In 2021 a record number of employees quit their job in droves, leading to a scenario known as “The Great Resignation.” Though the tide is dying down, many employers are still grappling with quelling its effects. As it stands, some workers are torn between jobs, making it difficult for employers to figure out the status of some important contacts. 

In his article, we’ll reveal the numbers behind the “Great Resignation” and how the move affects networking. We’ll also show you how you can use Contacts+ to keep tabs on your network during this transitional time. 

The Great Resignation

The Great Resignation is a phenomenon where a record number of employees quit their jobs in early 2021. Even though the entire world felt the ripple effect of the high employee turnover, the United States was the epicenter. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record-breaking 4.53 million Americans quit their jobs. Theories have been flying around about why one in four employees turned their backs on the 9-to-5 grind, but empirical evidence sheds light on the cause. 

As European nations protected jobs, the U.S. propped up growth. Countries such as the U.K., Germany, France, and Spain encouraged furloughing, but America let companies lay off employees with promises to offer cheques to the unemployed. 

The companies took the invitation, and when the economy came roaring back, 7.4 million people were unemployed. On the other hand, companies had about 10.4 million open positions. As a result, there were far more open positions than people were willing to work them. 

Remember: many employees were still enjoying pandemic unemployment payouts. This, coupled with the emergence of remote work, gave employees leverage they had never had before. Nine-to-five jobs were no longer attractive, so employees began to vote with their feet in favor of higher pay, more flexible hours, and better treatment. 

How did that affect networking? Well, when you’re trying to build your prospect pool, it helps to know exactly where you can get a hold of certain contacts. But if they’ve recently quit their job or made a switch, your whole sales process can take a big hit, and you can lose valuable time you’ve spent building and nurturing relationships. This is where Contacts+ comes in. 

How Contacts+ Improves Networking Amidst The Great Resignation

According to Grace Lordan — associate professor at the London School of Economics — “Job hopping will persist for a while because employees who value flexible working will end up at companies offering that.” 

As someone who’s looking to stay on top of sales quotas and keep your business growing, you’ll need to make sure you know as much as possible about your top leads. This includes whether or not they’re still with a particular company or if they’ve moved on to greener pastures. You still have to build a sales pipeline and continually stay top of mind with leads, no matter where they may find employment next. 

Contacts+ has a suite of features built to keep your outreach efficient, organized, and as beneficial as possible. Here’s why using Contacts+ will help ensure The Great Resignation doesn’t disrupt your networking strategy. 

1. Automatic Contacts Update

Imagine a case where you sent a coveted lead in your pipeline an email only to get an error message. Either the contact changed their email, or it’s out of date. In that case, you would have to restart your search, and it may take longer than anticipated to meet your sales goal. 

Contacts+ helps you avoid such inconvenience. The app lets you build a master contact list of your most important contacts and automate updates to their information. This way, if a hot sales lead changes information or employment status, it’s automatically updated so you won’t experience message bounces.

2. Merges Duplicates

We have seen cases where someone sends a contact one message twice, which ends up working against them. The recipient may feel inundated and mark you as spam, thus ignoring your email altogether. 

Sometimes the cause of this is purely duplicate contacts. Perhaps, you have multiple contact lists spread out over apps or departments. Contacts+ lets you build a master contact list of your contacts. It expunges all duplicate contacts, saving you the embarrassment of bombarding candidates with similar outreach messages. 

3. Tracks your Outreach

Keeping contact with prospects throughout your sales and networking process is easier said than done. You have to check in with each person regardless of the stage they are in to wade off competition with other brands. 

People appreciate it if you personalize your outreach, and Contacts+ can help you achieve that. With Contacts+ tags, you can group prospects, enabling you to send them relevant messages based on where they are in the buying journey or what their particular needs are.

4. Integrates with Email Marketing Software

Some steps in the sales process call for you to send bulk emails to candidates. Take, for example, the initial outreach stage. You may have to send bulk emails that share information about what it is you do and how your product or services can help people. 

The good thing is that Contacts+ integrates seamlessly with email marketing software. It enables you to export email addresses for prospects in the awareness stage to power up bulk outreach emails. 

5. Keeps Teams Aligned

When everyone is using the same system and tool, it leads to clearer communication and transparency. By adding your team members to your Contacts+ account, you can create a shared address book for each person. This means that whether they’re in the marketing, administration, or customer support department, they’ll be able to easily track communication and status with each of your important prospects and contacts. This will help them better support your networking efforts by eliminating data silos and accomplishing designated tasks. 

Don’t let The Great Resignation put a wrench in your networking plans. Just because a hot prospect or lead changes jobs doesn’t mean you need to lose contact with them altogether. Use Contacts+ to keep their information up to date so you can continue to build a relationship that is mutually beneficial.