Recruitment: Barry Whelan of

BARRY WHELAN The changing face of the employer/employee relationship

Following the pandemic-fuelled ‘Great Resignation’, employers have needed to change their outlook to ensure staff retention. Here, Excel Recruitment’s Barry Whelan highlights some key lessons that have emerged from this period of rapid change

managing director of Excel Recruitment

www.excelrecruitment.com

There is no denying that the world has shifted during the height of the pandemic. Between 2020 to 2021, there has been a historic record of employee turnover, and this incident occurred globally.

This period of uncertainty coaxed individual workers to re-evaluate their employment obligations, priorities, and their options.

Employers were also forced to operate through the ripple effects of ‘The Great Resignation’. They were urged to think of effective ways and alternatives to retain staff, in what became the

most challenging employee market since the year 2000. It is safe to say that employers have learned a lot from this pandemic-led phenomenon.

The Great Resignation has urged employers to think of effective, alternative ways to retain staff

What drove the Great Resignation?

The ‘Great Resignation’ was coined by Anthony Klotz to describe this unprecedented turn of events that is continuously shaping the global workforce.

While The Great Resignation may have emerged because of the pandemic, it can be argued that this trend started even before Covid-19. Records show that from 2009 to 2019, there was a steady increase of 0.10% in people leaving their jobs every year. This inclination changed in 2020, as many employees decided to hold on to their jobs because of the uncertainties brought about by Covid-19.

But as apprehensions declined and businesses started embracing workfrom-home, the job market was back. This gave employees the confidence to move position and in 2021, The Great Resignation occurred.

Why employees joined the Great Resignation

Recent research in the US Flexjobs (the flexible jobs job board) and the Pew Research Centre, came to the following conclusions, which we feel mirror the situation here in Ireland.

1. Toxic work environment: The study revealed that 67% of employees leave their companies due to workplace toxicity. Also, a lack of growth if the work culture is toxic — not just in the employees themselves, but in the entire organisation.

2. Lack of recognition:

Unappreciation and undervaluation will cause a downturn in employee morale. The lack of recognition leads to unmotivated staff, which in turn, will have a big impact on their productivity and performance. Eminently, it is another deciding factor for employees to look for better opportunities elsewhere. 3. Underpaid staff: 63% of

American workers quit their jobs because the pay was too low. The same survey also found that the employees who quit their jobs have already been employed in a different company with better salaries and opportunities. 4. No work-life balance: Poor work-life balance means dedicating more hours of each day to work.

Being overwhelmed with more job responsibilities can heighten individuals’ anxieties, stress, and other mental health issues.

What was the impact of ‘the Great Resignation’?

The Great Resignation has massively affected employers, especially when organisations urged workers to return to their respective offices. It led to companies increasingly having open positions, which also caused disruptions in their daily operations. Remaining employees needed to compensate for the lack of manpower. Immense workloads drove employee burnout affecting their overall performance and productivity and of course retention of staff.

The Great Resignation has also changed how traditional employer and employee relationships work.

What has been learned?

Flexibility is the key: Work-life balance has become an essential aspect of every individual’s life. Working from home lets employees spend more time with their pets and loved ones while they perform their daily tasks. Flexibility helps create a stress-free working environment, and it encourages staff to be more productive and improve their quality of work.

Support employee development:

Employers should also be able to support their employees’ career growth and development, as today’s workers seek long-term stability. Being able to provide skill-enhancing training and other career growth opportunities will not only benefit individual staff members, but also the entire business.

Create productive conversations:

Employees are also more likely to be happy at work when they feel like management value their wellbeing. Employers should open productive conversations wherein staff are free to share their queries, issues, and ideas. This can also help foster good working relationships and help find answers to solve problems.

The Great Resignation is unavoidable, and it is still happening as employees continue to look for greater working conditions. The key here is retention; businesses should implement changes to rectify the mass movement of employees. ■

Applegreen marks ‘24/7’ birthday with nationwide flash fuel sale

T o c e l e b r a t e t h e c o m p a n y ’ s b i r t h d a y o n 2 4 J u l y a n d t o g i v e s o m e t h i n g b a c k t o t h e i r c u s t o m e r s , A p p l e g r e e n r e t a i l e r s s u r p r i s e d c u s t o m e r s w i t h a f l a s h s a l e t h a t l a s t e d 2 h o u r s 4 7 m i n u t e s a n d i t w e n t d o w n a t r e a t w i t h l o y a l a n d n e w c u s t o m e r s a l i k e

Applegreen endeared itself to the public last month in a nationwide mega sale of fuel plus lots of in-store favourites to celebrate the company’s birthday on Sunday, 24 July. To mark the occasion, all petrol and diesel prices were reduced by 24.7 cent per litre for a period of 2 hours 47 minutes.

Applegreen’s 24/7 birthday fuel sale took place at participating outlets around Ireland, starting at exactly 9am and continuing for 2 hours 47 minutes until 11.47am. As an added bonus for the lucky counties involved in the All Ireland that day, Applegreen outlets in counties Galway and Kerry kicked off the sale at 6am.

Excitement

Prior to the event, Applegreen’s commercial director Seamus Stapleton said they were really looking forward to giving something back to their loyal customers. “This is our favourite time of the year and we can’t wait to celebrate our birthday with all our customers on Sunday and we’re kicking the day off with another mega fuel sale,” he said. “In addition to reducing petrol and diesel by 24.7 cent per litre for a specific period of time, we’ll be offering a huge range of in-store discounts as well as doubling our donations to our charitable fund all day long.

“We know that our customers are feeling the pinch of inflation and rising prices so we’re investing more than half a million euro to give something back to our loyal customers and communities in the form of birthday offers and discounts,” he added.

All-Ireland football fuel frenzy

With the All-Ireland Football Final also taking place on Sunday, 24 July, Applegreen outlets in Galway and Kerry – the two finalists – started the fuel sale earlier than others from 6am, giving GAA supporters from the Kingdom and the Tribesmen extra time to fill their tanks for less as they hit the road for Croke Park. Lucky fans travelling from Galway and Kerry to Croke Park on Sunday morning were pleasantly surprised when they pulled up at the pumps.

“What better way to start the journey to Croke Park than with a significant saving on your fuel cost,” says Stapleton. “And not only did our customers in Galway and Kerry get more time to save 24.7 cent per litre at the pumps, they were also able to stock up on snacks, drinks, rolls and other goodies at one-off discount prices too. In line with the 24/7 theme, they could even get a car wash for just €2.47!”

To spread the word about the 24/7 mega sale, Applegreen enlisted the help of its ambassadors, the 2 Johnnies. The popular comedy duo – who have teamed up with Applegreen on many occasions – fronted a radio ad campaign to promote the one-off birthday celebrations.

Huge turnout

As in previous years, the sale sparked nationwide excitement as customers rushed to their local Applegreen to take advantage of discounted fuel prices.

Retailer Gary Higgins of Centra Labane Service Station, Ballylara, Ardrahan, Co. Galway spoke to ShelfLife about the success of the day.

Higgins explains that this is the second time they have run the sale. “We started at 6.45am in the morning. We had advertised it a little but the customers had no idea of the

price,” he says. Higgins had scheduled a few extra staff as he anticipated a big crowd which was good planning as he says it was “chaotic at the tills”.

In this rural setting Higgins says they would usually know all their customers but people came from near and far that day to take advantage of the promotion. “There were people coming from all over the place that we would never have seen before. People were ringing their friends and putting it on Facebook too,” he explains.

With a limited amount of time for such a promotion, it is inevitable that some people would miss out but Higgins says that customers accepted that the promotion had ended. “It wasn’t that we had to turn people away but queues formed so when we put the price up, it went up on the sign and we notified people so those at the back of the queue just drove off then.”

Asked if his customers would be expecting to see this again he said there was no expectation of that and they knew it was just a once off birthday celebration but Higgins agreed that it would be great to see it as an annual event. “I know the customers would be delighted if it happened again next year. There was a great atmosphere and the fact that it fell on the All Ireland Day made it extra special.”

For breaking news and latest offers follow Applegreen on; Twitter (@goapplegreen), Facebook (@goapplegreen) and Instagram (@_applegreen_). ■