Business owners, managers, and workers have begun to hear about the Great Resignation Era from the vast amount of news coverage it has attracted. But not enough platforms are stating the deeper causes behind it.
Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic amplified its effects, along with other global events like the war in Ukraine, but it has also been an accumulation of socioeconomic factors and issues that have spanned for over a decade.
What are socioeconomic issues and factors?
As the word suggests, socioeconomic issues are a combination of social factors with economic difficulties, as they both correlate to an individual person and populations at large.
As explained by the American Psychological Association:
Socioeconomic status is the position of an individual or group on the socioeconomic scale, which is determined by a combination of social and economic factors such as income, amount and kind of education, type and prestige of occupation, place of residence, and—in some societies or parts of society—ethnic origin or religious background.
Image by Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples of socioeconomic issues include, but are not limited to, gender pay gaps, age discrimination, disproportionate poverty rates, unequal access to financial aid, asymmetric education or health opportunities, and more.
How they contribute to the Great Resignation Era
The unequal nature of socioeconomic factors makes it so that people may be more pressed for dire resources from their employers, especially health care. Individuals may leave or pick up jobs, either blue-collar or professional, that offer health insurance, medical benefits and competitive pay in order to obtain such necessities. However, if and when a job falls short, or employers don’t provide for workers’ needs, then they will leave and move on to something better.
Similar to the need for health care, individuals and workers may seek out better opportunities in regard to hybrid work flexibility (popularized by the COVID-19 pandemic), free stock offerings in the company, better vacation hours, closer proximity to home, and so on. Companies that may even offer travel or transport accommodations could also be looked on more favorably by prospective workers.
It is important, though, to also address the pandemic’s long-lasting benefit to employees. As explained by David Miller and Haley Yamada of ABC News, the pandemic radically changed how Americans viewed work. Since many had to turn their homes into offices, and frontline workers had to risk their lives for a paycheck, it made sense to some economists and academics that the Great Resignation Era would commence.
Image ‘Work From Home’ by Jernej Furman CC BY 2.0 Flickr.
In an interview they did with Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of business at Texas A&M, he said how:
Once the threat of the pandemic started to lift, it made sense to me that many of these individuals would enact their plans to quit their jobs… People reevaluating what work meant to them. It seemed like there was a big disconnect there between what employees, what workers wanted and what organizational leaders were hoping would happen coming out of the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen remote work go from the margins into the mainstream, and the data on LinkedIn is showing us that one in seven jobs that are being posted right now have a remote or hybrid work component.
It is important, nonetheless, that companies and employers begin to recognize and accept certain changes to their business model if they want to grow during this Great Resignation Era. Even though it may seem pointless, “stupid,” or even harmful to the company to offer workers a hybrid work environment, it certainly has become an important consideration for workers thanks to the socioeconomic factors that dictate what they need in finding a new and better job.
Image by PxHere.
According to Joseph Fuller and William Kerr of Harvard Business Review:
As that happens, companies that have the vision and resources to offer flexibility to their employees are the most likely to maintain a stable and competitive workforce. And the companies best able to attract and retain talent will be those offering benefits that address the changing needs of workers. Similarly, companies that demonstrate a commitment to improving their employees long-term career prospects by offering training and tuition reimbursements will garner greater loyalty and gain in stature with prospective employees.
As the world continues to undergo various events, pandemics and economic trends, employees need to constantly reevaluate what it is they are getting or still need from working in order to survive and be happy. Health insurance and medical benefits are resources that employers already offer, but they also need to understand that workers’ needs and expectations change with their socioeconomic factors and access. As times change, so do people’s needs and where/what they come from and have access to already.
Simply put, the less fortunate are going to need more since they have less to nothing, and employers can build their workforce and benefit from knowing and adjusting themselves to that. As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with the Contact Me tab up above for any questions or discussion!
Business Wellness 
