The COVID pandemic may have been the catalyst to one of the worst job crises and according to the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report findings, the worst since the Great Depression. But besides the endemic state of COVID, employability and job markets need urgent future-proofing.
Assistant Professor Lee Zeewan discusses the necessary fronts.
COVID Effects
The Great Resignation is no longer a trend but an occurrence. A term that had to be coined in May 2021. In the United States, mass departures started with almost three per cent of the nation’s labour force quitting their jobs in September 2021 (4.3 million in Sept., 24 million March-Sept.) according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics.
As according to one of the largest surveys of the global workforce, the PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey of more than 52,000 workers in 44 countries and territories, revealed that one in five workers plan to quit their jobs in 2022.
Concurring on the findings, Assistant Professor Lee Zeewan points out an important fact."The very puzzle of the Great Resignation,” she notes, “is that people keep quitting despite the availability of jobs and the employers' offering higher wages.”
While in China, the nation experienced the rise of the ‘lie flat’ movement where workers protest against the 9am-to-9pm work schedules.–one phenomenon that also serves as a warning of impending labour stagnation. Border lockdowns and travel and tourism standstill eventually showed up in resignation rates highest for hospitality or services industries that required face-to-face contact with co-workers and customers.
Personal versus Professional
Though government initiatives and financial assistance to provide support towards the COVID-affected times, does not quite address other underlying factors that play a major impact towards resignations.
According to Assistant Professor Lee Zeewan, there needs to be a lot more thought in how to design “future-ready” jobs. For one, employees have more reason than ever before to re-evaluate the meaning of work. Recruiters have also observed a gradual swing from renumeration package and financial security to health, mental well-being and safety. To retain essential workforce on the frontline, employers have put in more support and policies for those who are at a higher risk. And address their direct concerns such as preventing work burnout and measures to prevent endangering loved ones because of daily exposure. But can we move beyond reactive to proactive?
For one, work features that were traditionally overlooked now have more attention: How important are interactions between co-workers? Does a physical office space improve work morale? How can we curb the ongoing wave of resignations and its effects?
Acclimatising to Remote Work Culture
At the start of COVID-19, employers and employees grappled with the inevitable hurdles in remote work arrangements. Two years later, employers now face a vastly different mindset shift.
The ‘work-from-anywhere’ may just be what it takes to retain workers and attract new ones, especially given that over 70 per cent want flexible work options to continue participating in the labour force.This also calls for inculcating a stronger sense of trust between employee and employer in that way encouraging a culture that better fosters new ideas through hybrid collaborations and networking.
According to an OECD report, digitalisation can increase resilience and preserve capacity in the face of stringent restrictions to physical interaction. The report’s observations included the need to make digital service provision more inclusive going forward and to ensure further efforts are made so that all individuals have the skills and access to technology to benefit from these services. In Singapore for example, almost half of employed citizens were working remotely in 2021.More incentives to promote IT skills upgrades in the workforce and digitising small businesses and operations.
The OECD report also found that in the countries it examined, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, a marked changing nature of work due to COVID-19 containment measures led to an increase in the share of job postings that highlighted “working from home” as a required condition. A clear indicator that not only is the average workspace no longer confined to an office but the mindset as well.
Unpacking Workers’ Needs
Employers now need to aspire to foster a healthier work environment by providing support and outreach that is aimed at workers’ mental and physical well-being through actively reconnecting with employees on remote operation.
Given this fundamental shift on the view of ‘work’, conventional incentives—raising monetary rewards and in-kind benefits—must be revisited as well. While introducing new management tactics such as, a push for employers to better understand firms’ retention risks by conducting exit-interviews to identify push factors and stay-interviews to identify what keeps employees.
A significant proportion of the global workforce surveyed reported less satisfaction with their job than those who are working in hybrid or fully remote work settings, 50 per cent compared to 63 per cent. Noting as well, they are “far less likely than others to say they find their job fulfilling, believe that their team cares about their well-being, think that they’re fairly rewarded financially, or feel they can be creative in their work,” according to the report.
But employment policies cannot stop short on landing well-being alone when one regards another growing employment concern the world now has.
Preparing for an Ageing Workforce
According to Mr Joseph Chamie, a former director of the United Nations Population Division, is currently an independent consulting demographer, by 2050, 90 countries will have an ageing population.
Some 20 countries, particularly more developed countries, he adds, would need to navigate uncharted demographic territory of population decline and rapid ageing; these include Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland and Spain. This number could nearly triple by mid-century, and expected newcomers to population decline will soon include China, Germany, Russia and South Korea.
In Singapore, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) buoyed its efforts to make workplaces more age-friendly, such as by redesigning jobs, providing more part-time re-employment opportunities and helping senior workers upskill and reskill to support businesses to raise the employability, among Singapore residents aged 65 and over. In June 2022, an announcement of the Jobs Growth Incentive extension will continue to provide support that can help employers hire mature job seekers aged 40 and above who have been unemployed for at least six months, as well as people with disabilities or former offenders.
Systemic resiliency
Continual labour market volatilities nevertheless can worsen the fiscal burden of government to provide sufficient social safety-nets alongside persistent health threats that prolonged COVID poses.
Finding new strategies to enhance systemic structure and workforce resource can begin with a focus at fitting employability and employee needs to move beyond the challenges COVID has ultimately left countries with.
Policymakers, agencies and employers have an uphill task. But the strides made through the accumulative experience and outcomes from not just COVID-19 can mean better informed policies through research from adaptation to implementation; and that all important resiliency we need.