Dive Brief:
- In what Gallup has dubbed “The Great Detachment,” employees are feeling stuck. They’re reporting low rates of satisfaction (18%) and in a cooling job market, struggling to find new work opportunities at the highest rate (51%) since 2015, Ben Wigert, director of research and strategy, workforce management, and Corey Tatel, research associate, noted in a Dec. 3 post for the firm.
- Gallup found several reasons for this: Rapid and disruptive changes to the workplace; communication, connection and coordination problems brought on by hybrid and remote growing pains; more demanding customers, with higher expectations for a better digital experience; and employees’ post-pandemic expectations for work-life balance, better compensation packages and remote work flexibility.
- Business leaders have direct control over a fifth reason: broken performance management practices, Gallup indicated. In that regard, leaders can address their biggest vulnerabilities in this new era of work by clarifying employee expectations and ensuring employees feel connected to the company’s mission and purpose, Wigert and Tatel wrote.
Dive Insight:
Employee stress, worry, sadness and anger remains elevated above pre-pandemic numbers, Gallup reported Dec. 2 in a study on workplace well-being.
And over the past year, nearly 8 in 10 employees have experienced burnout, leading more than half of workers to feel much less engaged, according to an October report from isolved.
Workplace interactions play a measurable role in these emotions, and high-quality management is one of the biggest factors that can influence them, according to Gallup.
The most recent report points to a more endemic issue: “Most leaders have very little confidence in their performance management systems, leaving organizations without a reliable way to clarify expectations, align teams, recognize achievements and develop employees,” Wigert and Tatel wrote.
The most fundamental aspect of employee performance and development is making sure workers are clear about what their managers expect, Wigert and Tatel added. “Without clear expectations, there is no agreed-upon standard for success,” they said.
Yet, since 2021, less than half of employees say they know what’s expected, and expectations are even blurrier for younger employees, new employees, hybrid workers and those in white-collar jobs, Gallup research showed.
To reverse this trend, managers should get back to basics, Wigert and Tatel recommended. This includes having two-way conversations with team members to set expectations in a new way or changing the work environment, especially for younger or new hybrid employees, they suggested.
Managers should also be clear about how expectations align with what the team aims to achieve, Wigert and Tatel added.
“People want to know their work matters and that their employer makes a difference in the world,” Wigert and Tatel wrote. “Highly engaged employees feel like they belong to a community and not just a job,” they explained.
The best managers show employees why their efforts make a difference by: clarifying and modeling the organization’s mission and values; helping employees see how they contribute to something bigger; asking them to share stories about what makes them proud of their work; and ensuring the employee experience is delivering on company values and mission, Wigert and Tatel said.
“Now’s the time to get the house in order,” the CHRO of a media and internet brand holding company told HR Dive in July. This includes creating a workplace where employees want to stay, the CHRO stressed.