The Summer of the Resignation
Multiple stories have hit my inbox in the last month about how this is going to be the “summer of the resignation”. No industry is safe from this uptick of staffing departures. With employees feeling burnt from the pandemic, even those who loved their work, don’t love where they are working. This mass exodus is happening in parallel with campuses who are seeking to bring their staffing levels back to pre-pandemic levels. As such, I will predict, this will be a market that benefits the searcher - not the employer.
There is a tremendous amount of chatter happening on message boards and facebook groups where Student Affairs professionals are dragging employers for posting jobs where salaries barely meet a living wage. The position descriptions themselves are uninspired, and clearly not reflective of the potential of a ‘post-pandemic’ campus, where we have learned about student service. If student affairs wants to hire and retain the best staff, why are we dragging out pre-pandemic models and salaries?
We need to take action and use strategic thinking in order to move in the fall of 2021 with not only a full staff, but an exceptional one.
What Can/Should You Do?
Create an Outcomes-Informed Org Chart. Before you do anything, look at what objectives you have for your department, division or team. What is it that you need to get achieved as a unit, and what are the essentials that are going to get you to that point. Now, sketch out an ultimate organization chart. Get creative, messy and weird. It’s ok to get weird every once in a while, because it helps you frame your next steps. Next, clean it up with a practical but creative lens. Can you merge positions?Are some positions better structured as full time or part time? And how does this differ from the previous organization? Speak to your Human Resources Director, your budget manager and any supervisor(s) that need to approve changes.
Link to Budget and Outcomes. Not all organizational changes will result in the need for a larger budget. When proposing changes to the organization, link to the rationale for the changes (the Outcome Informed Org. Chart will help this effort. A visionary leader and hiring manager will be able to show the “why” of an organizational chart. Bring the organizational chart to your supervisor as well as human resources and the CFO. By being collaborative in the development of your organization plan and new job descriptions, it will make the entire process more successful.
COVID-Informed Job Descriptions. Whether you have been afforded the opportunity to implement a new organizational chart and new jobs, you should write job descriptions that reflect what you’ve learned about how jobs are done in a post-pandemic world. Acknowledge the new face of how you are doing work as well as the pandemic informed priorities. Most importantly, you want to share in the posting what makes the working environment unique and supportive. This will help recruit a pool of candidates that will want to work for a forward thinking organization, rather than one rooted in the past.
A final consideration is this, work to build a team, rather than prevent people from leaving. If employees are seeking to depart, celebrate their focus on change and champion their need for growth. This will allow for you to gain insight into why staff are departing, and what you need to do moving forward to better retain the team you want to keep.