There’s Power When Employer and Employee Values Align. And We’ve Got the Data to Prove It.
Guest article
Employees have been through a lot in the last few years. Isolated and remote. Essential and on-site. All of us have had to rethink our relationship with work. And right now, there’s no clear definition for this moment. Is it one, some, all or none of the following?
The great resignation
The great regret
The great reality check
The great uncertainty
The great reprioritization
The great reshuffle
The great exploration
Whatever you call it, however you think about it, these definitions all show a significant shift in how employees navigate employment. In turn, organizations have to rethink the relationship with their employees.
What are workers thinking?
Pew Research data shows that of workers who quit a job in 2021, a majority cited feeling disrespected as one of the reasons they left. And lack of advancement is another one.
When an organization loses an employee, it also costs them: a reduction in productivity, a loss of previous knowledge or experience, additional stress on remaining employees, recruiting/hiring/onboarding costs, and more.
As communications professionals, we understand that it is our job to support people. But how do we do that? How do we understand what that means?
What do employees want anyway?
I had the privilege to lead the Integral Employee Activation Index on behalf of Integral, the employee activation agency where I work. In partnership with The Harris Poll, we sought insights into today’s employee realities.
The recently released 2022 Index delves into the workplace experience, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of more than 2,000 employees across the United States. Results include insights from workers across industries, company sizes, career levels, genders, generations, and racial/ethnic backgrounds.
Integral’s Index examines the relationship between personal and company values—and the positive impact of alignment (and risks of misalignment.)
The workplace is a microcosm of our broader culture. The challenges we face as employees in the larger world are reflected and/or reinforced in the work environment. And your organization’s performance on societal and political issues impacts employee turnover and performance on the job.
With personal values aligned to the organization’s values, employees are more likely to:
have a positive mindset about their job
feel better about their company culture
come to work ready to take positive actions on behalf of the organization, both on- and off-line
feel that their colleagues have a more positive work culture
Meanwhile, employees who do not believe their employer’s values align with their own are far more likely to take negative actions against their employer’s interests—such as:
flouting safety protocols
preventing cyber-security risks
disclosing confidential information
quitting
Organizations likely have employees on opposite sides of some very polarizing issues. As communicators, we’ll need some tools to navigate this challenge.
What we found: top workplace issues
Fortunately, the top-ranked issues relate to well-being and economic security; concerns that employers can take action on.
The overwhelming majority (40%) of participants selected employees’ health and well-being as their top issue—along with universal access to health care (19%).
Additional issues included:
job creation (32%)
data privacy (23%)
income inequality (21%)
gender inequality (20%)
racial inequality (19%)
Yet, a closer look at a variety of employee subsets by gender, race/ethnicity, and generation have important differences and priorities that organizations should not ignore.
Implications for communications professionals
In the past, employers have asked employees to live the organization’s values. Our research indicates that the more a company’s values reflect its employees’ values, the less likely people are to change jobs and the more likely they’re ready to go the extra mile.
We think this means that communications teams should start taking their cues from marketing departments. Employers need a deeper, more nuanced understanding of their most important public: their employees.
A more sophisticated approach to employee segmentation enables personalized, targeted, and relevant content for employees—psychographic information, sentiment, individual abilities, and preferred communications channels. Communications professionals might also need to rethink communication channels and strategy. We found that more employees say they connect with their organization and colleagues on external social media channels by comparison to internal channels, such as the intranet.
This surprised us. And, well, what’s a communicator to do?
We hope our findings from the 2022 Integral Employee Activation Index will help leaders, HR and talent acquisition staff, and communication professionals approach and address employee experience and activation.
Especially in a world of digital platforms and portability, internal communications are no longer—and probably never were—strictly internal. In a world where Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX) rule, employees expect organizations to provide a personalized, data-driven experience.
The Index findings make it very clear: your employees are not a monolithic, homogeneous “internal only” group. It’s the employees giving employers a performance review.
It’s time to listen for employees’ values—and use that understanding to bring your company’s values to life—rather than solely dictate them.
The Index is available for download on Integral’s website.
Do you have something to share with 2,250+ internal comms professionals around the world? Email editorshaun@gmail.com.
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