As employees flock to the exits, managers are left wondering what went wrong

Employees are no longer willing to put up with pre-COVID office norms. If they’re not getting what they want, they’re willing to walk.

But what’s pushing employees out the door? For many, it comes down to bad management and a workplace where they don’t feel valued. New data from coaching platform BetterUp found that employees don’t think their leadership is rising to the challenges of the pandemic, or following through on promises.

Nearly one in five employees say they plan to quit because they feel a lack of belonging and do not feel heard or supported, BetterUp found. This type of workplace dynamic can quickly turn toxic — separate research from job-search platform Flexjobs found that 73% of employees listed bad workplace culture as a cause to leave.

Read more: 4 signs your employees are thinking about quitting

“Leaders [need to be] taking very conscientious efforts to consider and then thoughtfully build their company’s work environments,” Sara Sutton, CEO of Flexjobs, said in a release. “The landscape of remote work has permanently changed as a result of COVID-19, and its impact will be felt in the job market and the workplace well into the foreseeable future.”

While managers have been tasked with juggling many demands throughout the pandemic, their inability to do so effectively has been a tough pill for employees to swallow. Flexjobs found that 25% of employees didn’t think their managers understood the stress they were under, 22% said management was poor overall, and 30% felt that communications from leadership were bad enough to make them look elsewhere for work.

Building a work environment that works for everyone is imperative if businesses hope to succeed and grow their talent pool. According to BetterUp, when employees feel supported and heard, they are 3.4 times more likely to have high job satisfaction and almost two times more likely to feel engaged.

Read more: How technology can enable more diverse recruiting

“Many people are going through a challenging time so be empathetic to their situations and make accommodations where you can,” says Brie Reynolds, career development coach at FlexJobs. “Talk to your employees regularly — communication is key.”

Another big employee ask? Working from home. Nearly half of employees surveyed by Flexjobs know someone who has quit or is planning to quit because of in-person job requirements, and 29% say they are looking for a remote-only role, with 17% willing to quit if remote options weren’t available.

If employers want to prevent the great resignation from chipping away at their employee roster, embracing flexible work arrangements and committing to open communication can help them stay on track and build a dynamic workplace.

“It’s a job seeker’s market right now, and workers are more empowered than ever to leave job situations that aren't ideal, or leave companies that aren’t allowing them to work the way they want to,” Sutton said. “Workers are placing an extremely high value on the option to work remotely, and they’re committed to finding companies that are embracing remote work as a long-term workplace model and have a healthy company culture to support it.”