I Quit! How Nationwide Career Reassessment Is Impacting Business

Four million Americans quit their jobs in April of 2021 (2.7% of the workforce), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This figure is known as the “quits rate.” In April 2021, it reached its highest level since the U.S. Government began keeping these statistics more than twenty years ago. [1] In May 2021, 3.6 million Americans threw in the towel and left their employment. These people didn’t retire or get fired. They quit. [2]

I’ve been following this trend for many months, and I’m uncertain whether corporate leaders in our industry or any other industry have thought about why their employees are quitting. Using the category “Finance and Insurance” in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, we can see that approximately 350K or more than 5% of workers in our industry alone quit between March and June 2021.

The COVID-19 virus emergency forced professionals and non-professionals either out of the office or out of work.  During that time, many Americans decided they did not like their field or endeavor, their positions, careers, income, or anything else about their work.  

“55% of people in the workforce…said they are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, according to Bankrate’s August jobseeker survey…” [3]  This trend isn’t confined to the U.S.. According to Microsoft, “over 40 percent of the global workforce is considering leaving their employer this year…” [4]

Front line workers in every industry are leaving. Those in sectors other than medicine are leaving because they have had to work longer hours to cover for all the people who have quit, and customers have become even more demanding and rude.

Front line workers who have been hit hardest by wave after wave of the pandemic are those in medicine. According to the Washington Post, an astonishing 30% of healthcare workers are considering leaving the medical industry entirely. [5] Given the years of training required to perform many healthcare jobs, this is the most alarming statistic since the nation had a shortage of nurses and physicians before the pandemic.

For our industry, the big question is how managers and Financial Advisors will solve the problems exacerbated or exposed by the pandemic. “We’re on the brink of a disruption as great as last year’s sudden shift to remote work: the move to hybrid work, a blended model where some employees return to the workplace, and others continue to work from home,” says Microsoft. [6]

In a series of studies, Microsoft is documenting the “new” normal for many workers which is the hybrid model. Corporate executives may not be happy about this, but now that people have experienced working this way, forcing them to come into the office if they don’t wish to will be difficult. Corporations will have to figure out how to adjust to this trend because people don’t want to return to the old model.

Unfortunately, in our business, there must be people in the office. We’re a regulated industry, and we aren’t structured in a way that makes it easy or even possible for everyone to have a hybrid schedule of hours split between the office and at home. Many Financial Advisors have already switched to a hybrid model, and they will continue.

But there will be tensions in the offices because lower-level back office and support staff will have to be in the office. Managing and leading teams, offices, divisions, the corporation itself, while also managing tensions between the front office and back office through the permanent changes presented by the hybrid model will be the next great challenge caused by the pandemic in our industry.

Resources:

[1] https://www.hrdive.com/news/quits-rate-reaching-record-high-in-2021-bls-data-shows/602371/

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/more-people-are-telling-their-jobs-to-shove-it-amidst-record-quits/ar-AALVKg8

[3] cnbc.com/2021/08/25/great-resignation

[4] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work

[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/22/health-workers-covid-quit/

[6] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work

Contributing Writer: Subject Matter Expert Charles McCain

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