How Talent Outsourcing Can Help Address the Great Resignation

In the last decade, unemployment rates reached an all-time high due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting workers, employers, and the corporate world. Unemployment rates were skyrocketing in every corner of the world. Whether it’s voluntary resignations – some people are privileged to afford not to go to work for some time. Or layoffs – to those unfortunate people who lost their jobs in the pandemic when they needed it the most, everyone was affected badly. One reason behind the rampant resignation rates, most commonly known as the Great Resignation during 2021, is the new perspectives of workers and employees regarding demands for working environments. This article will discuss what happened in the Great Resignation, general statistics, and one way to aid the ongoing high unemployment rates.

Table of Contents

What is the Great Resignation
What Caused the Great Resignation
The Great Resignation Statistics 
Why Did Workers Quit Their Job
What’s Next for Workers That Quitted During the Great Resignation
How Talent Outsourcing Can Help Address Employment Challenges
What is Talent Outsourcing
TalentHero to the Rescue
Is the Great Resignation Over?
Grow with TalentHero

What is the Great Resignation

The Great Resignation is an ongoing challenge for the economy and employment due to an enormous population of workers and employees resigning from their jobs at the beginning of 2021, predominantly in the United States. It is perceived as a highly abnormal quit rate of American workers around the spring of 2021. An ongoing phenomenon escalated to an average of 3.98 million workers voluntarily quitting their jobs each month. With the COVID-19 pandemic’s severity slowly easing and people receiving their doses of the vaccines, which were proven effective for the virus, the unemployment rate decreased, and job openings increased. 

What Caused the Great Resignation

So, what caused the Great Resignation? There are a lot of factors to consider behind the Great Resignation.

The External Cause:

The COVID-19 pandemic’s catastrophe took a toll on the economy due to the hazardous public health. Companies, businesses, and some parts of the public sector had no choice of halting worker and employee operations. Most establishments couldn’t quickly adapt to work-from-home management because it wasn’t full-proof and inadequate. Alongside the rising cost of living, a suffering economy, wage and salary stagnation, job dissatisfaction, and safety for public health are the main reasons for the Great Resignation. Of course, no one would adequately function with the fast-spreading virus and impossible working conditions.  

The Unemployment Part:

When people leave their jobs and positions, companies will look for someone to replace and fill the gaps in their workforce, and that isn’t easy to do since people aren’t just puzzle pieces that you can quickly fill in a puzzle. As we said, replacing people isn’t easy, especially when everyone is choosing their safety and sanity due to the unworkable environment. One of the significant factors of the unemployment rate was the great number of job openings and lower unemployment rates.

The Employees’ Side:

As severe as the pandemic, unemployment rates, plummeting economy, and public health hazards, the employees’ side of the story of the Great Resignation is an occurring problem yet laughable. With today’s generation of Gen Zs and Millennials, even the most serious, grave, and life-or-death matters, they wouldn’t take it seriously. It would only take a short time to internalize the ongoing global crisis and then shrug it off like it’s nothing. It’s like an unhealthy coping mechanism in today’s response to serious matters and turning it into a joke or a “meme.” 

I digress. According to r/antiwork, a Reddit subreddit thread, many workers and employees just decided to quit their jobs through text messages, phone calls, and emails. It’s like they decided to “Whatever, I’ll just quit my job” on the spot, which was the case for most employees as seen on social media platforms like Twitter and Reddit. Don’t get me wrong, it might sound shallow about how they quit their jobs, but there is a bigger picture. Such as this:

And this:

Managers are demanding their employees to come to work on days off with little to no notice, working overtime with no proper compensation and, worse, no extra pay, and blatant disrespect for employees, under the peak of the pandemic.  

With this type of work environment and behavior, workers were able to realize their worth, power, and right to demand a proper working environment that would satisfy the wants and needs of the employees and the employers. One reason why most workers voluntarily leave their job is due to the fact that employers require their employees to go back to the office even if proven functional and doable for a work-from-home setup for most corporate jobs, which is unreasonable.

“The Great Resignation is really a Great Re-evaluation. What people are resigning from is a culture of burnout and a broken definition of success.
In quitting their jobs, people are affirming their longing for a different way of working and living.”

A Tweet from Arianna Huffington, Founder of HuffPost – an American news aggregator and blog, and Founder & CEO of Thrive – a mission to end the stress and burnout epidemic 

That said, even employers were under the impression that workers were on the drawback of employment negotiations for a better working environment, which was the last straw for most employees. An economist describes the Great Resignation as a general strike against a brutalist capitalist that exploited employees for an unworkable working environment.

The Great Resignation Statistics 

The United States (U.S.) unemployment rate rose to 14.7% in April 2020, reaching an all-time high in the last decade. The number of unemployed workers increased by 15.9 million to 23.1 million in April 2020, according to data and research from the BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). The thing is, that was at the height of the pandemic. It wasn’t at the events that the Great Resignation occurred.  

Data provided by BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) & SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) is shown below on how many employees quit their jobs per month during the peak of the Great Resignation, with an average of 3.98 million workers quitting their jobs each month on 2021.  

January 2021 – 3,306,000 
February 2021 – 3,383,000 
Peak Months of The Great Resignation: 
March 2021 – 3,568,000 
April 2021 – 3,992,000 
May 2021 – 3,630,000  
June 2021 – 3,870,000  
July 2021 – 4,088,000 
August 2021 – 4,028,000  
September – 4,362,000 
October 2021 – 4,157,000 
November 2021 – 4,527,000 -> Highest Number of Quits throughout 2021 
December 2021 – 4,403,000 

Disclosure: The amount of data may not be 100% accurate due to round-offs and different forms of research, but data is close to the actual representation of quits per month during the Great Resignation. 

Almost 4 million Americans quit their jobs in April 2021, and by July 2021, nearly 4.1 million left their jobs that month, with workers between 30 and 45 with the highest increase in resignation rates. The most significant industries affected by the pandemic were accommodations, food service, leisure, and hospitality, but it doesn’t mean that it didn’t affect the corporate sector.

Why Did Workers Quit Their Job

As we have stated in the earlier section of this article, the mistreatment of employers to workers during the height of the pandemic is a significant reason enough to quit their jobs. But it doesn’t mean everyone had the exact reasons why they voluntarily quit their jobs. According to research from Pew Research, U.S. workers who left their job due to low pay (63%), no advancement opportunities (63%), and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were the top 3 reasons why they had to quit their jobs voluntarily. Within the same research and survey, workers who leave their job are now employed in another job with better pay, career progression, and the accessibility for work-life balance and flexibility. 77% of Gen Zs (ages between 18-24) and 63% of millennials (ages between 25-40) were planning to look for other job opportunities to look for better pay, career advancement, and flexible work-life balance. 

One major mistake of employers is calling back employees to office work when hybrid/remote work was working for everybody, was made the new norm, and it was a habit that most workers had during the pandemic. Of course, not everyone had it; everyone’s mental and physical health was on edge during the pandemic. Not only that, persistent work burnouts, low wages, and zero-to-none scaling opportunities made everyone quit since work was unable to give them a sense of purpose to function. It’s like a regular cycle of emptiness, doing work to get by the days while stuck at home.

Other Reason Why They Quit

Primarily, COVID-19 

With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, everyone prioritized their health over getting a job. On a side note, some establishments have temporarily closed their operations, which increased layoffs and job resignations. 

Public Health Hazard 

With everyone in survival mode, workers desperately trying to refrain from getting infected with the virus, generating income, and dealing with a global pandemic have already been hard to maintain. While employers and managers were demanding unreasonable working conditions, workers and employees could get a hold of themselves with their demands for proper working conditions.

Harsh Working Conditions 

With everyone in survival mode, workers that are desperately trying to refrain themselves from getting infected with the virus, generating income, and dealing with a global pandemic have already been hard to maintain. While employers and managers were demanding unreasonable working conditions, workers and employees were able to get a hold of themselves with their demands for proper working conditions.

Work Dissatisfaction from Millennials to Gen Z

With the harsh conditions that COVID-19 had resulted for everyone around the world, work dissatisfaction was inevitable not just for Gen Zs and millennials but for everyone. Being stuck at your home office during the lockdown felt like a prison, eventually leading to constant burnout.

Unreasonable Demand to Return to Office

Some employers demand their workers and employees to return to the office even with flexible work-from-home setups that are proven effective in a productive and efficient workforce. It became a habit for most workers to wake up and get to work without having to prepare and deal with the traffic on the way to work, making work from home the standard in looking for their subsequent employment.

What’s Next for Workers That Quit During the Great Resignation

With everyone resigning through text messages and phone calls, what now?  

According to Willis Towers Watson’s 2022 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, 44% of employees are now “job seekers,” 33% of them are active job hunters that looked for jobs during the 4th quarter of 2021, and 11% planned to job hunt on the 1st Quarter of 2022.   

The Great Resignation wasn’t just unemployment rates, job dissatisfaction, and a laughable way of workers resigning, but it put workers and employees in the driver’s seat of employment negotiation. While employers were under the impression that employees were still on the drawback of employment negotiation, they struck back by leaving their jobs instead of dealing with unjust and harsh maltreatment. It opened a new and better perspective on how employees and workers should be working and on how they should be treated in the workforce. With nowhere else to go, workers will go back to work. Still, they will look for employment with work satisfaction, opportunities for career development, better pay, benefits, work-from-home arrangements, work-life balance, and flexibility. 

Top 3 important factors that workers consider for their next employment

A survey made my Bankrate, on a three-day period (July 28,2021 – July 30, 2021) with a total of 2,452 adults said that Americans value work flexibility rather than having higher pay.

Work Flexibility

Due to public health hazards and the social distancing rule that everyone does not seem to follow, workers worldwide had to start adapting and working in their home offices. The opportunity to generate income while staying at home at the height of the pandemic and still doing your daily routines was a privilege for workers at that time. It would be a blessing if your company offered work from home setup, sustainable compensation, and flexible hours. 56% of the respondents find that remote work and flexible working hours are more important than getting a high-paying job.

Higher Pay

While close to work flexibility as the first factor for employment, 53% of the respondents said that getting higher pay compared to their previous jobs is one of the most voted factors in their next employment. Understandably, American workers are looking for better and higher salaries due to the circumstances such as low income, high cost of living, and public safety.

Job Security

Landing a secure job is a privilege during the tough times of the pandemic. The uncertainness of public health and the developing COVID-19 strains have made it impossible to foresee economic and employment challenges. Most workers’ source of income was through their jobs, side hustle, or small businesses, but in light of the pandemic, it is nearly impossible to generate a bountiful income. 47% of American workers agreed that job security is the third factor for their next employment. Followed by more time off/vacation time (35%), Better work culture (24%), and none of all the above (13%).

How Talent Outsourcing Can Help Address Employment Challenges

Statistics show that an average of 3.98 million monthly workers decided to voluntarily quit their jobs during 2021, which peaked during the spring season. With almost 47 million American workers losing and leaving their jobs. With our data above, 44% of those workers are looking for a new job. At the same time, the Great Resignation continues the trend of unemployment. It quits, which may result in a further shortage of employees in the workforce, and Talent Outsourcing platforms such as TalentHero might be the solution for your employee shortage.

What is Talent Outsourcing

Talent Outsourcing is an effective business strategy in which your businesses can be worry-free of the hassle of bulk-hiring employees. It minimizes the risk of bad hires by outsourcing all recruitment systems and processes to an external recruitment platform like TalentHero. Whether you are MSMEs or a large enterprise looking for talents to fill in the gap in your workforce and departments, Talent Outsourcing can be the bridge to filling those gaps. 

TalentHero to the Rescue

With the previous rampant yet continuous unemployment rates caused by the Great Resignation, both the corporate setting and workers were affected heavily due to uncertain working conditions. With the ease of the pandemic provided by the COVID-19 vaccines, workers are now looking for jobs. From the peak unemployment rate of 14.7% during April 2020, unemployment rates tamed down to 3.8% (from the latest data of February 2020, from the day this article was written.) Here is how TalentHero – as a Talent Outsourcing platform, can help both businesses fill in the gaps in their workforce and allow workers to look for new job opportunities.

TalentHero for Businesses – Rebuilding Workforce in Business Organizations

TalentHero is a talent outsourcing, hiring, and acquisition platform that can help your business acquire the talents they need as fast as 1-to 2 business days with just a click of a button. With a wide range of category selections for specific expertise, such as Customer Service Representatives for BPO, Graphic Designers for your Marketing Department, and even C-level Suites in running the head of your departments, TalentHero has it all.  

Our talent acquisition platform ensures only the best talents possible, allowing you to form a team of 5, 10, 25, or even more composed of the best fit of candidates that are masters at their expertise. Not only that, TalentHero isn’t just your typical Talent Outsourcing platform. It allows you to connect and hire the top 2% of talents in the Philippines, ensuring only top-quality talents that would help you with your business challenges, goals, and vision. With an extensive network of talents across the globe, it also allows your business to prospect candidates and hire talents globally in an all-in-one talent marketplace and SaaS platform.

What Benefits Can Your Business Get from TalentHero:

Hire talents globally

your business can access talents across the globe through TalentHero’s job marketplace + SaaS hiring platform, where you can connect and hire talents outside your country’s borders.

Better talent options 

TalentHero’s candidates promise only top-quality prospects through our extensive screening processing of candidates. With psychological and work ethics tests, background checks, and specific skills screening, we assure you to only hire qualified talents for your organization.

Smooth off-shore onboarding

TalentHero is a job marketplace + SaaS platform which makes the hiring process seamless, centralized, and fast. In every part of the candidate search, recruitment, and onboarding are only through a click of a button.

Low-cost operations 

Acquiring talents outside your borders might be a hassle due to local government policies, compliance, and taxes. But with TalentHero, your organization can acquire talents across the globe without setting up a local entity through TalentHero’s Employer of Record Services (EOR).  

Enables work from home + flexibility for your workers 

With the current high demand for work from home, work-life balance, and flexibility of working hours for employees, your organization can attract talents fast, enabling these working environment demands.

Focused hiring strategy 

Your organization doesn’t have to worry about the actual process of hiring since a talent outsourcing platform like TalentHero will handle that for you. Even though TalentHero will acquire the talents for you, your organization still has the final decision on your hiring decision. TalentHero is just a bridge for you to connect and hire talents. Your HR department can focus on their workload since your hiring processes will be outsourced, keeping a productive and efficient workforce in your business organization.

Less risk

TalentHero’s digitized and centralized hiring, recruiting, onboarding, and talent outsourcing platform reduces the risk of human error during the talent recruitment process. Our expert hiring managers will handle your recruitment and onboarding processes, ensuring focused hiring processes, and providing a less risky yet quality service for your organization.

TalentHero for Workers – Global Job Opportunities

While most workers worldwide are still figuring out their employment for the future, TalentHero is also a platform where professionals easily sign up, upload their resume, cv, and portfolio, and scroll through countless job listings for career opportunities.

How Workers Can Get Jobs Through TalentHero:

Global job opportunities

With hundreds and thousands of employers and organizations worldwide constantly looking for talents like you, chances are, the right opportunity will come to you when you use TalentHero to connect with job seekers and employers in the marketplace.

Get hired in 1-2 business days

Looking for a job has never been easier. Organizations are constantly looking to build and fill their departments with talents like you. With high demand for professionals and talents alike, they join the job marketplace and get handpicked by employers.  

Career progression

TalentHero is a bridge between you and your career goals. With an extensive network of job listings, marketplace, and connections, your skills and expertise have the opportunity to reach different parts of the globe. TalentHero allows you to work in new cultures and organizations, which provides the best working experience to sharpen, enhance, and develop your skills as a professional.

Enables work from home + flexibility

With every workforce going digital and virtual, together with the increase in work-from-home setups and flexible working hours, employment opportunities with TalentHero makes it possible for you to have the flexibility of work hours and to work from home as a work arrangement. Your employers will most likely come from outside your country’s borders and onboard you off-shore, which allows you to have these benefits as a professional applying through TalentHero’s platform.

Is the Great Resignation Over?

Experts say it’s far from over. With companies and organizations not getting things right in setting up their employee’s needs, it is far from over. With new approaches to working, employees have set a standard for what they want and need from their jobs. Employees are ready to leave their jobs if they don’t meet their set standards and needs for employment, as stated in Global Talent Trends 2022 report. 

So, as a business, proactively face the challenges of unemployment rates and fill the gaps in your organizations. A talent outsourcing platform like TalentHero can help your organization to provide you with the best group of talents to help your business achieve growth, success, and goals.

Grow with TalentHero

If you think when is the right time to acquire talent, the right time is now. Click here to get started with TalentHero, and our team will get in touch with you as soon as possible. Send your queries to [email protected] and see how we can help you outsource talents best fit for your organization.