The COVID-19 pandemic sent the labor market on a wild ride, from historic levels of unemployment to The Great Resignation. As the economy recovered, companies struggled to rehire the workers they had laid off or furloughed, but many employees refused to return or found higher-paying jobs elsewhere. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 3.5 million workers did not rejoin the workforce even into 2022.
In 2021, supply and demand tipped in favor of workers. Visually striking, in particular, were quit rates in the United States. These surged to the highest percentage since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began collecting quit rate data in the year 2000. Companies scrambled to retain and attract workers by offering extended work-from-home flexibility, pay raises, bonuses, and shorter work weeks.
However, a stronger focus on employee engagement, including mentoring programs, may have played a critical role in helping some companies retain employees. Our analysis of mentoring at Fortune 500 companies found that companies with mentoring programs had a median headcount of 26K in 2020, while those without mentoring programs had a median headcount of 19.4K.
