Scholarship & Education e-Magazine

Some of you may have read about The Great Resignation. As its name would obviously suggest, it is a phenomenon where people are resigning from their jobs. According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, 4.4 million people resigned from their jobs in September 2021. It is a significant number no matter how you cut it.

Singapore is not immune to this global trend as well, with over 49% of the Singapore workforce is considering to leave their employer in 2021 according to a Microsoft report. Another source, a talent trends report by recruitment company Michael Page, revealed that more than 56% of workers in Singapore see themselves searching for new jobs in 2021.

HR and management experts opined that the trend is due largely to the sense of disconnect between organisation and people. People resign because they don't see how their work is giving them a sense of purpose and fulfilment. Also, the lack of interaction forced by Covid measures has somewhat reduced work to merely a transaction. Having a coffee with your teammate and catching up on each other's life just isn't quite the same over Microsoft Teams.

Although, many companies are putting in people-centric measures to offset The Great Resignation, which can only be a good thing.

What's interesting for most scholars is that they cannot just pack up and leave, for whatever reasons. (Unless, they pay the monetary penalty for breaking a bond.) Chances are, they will stick with the organisation that they signed up for beyond the bond period because of career inertia.

So for prospective scholars like you, how do you make sure that you will stay engaged and motivated with your scholarship provider, and not get sucked into mindsets leading to The Great Resignation?

We often advise students to do a thorough research on their short listed organisations, and this goes beyond just using Google and visiting the company website's About Us page.

Most ideally, get an internship. With that, you can feel first-hand the organisation culture, get a sense of their company philosophy and see how people work with one another. This is the surest way of understanding what the organisation is like before you put your signature to that scholarship offer.

If you can't get an internship due to time or physical constraints, then the next best thing, arguably, is to talk to people who are working in the organisation. Attend tea sessions, search for its employees on LinkedIn, or tap into your friends' and family members' networks to see if they have acquaintances working in the organisations of your choice.

These are just but a few suggestions.

Once you are well-informed and aligned with the organisation, The Great Resignation will merely be a trend – one that passes on easily, and easily forgotten.



Ong Cheow Eng
Editor