People are quitting their jobs at record rates. The reason for this? Yeah, the pandemic is once again partly to blame. But only partly. The greatest turnover rate in over two decades is really due to the lifestyle changes that occurred over the last year. Staying home, or maybe putting off quitting in hopes of a better, future job market have caused many to sit idly by while 2020 and the beginning of 2021 were underway.
On the whole, one major reason why employees are quitting their jobs in hopes of greener pastures is due to the fact that many employers are now asking and requiring workers to return to the office as regular. But with the new found flexility that employees discovered during the pandemic, even the previously staunchly in office industries of the past have found productivity to remain roughly the same in a work from home world. Employees would rather quit their jobs and look for new roles than return to pre-pandemic office drudgery.
Talented Workers Leaving their Jobs Intensifies Talent Shortage
Just as many businesses are struggling to get back on their feet, they now have a new, fearsome foe to contend with: the talent crunch. In reality, the talent crunch has been a growing challenge for business leaders for some time. However, the tumultuous labor market during the pandemic seemed to set it back a bit. As opposed to the incredible economic boom of the last several years, workers were now grateful for their jobs as they weathered the economic storm of 2020 waiting for a brighter tomorrow.
In reality, however, the pandemic only sent the talent crunch into hyperspeed. In fact, many jobs, like digital marketing and software development, for example, saw exponential growth as business norms changed to almost exclusively online. The new demand for talented, skilled knowledge workers from such a rapid increase in demand only further broadens the gap between employers’ demand and skilled, qualified employees.
In fact, as of June 2021, the talent shortage has reached a 15 year high, with seven out of ten employers stating they cannot find the skilled labor they need.
As if the global chip shortage wasn’t challenging enough for enterprise IT to deal with, here is a new and potentially more dangerous obstacle to overcome: a global talent shortage now in full force.
Workers Are Quitting For Jobs Offering Flexibility
Although there are many reasons as for why people leave their jobs, one unique to this point in time has to do with the inevitable end of full time work remote work.
When it comes to how daily work will look post pandemic, companies are taking different approaches. Some are looking to the hybrid work model – part time in office, part time at home – as a possible solution and compromise to enable effective work in 2021 and beyond. Still, others are taking more extreme approaches, with full time in office expected to be back in full swing as soon as possible. In fact, in a recent study done of some 350 CEOs, 70% of them said they were expecting to have everyone back in the office in Fall of 2021.
Yet this is an obvious case of employer expectations not matching up well with employee wishes. Studies abound that have one conclusive theme – employees would rather quit their jobs than return to the office.
Ultimately, workers prefer the flexibility working remotely provides – everything from getting out of the strict, 9-5 grind, and avoiding the daily stressors of commuting.
Remote Work Offers Benefits to Employers, Too
Luckily for employers, the benefits of remote work are not employee exclusive. Despite the insistence of many business leaders to return to work “as normal”, companies gain proven benefits from enabling a more flexible workforce. These include:
- Saving on costs associated with offices.
- Boosting employee moral and retention – which in turn saves money on recruiting and training.
- Enjoying productivity benefits – workers who telecommute are proven to be more productive than their in office counterparts.
- Access to a wider talent pool – opening up your workforce to remote workers enables companies to hire people around the country.
- Reduced waste – less energy wasted via commutes, more potential for green computing.
Retaining Workers Post Pandemic Begins with Enabling Remote Work
With one of the prime reasons for employees leaving their jobs being a looming return to regular 9-5 office hours, one way employers can reduce talent churn is to keep enabling remote work. In fact, enabling remote work alone is proven to increase employee satisfaction. In a post pandemic world where many employees who had never worked remotely in the past have learned to love it, enabling remote work is more critical than ever. However simply enabling remote work in 2021 is not enough. Enterprises need to go above and beyond – making remote work more productive, and enhancing user experience.
Yet as IT pros know, making remote work possible requires more than changing corporate policy. An intricate and complex system needs to be in place in order to make remote work possible.
How VDI Helps Enterprises Enable Remote Work and Retain Employees Post Pandemic
VDI is one of the premier methods enterprises are deploying in order to make remote work productive in 2021. One of the immediate benefits of VDI can be seen in removing the potential threat of local desktops, as well as the IT management hassle involved in maintaining different and outdated operating systems and preventing malware on personal devices. With VDI, end users can access virtual desktops that are preconfigured, managed and secured by IT before being accessed by end users.
VDI ensures that confidential information is kept securely in the cloud. In the case that devices are lost or stolen, corporate data is not compromised. Additionally, VDI makes it easier for IT to manage devices, licenses and users, and effectively cuts down technical support time.
However, to ensure a truly streamlined endpoint deployment, IT leaders need to take things a step further. They need to partner with not only a powerful VDI/DaaS solution provider – they need a solution for the endpoints, as well.
Stratodesk NoTouch Software Helps Increase Employee Retention By Making Remote Work Better
An integral part of remote work is what you have running on the endpoint. Today, leading enterprises are relying on Stratodesk NoTouch software to run on, secure, and manage endpoints around the world. NoTouch compounds the benefits of VDI by creating a more secure, hyper user friendly endpoint deployment. It also supports integrations with third party collaboration tools to make remote work easy. Not to mention it comes ready to use directly out of the box.
Additionally, NoTouch works with legacy PCs, and cutting edge new devices, including the Raspberry Pi, to solve pandemic critical challenges, like enabling healthcare workers, and education devices. By converting devices with NoTouch, enterprises are able to extend the hardware refresh times of their devices and save millions.
By leveraging effective technologies, enterprises around the world can empower dispersed workforces in 2021 post pandemic, empowering workers to get their work done from wherever is easiest for them.
Learn more about how Stratodesk helps employers overcome the talent crunch and boost employee retention in this white paper.
