The continuum extends from companies like Twitter that have indicated they’ll be fine with employees working from home indefinitely, to companies like Goldman Sachs which is taking a more hardline return-to-office approach.
Amid this environment of uncertainty, employers would be wise to carefully listen to workers who, by and large, are hesitant to return to offices. The Harvard Business Review reported that, according to a March online survey it conducted, 81% of employees either don’t want to go back to the office or would prefer a hybrid schedule.
Companies at Risk of Losing Top Talent
Much of the polarization that we’re seeing today could be resolved with better listening skills from upper management teams who can sometimes take too much of a parental directive approach. Is playing a parental role and directly telling employees what to do ever a good option?
With a tight labor market, plus a skills shortage in STEM and other knowledge-based fields, employee retention issues have reached an unprecedented scale.
When valued employees leave an organization, they may take years worth of institutional knowledge and soft intellectual property with them — and sometimes they share it with a direct competitor.
The state of the job market in 2021 is volatile, with a predicted “turnover tsunami” in our future. Not only does this put employers at risk of losing top talent, but it also means employers may be facing significant costs that come with hiring new talent. Research from Gallup indicates that the cost of replacing an employee can range from one-half to two times their annual salary. Even employees who don’t leave can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line. Compared to their motivated colleagues, disengaged employees have a 37% higher absenteeism rate, are 18% less productive and are 15% less profitable.
Learning to Listen
Listening to your employees to understand their concerns and needs can be a critical step in minimizing the chance they’ll seek greener pastures. Don’t assume you know what is most important to them, and don’t draw a line in the sand or offer ultimatums.
Instead, take steps to get employees to talk. This may require a combination of in-person and online interactions. Just like unhappy customers, a high percentage of unhappy employees may never tell you they’re unhappy — unless you proactively seek their input.
Surveys can be a good way of gathering that input. Results of other surveys can serve as a good starting point to assess to what extent your employees share the sentiments reported by others. Every company will be different. Even within your organization there are likely to be differences in sentiment across divisions and departments, as well as based on employee demographics.
Having the ability to segment survey input based on factors such as department, age, length of services, etc., can help you gain meaningful insights to drive decisions about when or whether employees need to be brought back into a physical work setting.
Make it a Process, Not an Event
Keep in mind that listening is not an event. It’s a process. We operate in a continually fluctuating environment both internally and externally. Changes going on around us can impact employee sentiment from one month to the next. Using polls and surveys regularly to get a pulse of that sentiment can help you stay on top of shifting needs and concerns.
Finally, be sure to close the loop when gathering feedback from employees through a forum or channel. What did you hear? What changes do you plan to make based on what you heard? If you can’t or don’t want to make changes, explain why.
Your employees are a critical resource for your organization. Today those employees have a wide range of options with other companies and in other settings. Creating a climate of consistent, transparent communication can help you minimize the odds that your employees will become part of the turnover tsunami.
