Getting from the Great Resignation to the Great Return

Getting from the Great Resignation to the Great Return
Annie Gugliotta

It’s a job seeker’s market.

Over 47 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last year, almost 13% more than in 2019. That was before the pandemic, which has upended the relationship between workers and employers as much as it has disrupted all our lives.

It’s not just a US phenomenon. High turnover rates extend across comparable OECD economies. Nearly a quarter of Brits and a third of Australians plan on switching jobs in the next several months.

The picture is somewhat different in the developing world. Hundreds of millions of people who lost their jobs during the pandemic — mostly in the informal economy — still can't find work because COVID obliterated entire industries such as tourism. Chinese companies, meanwhile, are struggling to retain young employees who are fed up with low pay and long hours.

The Great Resignation is thus a global problem, in varying ways, as will be the Great Return. With the omicron scare easing in the West, many companies there have begun trying to figure out how to woo millions of now-remote (or recently resigned) employees back to the office — precisely at a time when it’s gotten harder to find and retain talent.

Here are three ways employers might have success.

The most obvious fix is to raise salaries. That’s already happening for some. US wages grew on average 4.5% last year, the highest annual rate in almost 40 years. But with US inflation currently at 7.5%, that annual bump is actually a pay cut in real terms, and higher salaries won’t entice everyone.

What’s more, upward pressure on salaries is likely to contribute to even higher inflation.

Another option is additional benefits for employees, especially those who feel more productive working from home and see little upside to returning to the office. Many companies have already adopted permanent hybrid schedules, with workers coming in twice a week.

But some CEOs want everyone in the office five days a week. They just don't get it, US organizational psychologist Adam Grant toldGZERO World. Grant argues that worker productivity “is about the purpose and the process that you bring to your job (...) not about the place you happen to be doing it in.”

Apart from going hybrid, governments are increasingly backing experiments such as four-day workweeks to deliver more work-life balance. This approach has already been tested — with varying degrees of success — in Iceland, Spain, and it will soon be trialed in England.

Finally, companies that struggle to find talent where they’re based might opt to find it elsewhere — including overseas. That means more people working remotely from other US states or even abroad, which could have big political implications.

Imagine all those American manufacturing jobs that went to Mexico thanks to NAFTA, or to China after Beijing joined the WTO. This time, though, US labor outsourcing would hit the laptop class — the one that has benefited the most from globalization and a digital-first world.

As Eurasia Group CCO Alex Kazan points out on the Living Beyond Borders podcast, a post-pandemic hiring spree of remote labor from low-income countries could be politically toxic amid the surge of nationalism and protectionism we've seen in places around the world. But if done right, it could also be viewed as an expansion of a flexible gig economy that can spur greater inclusion in a global workforce.

“We're still a long way away from a global labor pool, but certainly the normalization and acceptance of technologies that enable remote work make that a more plausible future,” Kazan says.

Meanwhile, WFH is not going away. If companies in advanced economies want to lure their employees back to the office, most firms will need to reshape workplace culture to embrace remote working and hybrid models.

More from GZERO Media

An infographic of the changes to the US voting system under Trump's executive order
Paige Fusco

Officials from the Democratic Party in 19 states have filed a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s efforts to alter the national voting process via an executive order entitled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections,” which they argue infringes upon states’ constitutional rights to manage their elections.

People protest Ljubljana's Mayor Zoran Jankovic's support of Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic near the Serbian embassy in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on March 5, 2025.
REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic

After months of historic protests, Serbia’s embattled president, Aleksandar Vučić, is now up against something particularly formidable: the clock.

A general view outside Exchange Square in Hong Kong's financial district. Asian stock markets have plummeted amid growing fears of a global trade war, as Donald Trump described his tariffs as ''medicine'' and showed no indication of backing down.
ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect

In the latest twist of the United States’ trade war with China and the world, US President Donald Trump declared Monday that he would impose an additional 50% levy on Chinese imports on April 9 if Beijing refuses to drop its retaliatory tariff.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends a press briefing in Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2025.
Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via REUTERS

In response to warnings from US officials of looming air attacks by US forces, the leaders of four of the largest Iran-backed militia groups operating in Iraq told Reuters on Monday that they were prepared to surrender their weapons to Iraqi government authorities.

Demonstrators rally against President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk during a Hands Off! protest on the Washington Monument grounds in Washington, DC, on April 5, 2025.
REUTERS/Tierney L Cross

US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs have been met with anger, outrage, and disbelief in every corner of the world – including islands inhabited solely by penguins. At last count, over 50 countries want to talk trade with Washington, while in the US, opposition to Trump’s presidency is getting organized. Here’s a look at this weekend’s reactions.

President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington, on Feb. 4, 2025.
REUTERS/Leah Millis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday. It will be his second such visit since Trump’s inauguration in January, and it comes after the president’s impromptu invitation last Thursday, when the two men spoke by phone about new US tariffs. They are expected to discuss those – and a whole lot more.