[Jihye Choi's Trend] Are Your Employees Happy?

“I have no expectations for one year or even three years from now at this company.”

Employees are leaving their companies. Although the concept of a lifelong job has long disappeared, the trend of shorter tenure has recently accelerated. According to a survey by IT Chosun and the business platform ‘Remember,’ three out of four MZ generation workers consider quitting their jobs as soon as they join.

This phenomenon is not unique to Korea. In the ‘2021 Work Trend Index’ report by Microsoft, which surveyed 30,000 people across 31 countries including Korea in March 2021, 41% of respondents said they planned to leave their jobs soon. A similar survey conducted by LinkedIn found that 75% of respondents had considered changing jobs due to their current working conditions. Recently, the ‘Quiet Quitting’ trend has gained attention in the United States. Quiet quitting refers not to actually leaving the company but to working only within the set hours and scope of duties while refusing overtime work.

What makes the current office exodus interesting is the positive view of job changes or resignations. In the past, frequent job changes were feared to be seen as an inability to adapt to organizations, but today, job changes are regarded as a career development process actively exploring desired working conditions.

Accordingly, companies and organizations are busy trying to retain departing employees. Especially, large domestic corporations are focusing on welfare benefits. For example, Samsung Electronics’ welfare expenses from January to September 2022 increased by 23% compared to 2021. This increase is larger than the 9% rise in annual welfare expenses in 2021. LG Electronics’ welfare expenses increased by 29.6% through the third quarter of 2022, and SK Hynix’s welfare expenses also rose by 20% in the same period compared to 2021.

More interesting than the increase in scale is the emergence of pinpoint welfare tailored to the lifestyle of the MZ generation. For instance, recently LG Uplus made headlines as the first among the top five conglomerates to introduce a ‘Single Support Fund’ system. This system provides employees who choose to remain single with 100% of their base salary and five days of paid leave, which is equivalent to the marriage congratulatory money.

In this atmosphere, the future role of HR is likely to go beyond simply reforming welfare. The HR platform startup ‘Flex,’ established in May 2019, defines HR not as ‘Human Resource’ but as ‘Human Relations.’ This means focusing not on employees as human resources but on the relationship they have with the company. Paying attention to ‘relationships’ is advice on an organizational attitude that approaches the entire employee lifecycle?from hiring to resignation?in a human-centered way. In other words, it means that a workplace lifecycle management program that considers the life cycle of employees together with the organization is necessary.

A representative example is Lululemon, famous for its high-priced yoga wear, which is known to encourage new employees during onboarding to set career and personal goals. Whether an employee aims to become the company’s CEO or to start their own fashion brand someday, they receive equal support. The onboarding process focuses on the individual ambitions of employees. Furthermore, Lululemon values the onboarding of departing employees as much as that of new hires. Employees leaving the company to pursue dreams such as opening a studio or gym become Lululemon ‘Ambassadors,’ and photos introducing their businesses are displayed in local Lululemon stores. Even former employees maintain ongoing relationships, showing deep interest in their success. Such workplace lifecycle management strongly conveys the message that members within the organization are recognized as individuals with personal value.

The background of the resignation trend and changes in HR policy lies in generational characteristics that do not align organizational growth with personal growth. In particular, the MZ generation experienced the IMF crisis and the 2008 financial crisis, learning that organizations do not guarantee their future. Rather than feeling rewarded by organizational growth, they seek organizations where they can hone their skills and build a portfolio of their work. For them, it is important to find an organization where they can be recognized or to develop their competitiveness through certain tasks.

An interesting finding from the IT Chosun and ‘Remember’ survey mentioned at the beginning is that 25% of respondents said they might reconsider quitting if they were recognized by the company or colleagues. In other words, they want to be acknowledged as individuals by the organization, not sacrificed for its growth. As mentioned earlier, the statement that employees do not look forward to three years at the company is a painful failure of the organization to motivate individuals. The Harvard Business Review also analyzed that “quiet quitting is a failure of organizational management caused by a lack of motivation for employees and untrustworthy leadership.”

We spend most of our day at work. If the time spent working is not enjoyable, it means half of life is unhappy. Are the members of our organization truly working in a happy workplace? While external customers and consumers who love our products and brands are important, it is time to examine whether the efforts of internal customers?our members?are sufficiently recognized.

Choi Ji-hye, Research Fellow, Seoul National University Consumer Trend Analysis Center