The Great Resignation Is Here – Can It Be Avoided?

By:


With more and more employees working from home or within a hybrid environment, there’s been a lot of talk of “The Great Resignation.” The era is meant to reference a collective time when workers across the nation decide to leave their jobs in search of another that’s more fulfilling. Or, they say goodbye to their now-dull careers in pursuit of a completely new passion. Many say this period has long been in the works and can’t be avoided – or can it?

As the CEO of GUIDEcx, Peter Ord understands change is inevitable. As the founder of the nation’s premier client onboarding software, he believes building a company starts from the ground up with the measure of success evident in employee satisfaction.

The true value of a CEO is to make sure an organization understands the mission and why we operate,” said Ord. “A CEO should sell the vision and get people passionate about the direction the company is headed and help employees understand how it can align to their own motivations.”

Ord, who started his company by sketching down his ideas on napkins, now boasts a team of over 70 employees. But he admits that being able to be around his family more now than pre-pandemic has caused him to see and think about life differently. He believes that employees have always wanted to work for companies with strong beliefs and goals, rather than just chasing success.

“Businesses are more apt to make changes now than they were pre-COVID and those changes have been great for the combined workforce for customers and for the world itself,” said Ord. “Employees have always yearned to work for companies that made them more significant but working from home accelerated that. It provides a platform to make a living — versus just providing a living.”

Out of the GuideCX team, 10 employees work from home full-time with others are able to decide their comfort level, based on their job roles within the SaaS client onboarding software company. While some require a team environment and a sense of in-person camaraderie, others find their productivity levels have risen while working remotely. Ord says that the ability to offer a hybrid work environment is one that every company needs to make for themselves.

“As a leadership team, we need to find a solution around both in-person and at-home work and weigh those pros and cons and likewise, employees need to validate the role and see how they can find their position within the company,” said Ord. “We can look at the situation and help people understand, think out of the box and fulfill the needs of the roles in different ways than might not have been done before. If it’s a culture of trusting, anything will work. Otherwise, it will lead to the Great Resignation.

Overall, Ord understands that employees may come and go for one reason or another. However, he abides by the belief that if employees understand their purpose as a whole, a company’s growth can be accelerated from the inside out, making it better for all parties.