• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

JP Cornerstone

Just another Cornerstone Accelerator site

  • JP Cornerstone
  • About
    • About JP Cornerstone
    • Code of Ethics
    • Professional Practice Guidelines
    • External Privacy Notice
  • Offices
    • Stockholm
    • Helsinki
    • Oslo
    • Copenhagen
  • Services
    • Executive Search
    • Board Search
    • Leadership Consulting
    • Interim Management
    • JPC Selection
  • Insights
  • News
  • Contact

Do Millions of Job Resignations Mean Recruiters Got it Wrong?

October 27, 2021 by Cornerstone International Group Leave a Comment

According to the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO), Covid took 225 million people out of the global workforce last year. That we understand.

This year we saw a new twist. In the US, 20 million walked away from the job they had, joined by millions more in Europe, Latin America and China. It is the year quitting became honorable. Covid and its resulting stress no doubt play a role but this message is more personal: “I’m in the wrong place.”

Are recruiters a part of the problem? Today’s professional is increasingly absorbed in ensuring the fit is optimal between the job and the job seeker. Did they get it wrong – 20 million times? An understanding of the recruiting industry would say no.

The recruiting business divides naturally in two depending on outcomes. One pursues lower levels of employee and middle management. It is being transformed by technology that aids in the identification, attraction, engagement, and nurturing of candidates into applicants as rapidly as possible.

The other half, often described as executive search, concentrates on high value leaders and managers. Since these represent critical and costly assets to the employing company, there is more personal involvement. The search process and the skills required to conduct it, are many times more complex. 

They left miserable jobs

Most, if not all, the resignations come from the first group. The majority of quitters (they are actually labelled “quits” by the US Dept of Labour) left miserable jobs in miserable front-line sectors such as health care, restaurants and food services where they worked long hours for sub-standard pay in highly stressful and often abusive environments. (Servers working for tips can be paid as little as $2.13 an hour in wages)

These are jobs unlikely to attract more than a resume submission from a recruiter. Deep background and compatibility checks are absent. So the extraordinary level of dissatisfaction cannot be laid at the recruiter’s door

But if the hiring process has little to do with where we are now, it is likely to have a greater impact on where we go from here.

If you think of the Great Resignation as a cry for attention, you would not be wrong. But that cry comes from a wider source of frustration than just the abused front-line workers. The face of work has become increasingly impersonal and the attitude of employers (and most recruiters) has been one of: ”This is the job. If you fit it, we’ll look at you”

Job seekers want more 

This year has told us this is not enough. Workers, especially the young, want more than just a paycheque for spending half their life in your service. They care what you do with the labour they are giving you. They want you to share their social concerns – for the environment, for the less fortunate, for equality of opportunity.

They view mankind as custodians of the welfare of the world we live in and want you to play your part.

Perhaps this is the idealism of the Sixties working its way through the fabric of society. Whatever the source, it is here and changing the employer-worker relationship in a profound way.

The restoration of the individual impacts both sides of recruiting. The volume merchants will continue to benefit from AI and best-to-fit technologies but will need to bulk up on more personal treatment of candidates. They will have to learn to listen.

The executive searchers, too, will have adjustments to make. They must look more closely at leadership profiles in search of empathy and a heightened sense of talent management. Team building abilities have always been high on the chart but now may have locked in first place.

Let’s blame Covid

Incumbent leaders will be forced to reflect. Reportedly, some senior managers do not believe the massive turnover is a matter of significance but regard it as an anomaly related to the pandemic. Some are unaware of the culture experienced by workers in all parts of their organization. They assume that since their own relationships are collegial, the same is true for all employees.

Leadership candidates hopefully will reach a more responsible conclusion – that the working environment is deficient. Employees walking away from a job without another one to go to are voting with their feet.

Both the candidate and the executive search professional will be looking harder than before at non-financial criteria — the quality of the current management, the company culture and the company mission, or purpose. Financial success and stability will be dependent on getting these right first.

Filed Under: Cornerstone Blog

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • In a Disruptive World, Choose to Be Resilient and Thrive
  • Attracting Leadership Talent in a Private Company
  • It’s early in 2025 – what has changed?
  • Thriving in an Era of Continual Business Reinvention
  • Managing Multigenerational Workplaces Across Cultures – Part 2

Recent Comments

    Archives

    • June 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • December 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • January 2024
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • May 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • February 2018
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • July 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • October 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • October 2014
    • June 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • December 2013
    • August 2013
    • May 2013
    • April 2013
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • May 2012
    • March 2012
    • January 2012
    • December 2011
    • November 2011
    • October 2011
    • September 2011
    • July 2011
    • May 2011
    • March 2011
    • January 2011
    • December 2010
    • August 2010
    • June 2010
    • May 2010
    • April 2010
    • March 2010
    • February 2010
    • January 2010
    • December 2009
    • November 2009
    • October 2009
    • September 2009
    • August 2009
    • July 2009
    • June 2009
    • May 2009
    • April 2009
    • March 2009
    • February 2009
    • January 2009
    • December 2008
    • November 2008
    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
    • January 2008
    • December 2007
    • September 2007
    • August 2007
    • June 2007
    • April 2007
    • December 2006
    • November 2006
    • September 2006
    • August 2006
    • July 2006
    • June 2006
    • March 2006
    • February 2006
    • January 2006
    • November 2005
    • October 2005
    • September 2005
    • August 2005
    • July 2005
    • June 2005
    • May 2005
    • April 2005
    • March 2005
    • February 2005
    • January 2005
    • December 2004
    • November 2004
    • October 2004
    • September 2004
    • August 2004
    • July 2004
    • June 2004
    • May 2004
    • April 2004
    • March 2004
    • February 2004
    • January 2004
    • December 2003
    • November 2003
    • October 2003
    • September 2003
    • August 2003
    • July 2003
    • June 2003
    • May 2003
    • April 2003
    • March 2003
    • February 2003
    • January 2003
    • December 2002
    • November 2002

    Categories

    • Cornerstone Blog
    • Uncategorized

    Meta

    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

    Copyright © 2025 · JP Cornerstone · Sitemap

    Website Development by LimeCuda