by Beth Schaefer

IPD Director

“Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

If I go, there will be trouble….

And If I stay it will be double…”

by, ironically enough, The Clash

If you have been reading The Great Resignation/Transformation series, you have already done the following to assess your current career situation:

• Researched that The Great Resignation has created demand for your job
• Determined what you want out of a role (12 Questions to Define Your Career Wants and Needs)
• Calculated the potential to gain more salary, fringe benefits, or intangible job satisfaction elsewhere (Use this form to tally your current benefits)
• Ascertained if your burnout is directly related to your current organization (Quiz: Do You Work for a Toxic Organization?)

And based off that analysis, you have determined that your career is best served by making a move to a new organization.

In addition to the assessments listed above, take these additional actions to ensure a smooth career move:

Research compensation for the role you want in the area/region you wish to work.

Define your “workplace self.”

Take 15 minutes every Friday to write down what parts of your job that week were the most satisfying.

• Watch for patterns so you can look for more of that type of work in your new role.
• Use this information to craft questions you can ask when an employer says, “What do you need to know about us?”
• And, if asked, “What do you like about your current role?” you will be ready for that too.

Do the list of 3’s.  For each of the following questions, write down your top 3:

• What 3 things about the work you do now generate passion and excitement?
• What are your top 3 technical skills?
• What 3 adjectives would your co-workers use to describe you?
• What are your top 3 workplace skills or fields of expertise?
• What are your 3 biggest workplace contributions in the past year?

Craft your story even though your resume is a necessary tool; it is not your whole story.

Look at the parts that make up your whole:

• You are not just your job title.
• Look at your history of projects; see how they add to your story.
• Look at who is in your network; see how they connect to tell your story.
• Create a list of work anecdotes that demonstrate your desirable co-worker traits that will transfer to any situation or role.

Build your brand about your “workplace self” using your story pieces.

Sum up your story:

• Write your 1-paragraph career story.
• Write your 1-sentence brand or elevator speech.
• Make sure all your social media platforms use those pieces to align with the professional image you want to project.

Stay visible.

As much as you can, make sure the work you do at your current role reflects your brand.

• That will ensure that those you work with can verify your self-assessment and provide positive recommendations.
• While searching for your new role, keep your list of successes updated and ensure that your profile in your cover letters and resume matches.

Make friends.

Make sure you are liked by bosses, coworkers, clients, and customers.

• They will be contacted for references.
• Help people.
• Worry about results, not credit.
• Be nimble and efficient.
• Be positive about your work and the organization.

Reintroduce yourself.

Broaden your circle outside your department, division, and organization.

• This next ring of influential spheres may have shrunk during the pandemic- much more than you realize – while you were hanging out at home in your elastic pants…

Find an authentic reason to reach out to those you have lost touch with  – both in and out of the organization:

• “I saw this conference/webinar/new restaurant, and I thought you might like it”
• “Someone shared this article/template/software with me, and I thought you might find it valuable”
• “I am back in the office; are you? Let’s grab some lunch/coffee/HH”
• “ I see your job changed during the pandemic; I would love to connect and hear about your new role.”
• “Congratulations on your new promotion…”

Tap your people to influence decision-makers for the roles you hope to get.

Expand your network.

Block time each week to send invites to your network of people for longer conversations.

• Write an email.
• Send a text.
• Make a phone call.
• Message through LinkedIn.

Make a goal of conducting a networking conversation each week.

• To prepare for these conversations, prepare a list of questions to ask the other person about themselves; you do not need to talk about yourself.
• They will remember the feeling of your conversation, not what you said.
• Run out of people? Make a grid.  Across the top, list all the categories of people you have: kid’s sports teams/activities, volunteer work, neighbors, relatives, friends, retired coworkers, college buddies, etc.  List 10 people under each category.  Repeat when you run out of people.

Maintain your emotional well-being

• For strategies to maintain emotional well-being at work, see the Blog: Return-to-Work Phobia

And, if you are leaving BEFORE you have your next role, consider doing these actions too:

Be productive with your time out of work: take a part-time job, travel, execute a DIY project, or take a class. These types of actions will help you:

• • Keep a schedule so that returning to work will be a smooth transition.
  • Practice desired work skills, such as project management.
  • Demonstrate dedication to a schedule or self-improvement.
  • Say fun and interesting things in an interview.
  • Provide additional references for your potential new employer.

Plan your finances so that you have some money to live on during your transformation.

• If you leave without a new role lined up, plan on 5 months to get a new job, but have 6 – 12 months of expenses saved.
• If you are attempting to try out new roles, have some funds to pay into health insurance if not covered by your temporary agency.
• Even if you are moving from one role directly to another, you may have some transitional expenses such as health insurance payments to bridge between the roles.

Good luck!

For additional information, check out the references used for this article.

While a record number of people are leaving their jobs (see the series introductory article: Is The Great Resignation Time for Your Career Transformation?), you may not have to leave to get a better deal.

Because so many people are leaving, this may be a good time to negotiate a new situation at your current organization.

Here are 10 steps to improve your current work situation:

Step 1:  Know what you want

Visit the article Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Great Resignation Transformation to answer 12 questions to figure out what you want from your career and the organization you work for.

Step 2: Know what you are worth

Make sure you are armed with information about the market for your occupation.  When people are in a role for a long time at the same organization, they can lose touch with the “market” for that role.  Occupations are influenced by the laws of supply and demand.  Understand the supply for your occupation for your region (or broader if you can work virtually).  Do the math to fully understand how many openings or the percentage of vacancies for your role.  Also, research the going pay rate for your role.  Be aware of what others at your organization are paid for similar work.  Be aware of the rate you would be paid for starting that role at another organization.  Remember to calculate benefits into the equation.

Step 3:  Prepare your campaign 

While you are not running for office, you do need to build your platform.  Do not assume that your hard work, dedication, or achievements have been noted or recorded.  Again, do your homework.  Compile a list of your projects, achievements, impact.  Did you carry the workload of others who were missing due to family or health reasons?  Get that on the list.  Did you implement a process to save the company money?  Add it to the list.  Did you win an award for customer service?  Put it on the list.  Go back through evaluations, coworker emails, and customer feedback and compile all the positive comments.  Have “data” to support the good work you do.

Step 4: Start your campaign

Research continues to show that engaged employees are much more productive than other employees.  When you are in meetings, on phone calls, interacting with customers, be positive about your role and your organization.  Make sure that others know how much you like your job and indicate your interest in continuing to work for your current organization.  Have a conversation with your boss and your boss’s boss (informal or formal) and make sure they know that you are interested in a clear plan to keep moving your career forward in their organization.  If you can, ditch tasks that do not contribute to your plan and take on tasks and projects that demonstrate your interests and abilities for your defined career path.

Step 5: Step up

Even though there is a worker supply deficit, be ready to take on more responsibility to get more salary and benefits.   With several openings, this is a good time to look at the next org. chart layer and find a role that you want.   Suggest the change as a win/win to your leadership.  Provide the career path you mapped out within your organization or work with your leadership to build a path to that role if you need some more experience or skills to take that step.   Most likely, they will want to work with you and develop you to keep you – a known reliable quantity — rather than take their chances on an unknown hire.  The important element is to make sure they know that you want to stay, achieve, and succeed.

Step 6: Seek and take professional development

Whether it is free through your company, or free through others, like the IPD Expert Insights webinars, putting these on your calendar will show others that you are interested in learning and moving forward.  In addition, good training will also infuse your creativity and self-reflection while increasing your skills and abilities.

Step 7: Create the win/win vision

While you do want to make sure that changes to your role are in your best interest, they must be framed in a win for the organization as well.   Do not come across threatening, “Meet my demands or I am outa here!”  You want to use your stakeholder management skills to collaboratively craft changes that are mutually beneficial. Even if you are ready to leave if the organization falls short of your ask, you do not want your attitude to burn reference bridges or tarnish your reputation after all your hard work for the organization.

Step 8:  Be ready to ask for exactly what you want 

Especially here in the Midwest, we are not inclined to use direct language—either when touting our worth or when asking for what we feel is fair compensation.  Do not hint; be prepared to state out right what you need.   Also, be ready to negotiate your initial ask.  If you want more than a higher salary or if you know that more money will be tough to get, be ready to ask for better benefits or for working conditions that will suit your work/life balance better.  Take the Evaluate Your Employee Benefits Assessment to build the package that you want.   Prioritize what you want.  And know your “deal-breaking points” and what you are willing to let go of to stay.

Step 9: Create joy and happiness at work

Experts tell you that true joy is generated through fulfilling a purpose.  If you want to stay with your organization, find ways to connect your work to your personal purpose, personal values and personal mission statement.  Purpose and joy are not dependent on the everyday flow of good and bad moments, but transcends them.  However, happiness is OK too.  Find ways to have fun each day.  Take your breaks so that you stay energized and productive.  Be a co-worker that others want to work with.

Step 10: Find Balance

A natural instinct can be to work long hours and take on extra work to prove your worth to your organization.  While most people have moments where their job requires that extra effort, consistently working longer hours does not usually lead to recognition or reward by the organization.  Some roles, like sales, may be structured that way, but for most of us, working unreasonable hours only leads to burn out – which is not beneficial to you or the organization.  Find outside interests for your time that will provide additional recognition and reward.

In Summary

Managing your own career maturity is not that different from managing your work projects and operations.  Take stock, figure out the gaps, and put a plan in place to close the gaps that move the needle on maturing your career.

For additional information, check out the references used for this article.

To coincide with the IPD Expert Insights free webinar series on transforming the workplace using the Modernization Playbook, I thought I should take a look at workplace transformation on a personal level.   For the first time in quite a while, workers are in demand so it stands to reason that they in a position to force their employers to “do better,” not only on compensation, but on benefits, working conditions, and even employee engagement.

America is in the midst of The Great Resignation: I found plenty of statistics that confirmed this, but this set paints the picture quickly and clearly:

• 24 million Americans quit their jobs between April and September 2021
• 4 million Americans quit their jobs in September
• 5 million Americans quit their jobs in November
• Vacant jobs are still setting records with December 2021 showing 10.9 million openings in the U.S.

Since many of these departures were related to the pandemic and people not wanting to be in roles required to interact in-person, it is not surprising that as the economy recovers, current demand has risen for Industries related to travel, hospitality, and recreation.

However, the shift in how America works has also created vacancies in software and IT services, corporate services, and finance.

A MarketWatch article cited statistics from Glassdoor after it released its annual 50 Best Jobs in America for 2022.  The IT field was on top – actually taking all top 10 spots.  Enterprise Architect was in the #1 spot.  You can make $144,997 annually and with 14,021 job openings, you can probably find something to meet your work/life balance needs. Think of the value-add you bring to an IT role if you added some business architecture to your resume!

Not wanting to do IT?  Some non-tech jobs in the top 50 included:  HR Manager (#13), Corporate Recruiter (#17) and HR Business Partner (#39).  Also all roles that would benefit from business architecture training.

When I started on the topic of career transformation, I was going to write one article; however, I found so much information that I decided to write a series instead.  The Career Transformation Series will help you assess your own career situation and provide some possible actions steps for you to take so that you capitalize on The Great Resignation.

Beth Schaefer, Director

IPD at Metro State

February

Part 1: Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

Evaluating Your Current Organization and Situation

This article will include information about evaluating your current work culture, the signs for departing, and a workplace asset assessment.

March

Part 2:  You’ve Got Leverage: 

Using The Great Resignation to Transform Your Current Situation

If you decide to stay, this article will focus on the steps you should take to move your career forward, including tips for negotiating better compensation, steering for a promotion, and building your personal career brand.

April

Part 3: Make Your Move:

Leveraging The Great Resignation to Make a Career Change

If you decide to go, this article will provide resources for casting a wide net, preparing for a career transition, and ensuring you negotiate compensation in line with your worth.

If you are interested in researching on your own, check out this list of resources to get started.