'The Great Resignation' expert shares the biggest work trends of 2022
One of the oddest byproducts of the pandemic is the mass exodus of the workforce. How so many people can quit their jobs and survive is quite the curiosity.
Then we have the expected side-effects. One would expect (and we are seeing this) higher wages and better benefits. Of course this feeds inflation and drives companies to find alternate (cheaper) ways to operate with fewer human resources. The AI progress which has been slowly automating even knowledge worker jobs and lower level tasks by professional (e.g. writing law briefs) will continue to provide companies viable methods to have fewer employees.
In result, while workers will be returning to work with better benefits, pay and the ability to work remotely and travel less, the future is almost certainly going to yield higher unemployment.
What will our nation's workforce look like in a decade or two.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In 2021, three words shaped the world of work: "The Great Resignation."
Anthony Klotz, an organizational psychologist and professor at Texas A&M University, coined the phrase during an interview with Bloomberg last May to describe the wave of people quitting their jobs due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which led many to re-think where, how and why we work.
But he never predicted what would happen next: The Great Resignation has continued to dominate headlines and stun business leaders as turnover reaches new highs. In November, a record 4.5 million workers left their jobs, according to the Labor Department's latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover report.
The Great Resignation has inspired other terms to describe the work revolution we're witnessing, including "The Great Reimagination," "The Great Reset" and "The Great Realization." These narratives explain how we're re-examining the role of work in our lives, but miss the broader consequences of this quitting wave, and what it means for the individual worker, Klotz argues.
"It's not just about getting another job, or leaving the workforce, it's about taking control of your work and personal life, and making a big decision - resigning - to accomplish that," he tells CNBC Make It. "This is a moment of empowerment for workers, one that will continue well into the new year."
Below, Klotz shares his three predictions for what work will look like in 2022:
The Great Resignation will slow down
Quitting will continue in 2022 — but Klotz doesn't expect turnover to spike as high as it did last year.
Americans quit jobs at a record pace during the second half of 2021, and more plan to resign in the new year. About 23% of employees will seek new jobs in 2022, while 9% have already secured a new position, according to a December ResumeBuilder.com poll of 1,250 American workers.
Although Klotz predicts that quitting will continue steadily at similar, elevated rates we've seen over the past year, he's not confident that "we'll see another big quitting wave in 2022," he says.
That's because the tight labor market has pushed companies to offer better benefits and higher salaries, which Klotz says will keep employee turnover from being "completely rampant" in the months ahead.
Flexible work arrangements will be the norm, not the exception
The freedom to work from anywhere has become the most sought-after benefit during the pandemic - so much so that people value flexibility as much as a 10% pay raise, according to new research from the WFH Research Project.
More companies will embrace this change to attract and retain talent, Klotz argues. "Leaders are starting to ask, 'How can we give people more power over their schedules? How can we be more flexible?'" he says.
Managers that blame external factors for turnover - whether it be government leadership, the pandemic, unemployment benefits or other reasons - and refuse to offer flexible work arrangements will be the "losers who struggle in the wake of the Great Resignation," Klotz adds.
Klotz expects that a flexible working culture will lead to better work-life balance and improved mental health for employees. "A silver lining of this horrible pandemic is that the world of work will take a huge positive step forward for workers," he says. "Work will fit around our personal lives rather than our personal lives fitting around work."
Remote jobs will become more competitive
As companies struggle to hire in the United States, a growing number of managers could turn to automation and international candidates to fill open roles.
The pandemic accelerated the trend toward automation as companies embraced digital waiters, concierges and other technologies amid social distancing rules and virus fears. In 2020, the World Economic Forum surveyed about 300 global companies and found that 43% of businesses expect to reduce their workforces with new technology.
Klotz predicts that companies will make larger investments in robots and artificial intelligence to reduce hiring times and costs even after the pandemic subsides.
Those same benefits could push companies to hire more international candidates for remote roles and create even more competition for remote jobs, he adds. "In the United States, employees tend to be paid higher wages than people in many other countries," Klotz says. "If you're a remote organization, you can recruit workers from all over the world who can do the same job for a cheaper rate."
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The pandemic broke a number of traditional practices and has enabled a new paradigm for employment. But rising costs of human resources will drive even further deployment of AI technology with a result in fewer domestic jobs. This could very well be a profound problem.
The changing workforce has been taking place for some time and the pandemic has accelerated it. Automation will continue to shirk the number of jobs done by humans and as you mentioned the possibility of recruiting and having remote (foreign) workers will increase.
It has been mentioned by some economists that we will at some point have to have a minimum or basic income for people and if I remember correctly Andrew Yang pushed this idea during the presidential campaign. I believe that Yang's proposal was for low-income people but with the change brought about by the pandemic this basic income plan may be expanded because at some point there may not be enough jobs compared to population growth.
IMO we are in a profound change in how we deal with the work environment and peoples attitudes towards it.
In some areas home builders are starting to build multi-generational housing. This is happening where I live as new development is being built and the advertising is centered on multi-generational housing and the community is self-contained so to speak with its own shopping center, schools, and entertainment. This is just part of the great remake of our society.
Good article, TG
I fully agree with you.
Profound is the correct term.
Donald Trump will outsource a number of campaign jobs to Russia (again). The Russian bots will be in charge of disinformation and dirty tricks (again). The Russian bots will also run the hacking and email forgery for the Trump campaign (again).
What I could see hopefully happening is a move toward a shorter work week. More people working what we would now consider to be part-time jobs. This would provide the flexibility many will now be demanding. Increased wages might make part-time work financially feasible, especially for two-income families. If benefits are part of the package, or are divorced from employment entirely (individual policies or Medicare-for-all), I could see this working out well for families.
The jobs report was much better than expected.
The economy added 467K jobs.
The unemployment rate is 4%
the labor force participation rate unexpectedly improved to 62.2%, or the greatest level since March 2020, in a sign that more individuals were returning to the workforce from the sidelines.
Average hourly wages jumped more than expected in January. On a year-over-year basis, average hourly earnings rose by 5.7%, or a full percentage point faster than December's gain. This marked the biggest jump since May 2020. On a month-over-month basis, average hourly earnings rose 0.7%