A survey by Gartner Inc. found that US employee annual voluntary turnover will jump nearly 20% this year when compared with pre-pandemic levels. Gartner estimates 37.4 million US employees will voluntarily quit their jobs this year, up from the pre-pandemic average of 31.9 million.
“An individual organization with a turnover rate of 20% before the pandemic could face a turnover rate as high as 24% in 2022 and the years to come. For example, a workforce of 25,000 employees would need to prepare for an additional 1,000 voluntary departures,” Piers Hudson, senior director in the Gartner HR practice said.
“New employee expectations, and the availability of hybrid arrangements, will continue to fuel the rise in attrition,” Hudson said.
Employees are tackling misalignment with leaders and trying to achieve the flexibility they desire while trying to benefit from the new hybrid work arrangements.
He continued, “If executive leaders continue to push for a workplace return, HR should provide guidelines around how to structure an effective hybrid environment that includes how to balance both synchronous, colocated time for teams at the office and asynchronous work done at home.”
According to Gartner, organizations must abandon office-centric work design and shift to a human-centric work design to attract and retain talent. A separate report released earlier by the company found that 52% of employees believe that flexible work policies will impact whether they stay at their organizations as they desire a more flexible schedule across location, working hours and days worked, that accommodates their personal needs as well.