Everywhere you turn these days it seems like there’s bad news. War. Humanitarian crises. COVID deaths. Lockdowns across the globe. Recession. Supply chain issues. Port congestion… The world is in turmoil! Amidst all this heavy news, people seeking new job opportunities and leaving their current positions may seem like a small matter. However, keeping things running in a business is difficult enough during these tough times, but is even harder without a team.
While we did see over 45 million Americans quit their current positions in 2021, this was not the first sign of the so called “Great Resignation” trend. The average quit rate in America has been steadily increasing since 2009 and, even though there are many underlying factors at work, it has been further spurred on by the pandemic.
Over the years, more people have begun to reconsider the amount of effort that they put into their jobs. Instead of going “above and beyond” for work, by answering emails outside of work for instance, people are staying within the bounds of their job descriptions and not allowing themselves to become overworked.
The emphasis on the balance of work and life has seen an even greater push since the start of the pandemic. The rapid shift to “working from home” and what can actually be accomplished in those environments was eye opening for many. There was also a time where the entire world was shut into their homes, scared to go outside. This impacted the way people define quality of life and what matters most to them.
To combat the trend of resignations, businesses need to focus on their current team members and retaining them. While wage increases can help in some instances, everything isn’t always about the money but rather the environment they work in. By creating a company that nurtures their team and fosters their growth, you not only keep resignations down, but you also create a company culture that team members want to be a part of.
What it all boils down to is that most of us don’t want to spend 56% of our waking hours doing something we hate in an unsavory environment.
The first thing most employers think when they hear this is “Great, everyone just wants to work from home in their pajamas” but really, people just want to have a pleasant work environment where they feel valued and can still have a fulfilled life away from their desk.
Here at Suntsu, we think about it a little differently. We put emphasis on building a company culture where our people are not only happy but thrive while at work. People want to have fun. People want to be valued. People have great opinions, and they should be heard.
We believe that coming to work should be a pleasure (for the most part, I mean, it’s still work everyone). Here are a few of the most important things we do to keep engagement and job satisfaction high at our office:
Cultivating a pleasant work environment means letting your team members let loose and enjoy themselves. Not only do we have various games to play while on breaks, but we also play a new tournament each month with the entire office. On the last Friday of the month, a new game is chosen for us to Round Robin compete in before taking a break to all gather and watch the finale. We also do larger events each quarter where we’ll close the office and go to the horse races or go bowling for the holidays. We give our team members multiple ways to destress and create relationships with their coworkers at every step.
Creating a strong, professional relationship with your manager is important in the business world and to make it easier, we have alignment meetings each week. These meetings are not only a time to cultivate a relationship with your manager, but to catch up on what you’ve been doing the last week, how it’s going this week and if you need any additional support from your manager. Giving our team members a time to speak directly to their managers to discuss any challenges or even the rewarding moments means they get feedback and there is little to no uncertainty on their performance.
Whether it be a 10 min break to just get away from your desk and computer to a weeklong vacation to a different county, people should be encouraged to have time to themselves. On any given day at the office, you can spot people on breaks together playing games like pool, ping-pong, or Kan Jam. Not only does this help people create relationships with coworkers but allows them to take their eyes off the computer and reset themselves. We’ve heard the horror stories of companies giving PTO but when it comes time to take it, it’s not received as well as you thought. People work hard and deserve to have their days off without having to worry about their jobs. We encourage and even push people to take their PTO so they can enjoy their lives. Everyone needs some time to decompress and allowing that time without penalizing someone financially is important.
Creating an environment where people feel safe when they speak their mind is incredibly important. We encourage feedback and try to be as transparent with our team members as possible. For example, we publish our financial performance to the entire team. No secrets. If our goal is to create a successful environment for everyone, we should all know how it’s going. We also ask for feedback from our team members through anonymous surveys. Who better to ask about how its going and where we can improve than our own team members on the frontline. Change is taking place constantly and it’s important to know if something isn’t working for someone on the team.
We’re proud of the company culture we’ve created. After all, we’ve been ranked on OC’s Best Places to Work for many years. We take our hiring process very seriously at Suntsu and we’ll meet with candidates multiple times before deciding to move forward. We want to not only make sure they’ll fit into our company culture, but also that this will be a place where they will thrive and succeed.
Building a team isn’t something that happens overnight, it requires constant focus on company culture and our team’s happiness. In this continued period of the Great Resignation, it’s more important than ever to come together to find an environment that enables people to thrive.
We hope these insights into how we operate will help yourself or your business find ways to keep team members engaged and resignations down. From everyone here at Suntsu, we wish you luck in creating the work/life balance you deserve.
Need more information? Please contact us with any questions.
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