The Great Resignation peaked in February of this year, with over 22,000 pieces of coverage being created online.
This was a relatively new term, and not just media fearmongering but a very real thing happening as many people had reevaluated their working lives following the difficult years prior.
Following the 2020 pandemic, businesses have faced all sorts of challenges, some that they may have expected, some that they may not have.
With the cost of living at an all-time high, and both individuals and businesses feeling the squeeze, it is another uncertain time for both employers and employees.
Search volume showed that the topic peaked in November 2021 with over 110,000 searches across the world. Businesses have naturally had to look at their employee engagement strategies and improve these vastly to make sure they are attracting, but also retaining, their top talent.
Any business that is not looking at this could potentially be setting themselves up for failure as competitors look to make themselves more attractive.
Side hustles
Side hustles have seen a significant increase with an average monthly search volume of 9.7k, but still increasing rapidly. Cost of living and the work from home culture has led people to have more time on their hands, and time to set up their own ‘hustle’ as either a labour of love or for financial gain.
Businesses need to be conscious of how much time employees are investing in their side hustles – is this competing with their full-time job?
And are they opening themselves up to burnout if they are burning the candle at both ends?
Whilst contractual obligations often stipulate those workers can not take on second jobs, some may feel the need to due to either fiscal pressure or lack of commitment to their current role.
Side hustles searches almost doubled from January 2020 (5164 average monthly searches) to March 2022 (10806 average monthly searches).
Job dissatisfaction levels are at a high
This may explain why job dissatisfaction is at the highest it has been since August 2019 following an uncertain few years and murmurs of a recession on the horizon, employees may be preoccupied due to nervousness about their role, or potentially that their priorities have significantly shifted over the last few years.
The other big discussion point continues to be around working from home, with a wide-ranging view of different opinions from employers and employees.
However, recent YouGov data shows that 23 percent of people are somewhat more productive when working from home. From a business perspective, this has created varying opinions, with businesses having differing views on culture and motivation.
However, this does also tie into employee engagement, as the pandemic has changed employee attitudes towards work, as well as prioritising well-being.
Perhaps a slightly different perspective is that only 8 percent of people believe that office workers are much less productive when working from home.
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Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
