Supply chain issues. COVID-19. The Great Resignation. Quiet Quitting. According to conventional logic, the U.S. labor market is past-due for some relief. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Last month, U.S. worker productivity levels reached at an all-time low. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that over 70% of economists believe that we’ll be in a recession by mid-2023—if we’re not already in one.

But what does this mean for employers? How do we connect with our current, and potential, workforce while maintaining our competitive edge?

We are proud to announce our new partnership with Nothing Bundt Cakes as we launch an employment branding campaign initiative to fill company-wide roles across 450 bakeries in North America. Together we can Bring the Joy.

In the age of the Great Resignation, there’s been no shortage of signs that many employees are beginning to look for new opportunities that better align with their priorities. Three fundamental truths remain:

• Burnout is sky high.
• Dissatisfaction is still running rampant.
• Employees are putting life ahead of work and want a company that mirrors that priority.

Let’s get one thing straight: It’s not quitting, they’re just tired.

American workers have had enough.

Enough of their employer’s broken promises, of unhealthy work/life balance, toxic workplaces, being overworked and underpaid—and they aren’t holding back their collective disappointment.

In recent months, many have flocked to TikTok to share their stories of “quiet quitting” and stand in solidarity with their peers. The similarities between this trend and last year’s Great Resignation—a period in 2021 that saw close to 4 million workers leave their jobs each month—are staggering, to say the least. It indicates a clear and present disconnect between many organizations and their own employee experience initiatives. A disconnect that, if left unchecked, could evolve into a larger, potentially more devastating employment branding problem.

For now, at least, most folks aren’t actually quitting their jobs, they’re just choosing something new: themselves.

Internal communications can be daunting. It’s the gray space within an organization – does HR handle it? Does marketing take it on? Who is responsible for communications within the organization, and how do we attract prospects to what we have to offer?

DALLAS, March 4, 2022 -- MindHandle, an Employment Branding Agency that focuses on recruiting, retention and engagement, is partnering with Texas-based Frost as its employment branding agency of record. MindHandle will work hand-in-hand with Frost to develop, refine and promote the Frost culture with its 4,700 employees across more than 150 financial centers. 

The answer is probably more complicated than you think, but might surprise you. In fact, it's likely your organization already has a plan, but you might not call it that or follow it with the rigor you know you should. Complex, multi-unit organizations with distributed employees cannot not communicate internally, or they wouldn’t exist. But to what degree is your team’s plan documented, aligned to, executed and measured?

Recently, I had the privilege to sit with our business development team along the sales journey of a new client. Our goals in the conversations that comprise these meetings are pretty simple: Remove barriers and get to the next conversation. The barriers are usually invisible constructs, present only in the prospects’ minds, but with the potential to block us from doing business together. So the art of the sale is really the act of throwing paint on invisible objects, making them visible only for long enough that we can smash them together.

For centuries, storytellers have employed tools to create and understand the Heroes in their narratives. They work tirelessly to define their Hero from the inside out: from their motivations, fears, and desires, to their mannerisms, appearance, and habits. One of the most popular and time-tested tools for character development? Character personas. And they’re one heck of a tool for HR and internal comms pros too.

If you’re in business, and your business is powered by people, you’re in the business of people. A company’s relationships with its employees should supersede any other, and its actions should support that belief.

Though most HR leaders would agree, there is always a force at work against employee engagement, regardless of the economic conditions. Naysayers will find a way to create headwinds against company values, and their actions will inevitably erode retention. Today, they’ll blame the great resignation (or throw up their hands in defeat). In 2019, they’d point to the lowest unemployment numbers on record. Years before that, the rise of the gig economy.