‘The Great Resignation’ is a looming topic that Product Leaders must pay attention to. It is a topic that has amassed 2.7 million hits on Google.
Economists have coined the mass exodus from the workforce ‘The Great Resignation’.
Microsoft predicts that 41% of employees are considering leaving their jobs this year and Product Management is no exception.
The unprecedented increase in resignations has already had a major impact on the North American job market with over 4 million employees a month vacating their positions since July 2021. This number is still climbing.
The current market for Product Managers in Australia is extremely competitive. Salaries, especially the salary of a mid-range Product Manager are skyrocketing as companies scramble to hold onto their Product Management people. We see Australian companies ‘poaching’ Product Managers from each other. This is not helping our Product ecosystem. This is not a solution.
Recruitment is an expensive and time-consuming process. It is reported that the total cost for replacing an employee can range from 90 to 200 per cent of your previous employee’s annual salary. Trading Product people back and forth with the hope that monetary incentives will keep them in place is a costly and ineffective solution. Companies cannot afford to continue down this path.
Moreover, ‘The Great Resignation’ is not slowing down. The movement is predicted to accelerate as we enter the new year and Product Leaders need to adapt their ways of thinking quickly before their Product teams are gutted from the inside out.
”By not understanding what their employees are running from, and what they might gravitate to, company leaders are putting their very businesses at risk.”
Companies must reduce the reliance on quick-fix monetary solutions and spend time understanding why employees are abandoning full-time employment. The pandemic has reshaped society in a fundamental way, allowing workers the freedom to choose how they want to work. Yet, remote work has also collapsed the boundary of work and home resulting in increased experiences of burnout and feelings of isolation across the globe. People are searching for the human connection that they use to glean from after-work drinks and interstitial chatter around the water cooler.
To retain great Product people, leaders must value and focus on enhancing this human connection. Product Leaders must create a positive and empowering working environment that keeps the Product team focused on discovering customer problems, delivering and scaling great products. Organisations will not be able to realise their Product ambitions without the right Product people.
Over the next few weeks, we will be taking a deep dive into the ‘why’ behind ‘The Great Resingation’ and how Product Leaders and their teams both can benefit.
Stay tuned for Part 2…
