Recent data from LinkedIn suggests a third of employees in Australia are looking for new career opportunities. The COVID-19 period continues to have unforeseen impacts on people and businesses across the world.
Working with people from multiple industries, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to us that a high number of leaders are losing key people from their teams. More worryingly, they are losing the high-performers who had seemed to be engaged and productive. This is having an impact on the leaders and the remaining team members who have to pick up the additional work.
Losing your high-performers leads to a significant downturn in productivity, employee satisfaction and a knock-on impact of increasing numbers of employees looking to leave. This then impacts your team and the business’ ability to continue to deliver for clients increasing pressure and stress for the workforce.
The leader then needs to spend additional time, attention and money to recruit more people in a constrained market (due to travel restrictions). This unexpected stress and pressure often results in the leaders themselves questioning their own employment and considering whether it’s time to make a change.
A significant increase in the number of clients engaging us for career coaching and support over the last few months reinforces what the Linked-In data is indicating.
So, as leaders what can you do to prevent your high-performers from looking for greener pastures?
Firstly, it’s more critical than ever to make time to listen to your people, be empathetic to their needs and support them through these challenging times.
Be aware the pandemic has people feeling stuck in a ‘groundhog day’ scenario around their roles. Being able to offer them variety in terms of new projects, initiatives, training or working with different clients/stakeholders can pique their interest, provide some certainty and maintain their focus and engagement.
If this resonates with you and you’d like to understand how we can help you and your team, please contact us.