If the phenomenon born in the United States is currently making a lot of noise in Luxembourg, there is a reason for it. After hitting the country hard with more than 48 million resignations in 2021 (that is to say nearly 15% of the population!) the great wave of resignations has also reached France with an increase in the number of permanent contract breaks reaching 20% in 2021 and a number of resignations reaching 520,000 per quarter between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022.
What is the Great Resignation and will it reach Luxembourg?
With a job market that has been tight in many ways since 2020, Luxembourg is clearly a country with great risks of seeing its talents fly away to new horizons.
If the country invests a lot to keep its attractiveness to its workers, such as free public transport or indexation of salaries for example, some characteristics of the market, such as the price of housing, can push residents and border workers to check if the grass is really greener elsewhere.
According to a recent PwC study conducted on 1,200 workers in Luxembourg, one employee out of four (25%) would qualify as "high" or "very high" their probability of changing employer in the next 12 months.
How can you retain your talents despite everything?
First of all, you have to accept that if an employee wants to leave, there is no point in stopping them. If they have made up their mind, trying to convince them to stay with your company will result in their de-motivation or even frustration (and yours at the same time).
If you want your employees to feel fulfilled in the workplace, you need to do it before they think about going elsewhere, if possible from the beginning of their integration.
To spot the less fulfilled people, you will have to be attentive, especially if they tend to shut down and keep their feelings to themselves. You should not hesitate to offer them individual interviews or, if necessary, less formal discussions in order to create bonds and to find out if something is disturbing them in their daily life.
Read the article: Help your employees to thrive in their job
Question the reasons why they leave, to better retain them
While the figures vary slightly depending on the study and the country (there are no precise figures for the Grand Duchy yet), here are the top 3 reasons why employees leave their employer. Spoiler Alert: the number 1 in the ranking remains the same, regardless of study or country 😉)
- 💶 Salary for 58%
- 🌈 Professional fulfillment for 55%
- 🥸 The possibility to be oneself at work for 51%
Indeed, Luxembourg, which had yet ensured its salary competitiveness for many years, could possibly lose this advantage to the benefit of border countries such as Germany or Belgium. We don't need to draw you a picture, you understand the importance of taking this aspect into account when you think about keeping your talents.
As you can see, 2 out of 3 reasons are related to well-being at work. It is then up to you to put in place effective and sustainable means that can meet these needs according to your type of company and your internal communication.
Why not try to allow even more flexibility in the management of schedules or working from home for example? You can also try to establish closer human relations by organizing team lunches, for example, more relaxed than "breakfast meetings". Of course, creating closeness between members of the same team is a long-term job and will take more than one lunch a week, but sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. ☺️
The good news? By becoming aware of their brakes and fears, you can more easily try to find solutions to make it easier for them to thrive. And if you want to know more about your employees' opinions but they are not comfortable opening up, you can also try implementing an anonymous survey for them for instance
