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3 Ways to Deal with the Great Resignation

Dan Thorne • Sep 02, 2021

Last week, I was participating in a Zoom mixer with Associate members of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services. While discussing the challenges of hiring employees, one of those attending indicated that recruiting and retaining employees will take a hit in the next year. He mentioned “The Great Resignation” as a major factor with employees.


Not having heard of the term, I decided to do some research. And what I discovered should make leaders very concerned. The Great Resignation is now a term to describe the impending aftermath of the pandemic. Here’s an article from Forbes that goes into further depth.


How does the Great Resignation affect the behavioral health field? According to an article from Microsoft, 40% of the global workforce is considering leaving the employer in the next year. Why? Since 2020, employees working from home or laid off from jobs began to re-evaluate their lives. They looked at their work, the stress of traffic, documentation, long hours, and lack of support from leadership. These individuals found that, although making less money, their lives were more enriched while being away from the pressure cooker of working with clients. Subsequently, they will be making decisions about future employment with little loyalty to their current job site. Values such as job and personal development, along with opportunities for advancement, will keep employees at their desks, be it at the office or the WFA (Work from Anywhere) desk.


The behavioral health field has a long reputation for high turnover of employees even before the Great Resignation. For all the reasons mentioned above, employees wanted a place where their work had meaning, and they were valued for their achievements. To keep employees at their job, leaders need to take a look at the following:


1.     Employee goals. What do individuals want from their job? Security, learning, the chance to make a difference with clients. In the past these were true, but now leaders must look at how employees will change their goals. Location, less stress, flexibility will even be more important. But most employees want to advance, either in position, degree, licensure, or recognition. And loyalty is at the bottom of the list. Companies that want to keep their employees need to listen and find initiatives to help employees. Consider that a Gallup poll of millennials and Gen Z found 87 percent “highly value” growth and development opportunities. Sadly, just 39 percent of young employees felt that they had “learned something new on the job in the past month.” Giving them a path to achieve these opportunities will make them want to stay.


2.     Training. Employees who aren’t learning or feel overwhelmed by clients tend to leave organizations. This is why giving employees clinical training, knowledge, and the skills to help them with their clients creates value for them in their work. The more they feel they’re helping, the more engaged they become with work and feel a sense of success. Nothing is more satisfying to a clinical worker than having clients stay in treatment and see results.


3.     Change the emphasis on documentation and productivity. Although this seems counterintuitive to agency survival, these demands will lead employees to avoid returning to work. Behavioral health professionals come to the field to help people, not feel like they’re constantly having to justify their billing and what they do on paper. Employees feel the pressure of performance, and with the pandemic, more will say, “Why am I doing this?” Companies that focus more on the mission of healing will keep employees.


Praxes offers behavioral health solutions in consulting, training, and treatment intervention software. For more information about our services, please contact us.


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