way, when issues arise, the digital system can quickly correct them and avoid last-minute changes that may stress employees.

#TheGreatRegret/Remorse

What was the Great Regret/Remorse all about? 

When companies sought to bring employees back on-site, some employees rebelled and started looking for something else. Many employees believed that something better existed, so they submitted their resignation and took a giant leap into the unknown. For many individuals, that leap proved successful, as they landed a new role that fulfilled missing needs. But not all pastures turned out to be greener.

Uncertainty transitioned into remorse for others, as they did not find something better than what they had. What they found was often worse than anticipated, leading to the growing phenomenon called the Great Remorse.

Impacts of the Great Remorse

In 2022, the World Economic Forum published a study showing that a quarter of employees who quit in the previous year regretted their decision because their work–life balance had not improved but had worsened. Their new job was not what they thought it would be, or they missed their previous organization’s culture. Employees who leave their employer, work for another employer, and then return to their former employer are called boomerang employees.

Boomerang employees offer many benefits to an organization. They are familiar with the organization’s culture and job responsibilities, so less time is spent onboarding them.

They also have a higher time-to-productivity ratio. The company saves a tremendous amount of money by not having to invest time and financial resources in the new hiring process. They don’t have to post a vacancy, screen applicants, conduct interviews, or onboard new employees.

#TheGreatRetention

The Great Resignation combined several factors, including stress and other mental health concerns, pandemic burnout, and poor employee experiences, leading people to consider their options. The quantity of job openings also provided unhappy employees with lots of opportunities to move on.

Regardless of the cause, the implications are clear — organizations must act now to ensure they don’t lose their top talent, which requires a strong focus on the employee experience and well-being at work.

Organizations across all sectors need to do better at attracting and retaining staff. But while the Great Resignation had posed many challenges; it should also be seen as an opportunity. Highly skilled and experienced workers are on the move — and if you do the right things, you can snap them up.

What does the Great Retention call for?

How to retain employees in the face of the Great Resignation is a question all companies need to ask themselves. Here are six things you can do to attract and retain the best people.

1. Support employee well-being

Supporting your employees’ well-being, which means ensuring employees’ mental, physical, and financial health, is essential to retaining your top talent. HR leaders can address these pillars of well-being by implementing employee benefit and reward programs.

2. Make sure you have a caring culture

An ethical work culture built on caring and respect takes work, but it’s essential for employee engagement and retention. Make sure managers have regular check-ins with their teams, particularly with remote workers, and provide an outlet for raising issues and concerns.

3. Hire the right people

You won’t retain employees if you don’t hire the right people in the first place. If you’ve hired the wrong person for the wrong role, or someone who isn’t a good fit for the organization, they’ll soon become dissatisfied and start looking elsewhere. Regularly review the interview process that led to poor hires and consider cultural fit when interviewing applicants.

4. Help employees with career progression

People want to feel like they’re getting ahead, but that doesn’t necessarily mean offering more money. HR leaders need to invest in their people and support their learning and development.

Allow time for employees to attend training seminars and conferences (either virtually or in person), and develop robust internal training and personal development plans (PDPs) that are regularly reviewed and updated by both the employee and their manager.

5. Have a solid orientation process

The first few weeks on the job are essential to helping an employee settle into the role and feel at home within the organization. An employee orientation process can have a significant impact on retention by diving deep into the new employee’s position, the company culture, and how the employee can thrive.

Kickoff a successful hiring culture

Our smartHire feature speeds up your hiring process by bringing together everything you need to know right from time-to-hire rates, salary ranges in the particular area, and more to attract the top talent in one place.

Know more
A man working by the laptop

Conclusion

Continuing the Great Retention will be one of the biggest challenges in 2023 for organizations across sectors. But by investing time and resources in the right places, you could be ideally placed to take advantage of a large pool of people looking for a new challenge.

HRForecast can help you identify the ideal employee experience strategy tailored to your organization’s specific needs — so what are you waiting for? Get in touch with our team of experts today.

Stay up to date with our newsletter

Every month, we’ll send you a curated newsletter with our updates and the latest industry news.

Subscribe now

More stories we think you will like

COVID-19 and impact on labor market

COVID-19: Impacts on the labor market – What the Future Ep. 34

We analyzed the data from worldwide job portals and career websites to look at how COVID-19 impacts the labor market so far. Check out the results in a new WTF vlog episode!
2. February 2021/by Iryna Chorna
reduction in workforce laws

5+ optimal workforce reduction strategies

Find out some workable workforce reduction strategies that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
21. June 2022/by Iryna Chorna
Hybrid workplace benefits and pitfalls

Hybrid workplace: benefits and pitfalls to avoid

To hybrid or not to hybrid a workplace? In this article, we share the benefits and pitfalls of the hybrid workplace.
15. December 2021/by Oksana Lavri
Subscribe

HRForecast newsletter

Get only relevant and insightful letters from us every month

Subscribe
HRForecast

Reach out

icon info@hrforecast.de

Not a customer yet?
Contact us

icon +49 89 215384810 icon +1 929 2495168 icon Contact sales icon Contact us

Career at HRForecast

icon recruiting@hrforecast.de

Why HRForecast

  • Customer stories
  • Trust and security
  • Data analytics approach

Solutions

  • Use cases
  • Market intelligence
  • smartPlan
  • smartPeople

Resources

  • Blog
  • Vlog
  • Webinars
  • Downloads
  • Events
  • Quiz
  • HR Glossary

Company

  • About us
  • Team
  • Press
  • Career
Icon Icon Icon Icon Icon

2022 © Copyright - HRForecast | Imprint | Privacy policy | Terms and conditions (MSA)

New Hiring: Recruit. Lead. Retain. What is New Hiring Why is transformative learning important How can transformative learning help leaders to further develop an engaging...
Scroll to top
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}