The Great Resignation

The Great Resignation is a term assigned to the very real pandemic phenomenon of employees leaving their jobs. Following the global trend, a massive one in four of Australians are looking for a new beginning according to a survey by Gartner in April. The pandemic changed employees’ lives, jobs and work environment in many ways. This caused workers to reassess their jobs in terms of compensation, flexibility and satisfaction. In the past, high numbers of people quitting their jobs signalled a strong economy. But there are other reasons in play this time, such as a reluctance to return to a potentially unsafe workplace or dissatisfaction with working in the under-compensated, under-staffed, COVID era service industry.

HR departments are at the front lines of resignations happening across the country. Companies have been forced to reimagine how they are structured, how they recruit and retain talent, and how they do business. HR is the driving force in helping companies do all this. For many HR professionals during the pandemic, the day to day flow of work became a roller coaster. Some companies grew exponentially, while others had to lay off then rehire the same workers in a matter of months.

“HR departments know for certain that even a ‘return to the office’ will never mean a ‘return to normal’ and that has put an unprecedented expectation on HR professionals,” says Michelle Alvis, Principal Owner of Alvis People Solutions, LLC.

Alvis herself chose to resign and launch her own consulting practice during the pandemic spurred by the changes in her in-house HR role. Some of the challenges she’s identified HR professionals face today are keeping up administratively with employees moving to other states and being caught in the crosshairs mediating between struggling employees and senior leaders’ philosophical differences on how best to handle a pandemic.

Org chart software can be a helpful tool to “steady the ship” as companies navigate the Great Resignation. Having an automated solution means that keeping up with administrative changes is easy because the data represented in the chart, such as location and employee status, is synched with the internal HRIS. The tool can also be used strategically to fill vacant positions and restructure with a rapidly changing workforce.

Managing Open Positions

Identifying and filling open positions quickly and effectively is a priority when employees are leaving at an increased rate. Gaps in the organisation need to be identified in real-time and a strategy for filling them put in place immediately. OrgChart’s Open Positions functionality allows vacant positions in the organisation to be highlighted and visualised easily.

Using OrgChart software to manage open positions:

Switch the status of an employee by selecting from the pull down menu.

Adjust conditional formatting so open positions are instantly identified by color.

Toggle between statuses – Employee, Candidate, Decline, Vacant.

OrgChart Now Displaying Vacant Positions

Realigning Teams Following Resignations

Charts can also be used to view the effect of open positions on the budget and headcount for groups or departments. Display what metrics of potential candidates are important; employee rating, salary requirements, years of experience. Employees and potential candidates can then be transported to different groups within the organisation and into different positions in the reporting structure. Gaps in the organisation can be covered by both filling vacant positions and reassigning and promoting existing employees.

Budgeting Open Positions With OrgChart

Recognising, measuring and planning changes to the workplace is essential during the Great Resignation. Using OrgChart, HR managers can rise to the challenge of filling open positions brought on by the pandemic. For a free demo of our solution please contact our team of experts or download a trial.