 The great resignation, the challenge of talent retention in a post-pandemic labor market. A major problem facing human resources departments in many professional services organizations in Nigeria today must be what could be described as a fluid and unstable workforce. Indeed, a new buzzword that has crept into the lezicon of the workplace is the great resignation and unflattering term for the widespread trend of employees living their jobs in the post-COVID-19 era. A number of push factors are causing employees to reconsider a long-term vision with their employers. Top amongst this is what is now popularized as the Jack Baas phenomenon. One social commentator aptly described it as a verb that became a noun. Many young professionals are living the country in droves for Europe and North America to either follow their education with a view to settling down in their host countries, at least in the meantime, or take advantage of lucrative immigrant programs, strategically structured to cause a brain drain in emerging economies such as Nigeria's. On the other hand, rising cost of living and inflationary trends is causing a lot of employees who otherwise would have stayed in their current employment to seek better opportunities elsewhere. According to a recent survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers, a global financial and management advisory organization, 71% of the global workforce will resign in the next 12 months if employers refuse to raise their pay. In the reference report, one out of five employees in the 44 countries surveyed said they will leave their employment if their employers refuse to raise their pay. Against the backdrop of the fact that this report was released in June 2022, it could be said that the findings are rather prophetic as far as recent trends in the labor market can be relied upon. But beyond the economic and Jack Baas factors, a huge chunk of employees are also leaving their current employment in search of career fulfilling elsewhere. According to the PWC report, 69% of the employees surveyed said they were leaving their job in search of fulfillment. This may be in the form of taking over new roles that would motivate them for more productivity or taking up opportunities that align with their long-term career goals or passion. In the end, employers, particularly those in the professional services space, are the worst for it. Disruptions in operations having to hire, induct and orientate new staff is putting pressure on human resources managers who are not certain when new hires will make another move. To address this awkward labor trend, employers must begin to place a premium on their people and make deliberate efforts at talent retention. Whilst it is not considered that this would not totally obliterate the need for employees to move, however, it will significantly stem the tide and allow for movement shaped by other factors. It would also allow for proper skills transfer before employees move unlike what obtains today when some employees have had to leave their jobs without adequate notice. Last year, a leading Nigerian law practice announced huge pay rise and allowances for members of its large team in a bid to tackle this problem. Other leading law firms and organizations have had to review working conditions and pay packages at the turn of the new year as a deliberate measure to guarantee talent retention. It, however, remains to be seen whether this effort would yield the desired result. The COVID-19 pandemic and its attendance economic crisis has greatly influenced the world of work in many ways. In a sense, this has led to an interesting dynamic in the workplace. Businesses looking to bounce back from the losses of the pandemic are, unfortunately, met with the labor force looking for better and all improved economic conditions to meet rising costs of living. Under these polarized conditions, loyalty often takes the back seat as employees prioritize what some employers might describe as selfish interests. Yes, every birth situation is not without its positives. As skilled professionals continue to leave their employment, a door of opportunity opens to a large pool of unemployed workforce who are looking to kickstart their own careers. As one analyst put it, this may be the best period for you to get hired. So I just saw comfort. I just saw that comfort is joining us from the United States. And as fast as I can recall, the last time I was on this program, she was in Abuja. So I don't know if the subject of my pitch today is actually me. It's a case study. It's a case study. I want you to talk about one case study. So you think I have Jaffa? What? Your graphical vision says you're not just a student. No. I mean, I'm not Jaffa. Honestly, I love Nigeria. Despite everything, I honestly love Nigeria. And tying it into what you have said about the post-pandemic labor market, the positives for me are what we're doing now. As you said, I'm in the US, but I'm on the show. You see, it's helped us all businesses as much as possible to leverage technology. So I don't have to be in the office anymore to be able to, you know, what do you call it, speed my skills, put in my best, or what have you. I would say that the issue for me of retaliation now is actually the positives that technology has brought. These days, all you need to do is to probably sing well. You know, do a skit here and there. And you are willing in some millions to remodel. Have you considered this? So all that burning... All that midnight burning can do now. As you can see now, all you need to say is own some small talent or no talent. The right word or the right topic. And you become something. And I think I don't think that that's even more of the layer now that is dealing with people, but seriously, how are we going to deal with inflation, rising costs, and standard of living when there is a commensurate pay? And what do you want the business also to do because they are going to the same market that their talent are going to? So I don't know if the death here at this point, the businesses have to thrive. They have to survive. They need to between talents. But the businesses are affected by the same thing that the talents are affected by. So I think this is what the World Economic Forum really needs to at this point look at and say, are we doing the best that we can for the citizens of the world? Remember, this is not just Nigeria that is even affected by this. It's really the world over. It's human beings who are taking these decisions, who are putting these markers, who are causing these things to go up and down. At what point are these same human beings who are the hemophagists going to actually look at the citizenry of the world, the human capital of the world and say, do you know what we need to give them will break over to you? Absolutely. I know during the time of Obat Zando, when Obat Zando was president, I think I was in secondary school at that time. Yeah, when Obat Zando was president, and eventually a drug came breathing that period before it got worse towards the ending of Good Luck Jonathan's presidency. You know, things got beginning to get worse at that time. See now, during this period you could see that Obat Zando time, after that was military 1999, you see that Nigerian citizens had the opportunity of going abroad to study, maybe for their masters. Most times they come back home, they get a good job here. Even Nigerians that study here too, they get a good job here, with good pay. They rise through the hierarchy of their career, and they do very well. But the moment it got towards the ending of Good Luck Jonathan's presidency, every time, it became worse. Everybody is leaving. So I believe if we get it right, this way, this way, until things begin to take shape, some of these guys that left come back, they want to come and look for a good opportunity. So like popular candidates, they say, brain drain will become brain gain. So I think as much as I want to agree with what you just said now, I also want to digress a little bit. I want to go with comfort. To shape everything is actually technology. Just like you said. So you see, during the pandemic, people had ample time because all those time you spend in traffic, you move from A to B and stuff like that, you can actually stay at home. People have ample time to use the internet to say, okay, I want to learn one or two things. I want to listen to one or two things and begin to discover, self-discover which they don't have time because of the nine to five activities they do. So they begin to say, okay, I'm working as a customer support. I could be good as probably a financial analyst. Do you understand? And they begin to equip themselves in such skill and there is no environment. Probably they are working in a place, do not give them that kind of environment in terms of capacity building and what have you and they have to move out. They have to change course. The internet is meant to have one skill you have to communicate and also transit business. Just like you said, there are people doing skit and they are making millions. They are discovering their talents. That's number one. Another thing you should also look into is the business owner. Yes, comfort, you are right. You said the business is also playing in this inflation market and how do they want to make money when the market is already high cost and stuff like cost of living. But then we have a lot of opportunity that the businesses today are not thinking of how to use technology to solve problems. They are still seated in the normal modern brandy of how business is being run. You sit under AC, you make policies that do not work with what the reality is. They have to leave their comfort zone, go to the market, identify problems, bring solutions using technology and I bet you they will be forced to even develop their own staffs. See staff that has this capacity, build them up, expose them to human capital development. Then, just like you said, some government officials are sent to human capital development trainees and what have you, but now do we have them again? There are a lot of things that are wrong and I think we should be looking forward to using technology to marry a lot of things. See, identify these issues and bring them in. Yeah, absolutely. I agree that internet is also a factor in this whole dynamic, but beyond that, I think the root cause of this has to do with global recession. Over the last couple of years, the global economy has been on decline and you see its manifestation in issues of this kind. Businesses are able to fully operate. Some have had to downsize their operation because they cannot be able to make even. You understand? And also the situation in Russia, Ukraine, is also not helping matter because you can see that they also contribute to, in a large scale, to declining global economy. Should we not say, sorry to cut in, but should we not say the normal way things are being run is already at the peak that we need to seek another alternative to run in the world, in the entire world, right? Another way to run business. It's not just what we can say, but I just think as the global economy improves, ultimately well-being and cost-of-living conditions would naturally improve. And also the factors that influence some of these decisions, these movements across jobs, to an extent reduce, so that businesses can be able to function optimally. The wider the movement, it will not be sort of, it will not be japa-induced movement. You understand? More of a career informed decision. Comfort boots is next after the break.