Earlier this year, an unprecedented number of professionals quit their jobs or stepped into new roles in response to the pandemic. This initial wave of resignations resulted in an ongoing trend of employees leaving their jobs, more commonly referred to as the “Great Resignation.”
Resignations initially picked up steam in April and stayed high throughout the remainder of 2021. Nearly four and a half million Americans quit their jobs in September 2021 alone, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In October, employers struggled to fill a record-breaking 11 million open jobs. Signs indicate this trend will continue in 2022.
You’re likely aware of the substantial impact the Great Resignation is having on the job market and the economy. But did you know it’s also affecting your company’s CRM data?
Let’s dive deeper into the Great Resignation, the specific ways it is affecting your data, and steps you can take as a CRM admin to minimize any negative impact on your business.
Low data quality
When people quit their jobs or transition into new roles, it affects the quality of your data. Contacts’ phone numbers, email addresses, job titles, company names, financial information, and even residential addresses can change, rendering much of the data in your CRM useless.
This presents a big problem for your bottom line. Forty-four percent of businesses estimate poor-quality data results in revenue losses of over 20 percent, according to Validity’s State of CRM Data Management report. Additional impacts of poor-quality data include incorrect sales forecasts, failed inventory management, sales team inefficiencies, and reduced ROI from marketing campaigns.
Loss of data knowledge
Resignations outside your company aren’t the only ones you need to worry about. If your own employees hand in their notice, you need to be prepared.
When data management professionals leave your team, they take their knowledge with them. This loss of knowledge can harm your data. Even if you hire people to fill the empty roles, it will take new hires time to learn the ins and outs of data management at your company—especially if most of your data processes are manual.
There may even be certain processes none of your remaining employees know how to execute, meaning you may not have access to certain data, or you may be at risk of improperly handling the data you do have access to.
Compromised data security
People take data with them when they leave their jobs, and this puts your company at risk.
Nowadays, data is portable, which presents an increased risk of exposure on its own. Coupled with the rise in resignations and the number of people working remotely, the risk of data exposure is greater than ever.
Data exposure peaked at the same time the US experienced a massive increase in resignations. The three-month period between April and June 2021 saw 61 percent more exposure events than the previous quarter. Cloud sync agents, removable media (primarily USB drives), and corporate collaboration tools like Slack, Google Drive, and OneDrive all contributed to the exposure of data in 2021.
When data falls into the wrong hands, it’s devastating to the well-being of a company and its employees, customers, and partners. Therefore, preventing and reducing exposure should be a top priority for your data management team.
How can you minimize the negative impact on your data?
While the Great Resignation will almost certainly affect your data, there are steps you can take to mitigate the damage and prevent future harm.
Tighten data security measures
Tightening data security measures is crucial to preventing and reducing data exposure.
You can start by:
- Establishing strong passwords
- Securing laptops and mobile phones
- Setting up a firewall
- Scheduling backups to external hard drives or in the cloud
- Limiting the number of people who have access to important data
- Educating employees about data security
You should also acquire login information from employees before they leave your company, so you’re not locked out of important accounts.
Automate data processes
Consider automating data processes you currently execute manually. Not only does data automation save time, but it can help prevent roadblocks in case members of your data management team resign.
The simplest way to begin automating data processes is by implementing a tool that can do it for you. For example, a data management platform like DemandTools gives you the power to dedupe, standardize, import, manage, modify, and assign records automatically. Plus, you can save processes you’ve already completed for automation, so you won’t be left wondering what to do if members of your data management team resign.
Employ tools to help you maintain high-quality data
When people quit their jobs or transition into new roles, their information changes. To minimize the negative impact on your data quality, consider implementing a contact verification tool.
With a solution like BriteVerify, for example, you can perform bulk validation of your data to identify email addresses that have changed, become disabled, or no longer exist so you can remove them from your campaigns. You can also check to see whether the phone numbers and mailing addresses in your system are current and/or in use.
Conclusion
With resignations rising as we enter Q1, there’s no time to waste when it comes to protecting your data and its quality. Follow the above steps to ensure your data is secure, accurate, and report-ready going into 2022.
To learn more about how to effectively manage your data, download our eBook, The Dirt on Data Quality.