5 Reasons Employees Aren’t Happy Now: What Will You Do?
Employees aren’t happy.
You might notice dissatisfaction here and there. But new research proves there’s simply a lot of discontent in the workplace these days.
Employee satisfaction dipped to its all-time low, according to research from Bamboo HR, which does a quarterly gauge called the employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).
And if you aren’t familiar with eNPS, here’s a quick definition: A metric to assess employee satisfaction and loyalty. It’s the percentage of unhappy employees subtracted from happy employees, determined by their answer to this question: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend this company to a friend or colleague as a place to work?”
Well, it turns out, people aren’t particularly happy and eager to recommend their employer. The average score last quarter was 10% lower than it was in December 2020 — when we were in the midst of global pandemic and nearly every business was in some state of uncertainty!
Where Employees Aren’t Happy
Not all industries are in the same miserable boat, though. And obviously, every company within each industry is different.
But the BambooHR researchers found the biggest happiness dips were in the technology and nonprofit industries, which both fell to a four-year low. That might not be too surprising, considering the major layoffs in the tech industry: Employees who’ve been fired won’t be happy, and those who keep their jobs often have survivor’s guilt or are on edge, wondering if they’re next on the chopping block.
But employees in some industries are happy. People working in finance, construction, food and beverage, travel and hospitality, and education were a little bit more satisfied this past quarter. But not happy enough to raise the overall eNPS score.
Now, the question is: What’s making employees so unhappy?
Why Are Employees Unhappy?
Researchers found these were the most frequent issues — the things that made employees less-than-happy with their company or boss.
- Lack of feedback: Employees want to know how they’re doing and where they stand. So they’d like more regular reviews and consistent one-on-ones with managers. And they’d like to make that 360-degree feedback, getting opportunities to provide feedback on peers and leadership.
- Lack of organizational transparency: Not only do employees want to know how they’re doing, they want to know what and how their employers are doing. They’d prefer to see organizational goals and a clear roadmap for the future. Meanwhile, they’d also like standard processes as the basis for workflows with some flexibility to deliver value quickly.
- Money: Yep, they want more money. More specifically, they’d like to see competitive pay; clear and transparent structure for raises, promotions and bonuses; improved incentive programs; and improved amenities where they work.
- Lack of team and career support: Employees often want more help in their work and for their careers than their companies offer. Many would like to have more in-person team-building activities and skills training, access to online learning resources and ways to strengthen team camaraderie.
- Uncertainty sparked by AI and other emerging technology: While AI caused employee concerns mostly in the tech industry, it’s a point of contention for a larger group of employees across industries. What bothers them most: Executives say their companies needed to get a jump on AI to stay ahead of competitors — but they aren’t giving employees the plans on how it’ll happen. And, truth is, many of the executives don’t know how they’ll do it either. So, the key here still is transparency. Even if you don’t know how you’ll handle AI or where you’re headed with it, just tell employees, “We don’t know yet, but we’re committed to figuring it out, getting your input on AI use and moving forward in a way that is best for the company and our employees.”
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