As the Great Resignation continues, employees have new expectations for what they want and need from their employers. People continue to leave their jobs in search of flexibility, better work-life-balance, and autonomy.

One thing is clear: The Great Resignation will have a significant, long-lasting impact on the future of work, redefining the workplace as we know it. It has opened up an important dialogue between employers and employees, notably around mental health and well-being, empathy, and environmental, social, and corporate governance.

Below, we explore some statistics that can help us reflect on the current state of our workforce, look ahead to the forces redefining work as we know it, and better understand how companies and employees alike are changing their priorities in the wake of this massive and ongoing shift.

1. The Great Resignation isn’t over. A recent survey found around 40% of employees are thinking about leaving their jobs in the next three to six months, a figure unchanged from 2021. (Source: McKinsey)

2. Worker retention is more challenging than pre-pandemic. The rate of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs is 25% higher than pre-pandemic levels. (Source: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics)

3. Burnout is a leading cause of resignation. A majority of Americans (89%) who left their job in 2021 or were planning to leave in the near future said they felt burned out and unsupported. (Source: Cengage)

4. Other leading reasons for leaving a job in 2021 included feeling disrespected at work (57%), insufficient benefits (43%), and long working hours (39%). (Source: Pew Research)

5. Workers continue to feel the effects of the pandemic on their mental health and well-being. More than 30% of Americans reported they felt symptoms of anxiety or depression between March and April 2022, compared with just 10.8% pre-pandemic. (Source: National Center for Health Statistics)

6. Employee expectations around wellness are changing. Almost two-thirds (65%) of workers surveyed report their approach to wellness has changed over the last two years, and they expect more support from their employers. (Source: Workhuman)

7. Mental health resources can help companies retain workers. One study found that approximately 80% of surveyed employees were more likely to stay at a company that provides high-quality resources to care for their mental health. (Source: Forrester)

8. U.S employers are making health and well-being a priority. A 2022 study found that 87% of U.S. employers surveyed were making it a priority to improve or enhance their health and well-being benefits. (Source: Willis Towers Watson)

9. When it comes to benefits, employee feedback is more important than ever. A recent survey of 300 companies across all major sectors of the U.S. economy found that 75% of companies now base their benefits decisions on employee feedback, up by more than 30% since 2019. (Source: Artemis Health)

10. The grass isn’t always greener. Fewer than half of workers who quit a job last year (42%) say they now have better benefits, including health insurance and paid time off, and (36%) say their benefits are about the same. Additionally, 22% now say their current benefits are worse than at their last job. (Source: Pew Research)

11. Flexibility and work-life balance trump financial compensation. A whopping 63% of job seekers recently surveyed indicated work-life balance was their top priority when picking a new job, above compensation. The same survey found that workers are 2.6 times more likely to report being happy when satisfied with their companies’ time and location flexibility. (Source: LinkedIn)

12. Forty percent of Americans said they would look for another job if forced to go back to the office full-time. (Source: Grant Thornton)

13. Employees want empathetic leaders. Nearly 90% of U.S. workers surveyed said that empathetic leadership leads to higher job satisfaction, with many looking for empathetic qualities including trust (34%), openness and transparency (41%), and follow-through (37%). (Source: EY)

14. Company culture matters. A recent analysis found that a toxic corporate culture is 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting a company’s turnover. (Source: MIT Sloan Management Review)

15. Employee’s want transparency around environmental, social and corporate governance. According to a global study, 54% of respondents said that transparency around a company’s record on addressing diversity and inclusion in the workplace is extremely or very important, with a similar share (53%) saying the same about a company’s impact on the environment. (Source: PwC)