AgencyCon2022: Decoding the phenomenon of The Great Resignation

The Indian A&M industry too has seen the impact of The Great Resignation; agency leaders share their take and best practices to tackle this phenomenon.

The last two years have created a tectonic change in the way professionals approach their careers and jobs. The changing dynamic has created a phenomenon called The Great Resignation which has also impacted the Indian A&M world. Experts discuss the changing aspects of talent acquisition, retention, and work culture, in this situation.

The Great Resignation

Anju Kurien, Chief Talent Officer, OMG India starts off by stating, "The great resignation is real and is breaking a lot of organisations, every agency has seen increased resignations, and there's not a single HR or CEO who is not concerned."

Rita Verma, EVP & Head – HR, DDB Mudra Group, shared the problem is real and so is the solution. "There's a sudden change in how talent is looking at their life, they want to make a difference".

Nitin Naresh, Managing Director, Magnon\TBWA, says all of this is new to him, as he has never tendered a resignation in his life; there are more than 45 people who have spent a decade at the agency. Now the attribution rate at the agency is 18%, and the entire ecosystem's is 30%, which is way below the average.

He points out the reason as a generational change, where their parents' generation worked 9-5 jobs for survival, to feed themselves and their family. The new generation has a secured life, and a 9-5 job is linked from the lens of "What's in it for me?" He also believes that COVID-19 led to a lot of introspection, "If pandemic had happened ten years ago, we would all be doing something else".

Rajni Daswani, Director – Digital Marketing, SoCheers, shares we're dealing with a generation of people, coming from the younger perspectives who want to test their options and find their comfort zone. The question where you see yourself in five years is no longer applicable because they don't know where they would be in the next six months.

Also Read: Agency Con 2022: Open House WIth Piyush Pandey

The Great Retention

The great resignation needs great retention, as any company may have sturdy financial backing, cutting-edge technology, and the latest tools, but without the human resource, they cannot function. Here are a few expert insights to tackle the growing resignations with a great retention strategy.

Anju believes we need to rethink and relook at our values. Values coming from the people are also significant and agencies should reward people for standing for their values. People, products, and profits should be the hierarchical progression. The over-emphasis on communication cannot be ignored in work culture, communication is important.

Rita shares that the new generational talent wants to make a difference. "They do see value in great work, and they're trying to go out and show great work". She further states that they don't want to work on one brand forever. "Give them something they're also excited about".

Nitin shares that while agencies are trying several different ways of retention, such as everything from dinners to ping pong tables, he thinks retention is related to three main fundamentals: work, fun, and growth. Onboarding great talent comes at a great cost, but progressive organizations can onboard good talent at a good cost too.

One-to-one conversations, cross-functional training, and enabling interactions with clients are a few other ways to skillup the staff for retention, he adds.

Rajni states you have to make everything fun and you can't do long seminars anymore, you need to keep people at the core of everything you do.

Key Advice

Here's a piece of key advice from the industry experts to survive The Great Resignation.

Anju Kurien

Reward your talent and provide a shift, we all want people to come to work.

Rita Verma

There's only work-life integration, there's no such thing as work-life balance.

Rajni Daswani

Make it happen seamlessly.

Nitin Naresh

No need to worry, everything comes back to normal. Create processes and practices to support retention.