We’ve been talking for some time in this compliance blog about the current job market, which continues to see high turnover as workers quit in droves to find better (or maybe just different?) employment opportunities. Such a market, as we regularly point out, stands to weigh down Human Resources departments in a constant cycle of onboarding, and makes Remote I-9 Verifications an efficient way to manage compliance and unburden HR teams.
Readers of this blog, then, will of course be familiar with the numbers behind this volatility, which impacts nearly every labor sector. For example, a recent Gartner survey found less than 30% of IT workers plan to stay in their current job, with over 70% exploring or at least remaining open to other opportunities. The turnover numbers are even higher in other sectors such as service and retail (and the departure spectacles, if social media is to be believed, are much greater).
This is the story that we are accustomed to, one of workers pushing back against employers when it comes to compensation, on-site v. remote work, and workloads, and then quitting if they don’t get what they want. This trend within the labor market is often referred to The Great Resignation—a loaded term that refers to both working people’s resignation from their jobs as well as the collective resignation society feels in this current moment (no explanation required).
From Resignation to Regret? A New Labor Trend Emerges
But there is another trend developing among workers who have recently left their jobs, a trend characterized by regret and disappointment about their new positions. Call it “grass is greener” syndrome or follow The Guardian’s lede and call it the “Great Regret,” but it all amounts to the same thing: workers are not finding the satisfaction and working conditions they were hoping for when leaving their original positions.
Indeed, according to a new report from The Daily Muse, almost three-quarters of workers who recently switched jobs experienced “surprise or regret” about their new position, which was “very different” from what they believed. Even more illuminating, nearly half (48%) indicated they would try to get their old job back if they could. The Daily Muse calls this “shift shock.”
As the Daily Muse’s CEO Kathryn Minshew recently explained, “They’ll join a new company thinking it’s their dream job and then there’s a reality check. It’s this really damaging phenomenon where people are brand new in our role, and they suddenly realize it’s not at all as advertised.”
Resignation or Regret, the Result is the Same
While it might be satisfying for some spurned companies to learn that their recently-departed employees never found the greener grass they were looking for, the net result is the same: turnover.
Job satisfaction seems to be the problem, not any job in particular. In this climate, companies will need all HR hands on deck, finding ways to recruit and maintain employees. They cannot be bogged down with an endless cycle of onboarding new employees; they need to focus on the ones they have.
This is why companies should outsource some of Human Resource teams’ most rote functions. And that’s where TrendSource comes in.
TrendSource’s Remote I-9 Verifications rapidly help New Hires complete Form I-9. This keeps companies in compliance with employment eligibility laws while adding efficiency to onboarding operations. This is useful for companies with remote employees, who can quickly complete Form I-9 wherever they reside without making the trip to company headquarters or seeking out their own notary. But it’s also useful for companies with exclusively on-site employees—these companies can nonetheless add efficiency to their onboarding operations by outsourcing Form I-9.
In a labor market characterized by resignation and regret, one thing seems relatively certain: Turnover is not turning over or going away any time soon. Fortunately, TrendSource’s Remote I-9 Verification with E-Verify is also here to stay.
