For a while, I have been watching the increasingly aggressive interplay between organizations and their employees.  I can’t shake the feeling that something is about to explode.

There is a battle in progress for the meaning of the work. The sides are drawn between those that want the order and values of pre 2020 (mostly leadership) and those that want work to change (mostly employees).  From the outside it looks like this: Employers see the requests of employees as entitlement.  They are slow to make changes because they feel bullied or that they are catering to “spoiled millennials.”  Employees, by contrast, feel that corporations are just about profits, that executives are greedy and looking to line their own pockets.  When one side advances their agenda with a workplace program or policy, the other side makes a countermove. The tension is escalating.

To paraphrase KE$HA, I fear “this [work]place about to blow”. ** Do you remember this KE$HA hit from 2011?  It’s about a group who disrupt the status quo at a club. They tell the club owner and the patrons “We get what we want, we do what you don’t…we’re taking over; get used to it—ok!”.  I am not saying employees are mounting a coup like the song, but I do think the strain between employees and employers continues to grow.

Let me tell you the battles I see:

2020-2022—Substantial Employee Centered Workplace Changes

• George Floyd is killed
  •  employees pressure their leaders to take a stand
• Employers claim that diversity, belonging and inclusion are important company values,
  • employees push leaders to make organizational changes to drive DEI
• Covid hits and employers scramble to deal with the business fall-out
  • employees demand to keep their jobs and be kept safe
• The law requires employers to move everyone out of the office and establish work from home protocols
  • Employees prod leadership to work from home indefinitely since productivity stayed the same or improved
• Cultural and political differences in the world leak into the office
  • Employees expect leadership to take a public stand, and provide safe spaces for discussions to take place at the office
• War for talent escalates
  • Employees quit jobs en masse—media coined the term “the great resignation”
  • Employees demand larger salaries—driving the largest pay increases in a long time

2022-2023—Leadership Attempts to Recover Ground

• Companies install tracking software to ensure that employees who work from home are actually working
  • There is a surge in the sale of the mouse jiggler, which moves your mouse by itself
• Leaders insist that employees return to the office
  • Employees continue to quit or ignore the calls to return
• Leaders create policies to terminate employees who will not return, or stall pay increases and promotions
• Some companies lower the salaries for existing employees; many lower salaries for new hires
• Many companies have layoffs
  • Employees publish lists of companies and the “lay off body count” on the internet

2023 Employees Next Moves

• Quiet quitting (appearing to be busy at work, but not really working hard) takes hold
• Union activity increases
• Employees demand more health and wellness benefits—especially mental health
• Employees are helping each other navigate workplaces by sharing advice on social media and especially TikTok

Who knows what’s in store for 2024 if we keep up this back and forth.  One thing I am sure of though is that in an attempt to maintain control and return to the status quo, leaders are fomenting distrust in the employee base. I want to share some tools for employers who wish to address this now and be on the forefront of building trusting organizations.

If leaders take steps that focus on control, “staff assume that they are no longer trusted; this in turn erodes their trust in the organization.” Deloitte Insights. This is certainly the case with the move to bring everyone back into the office.  Employees are returning, but the cost to leaders  in terms of engagement and loyalty has been very high.

One in four workers think their employers do not trust them. “This phenomenon is present globally, across all industries and lines of business.” Slack Report . Even high performing employees feel mistrusted.   87% of individuals who indicated they felt their employer did not trust them were meeting or exceeding expectations  Slack Report .

When employees feel disempowered and micromanaged they not only lose faith in their leadership, the steps they take to protect themselves from blame significantly reduce productivity Personal Growth For Leaders. These actions include:

• Hiding problems and sharing only positive information
• CYA emails, and emails with Cc to managers further up the chain
• Ceasing to act independently and instead asking for permission before making any moves
• Failure to think critically, instead agreeing with everything the boss says or does
• Backstabbing and blame

As expected, because employees do not feel that they are trusted, they have lost confidence in their leaders. Sadly, according to the Edleman 2023 Trust Barometer, only 65% of employees trust their employer.  Edleman Trust Barometer.  Gartner places that number even lower—at 50%.   Gartner 2024 HR priorities.

From my vantage point, it feels like we are in a war of attrition.  Continued organizational moves for control and efficiency are eroding trust; that elicits employee behaviors that set back efficiency and productivity even further, and it does not stop there.    Employees are no longer content to “just accept” the state of their workplace. They are continuing to push back.  Edleman’s survey asked employees to answer this question: can a large group of employees exerting strong pressure together get your organization to change almost anything about itself?

Half of the employees surveyed said yes. Edleman Trust Barometer.

Given the current dynamic, the better strategy for employers is to use trust building techniques. This will create a competitive advantage.  According to Deloitte, workers trust their employer “…when they feel that the organization is enabling them to be productive and have purpose and impact.” Deloitte Insights  That means that leaders should provide what employees need and want for that feeling to develop.

Employees want what Edleman calls a Work-Life reset. 72% of those interviewed said that it is time for leaders to re-think what work means.   Employees want their workplaces to shape the future.  They intend to keep pushing for a redefinition of work in areas such as work-life balance, career development, employer involvement in social issues and openness to technology like AI.

While in times of so much change it may feel counter intuitive to empower employees even more, research indicates it is necessary to rebuild trust.  Renewed trust will drive the productivity needed and the harmony that is missing. Here is how you go about it:

1. Improve Transparency

So often I hear leadership give the same reasons for why they cannot share information with employees. Their logic goes something like this: they just wouldn’t understand; we are worried about what they will do with the information; or admitting that we made an error will decrease their belief in the leaders.  While there are some things that cannot be shared (the pending purchase of the company for instance), so much more than most leaders typically reveal can.

Employees are neither stupid nor childlike.  They also know much more than you think they do because most company grapevines are very active.  Moreover, even children react negatively when information is kept from them.  According to information from the Trust Project at Kellogg School of Management, experiments have been done where children were made aware of a negative issue and then told by their parents that “nothing is wrong—don’t worry”.  Even with the false assurances, or maybe because of them, the stress levels of the children spiked.  The default position should be to share, not conceal information.

“Workplace transparency [means] open communication between leadership and employees at work. Leadership commits to openly sharing expectations, mistakes, setbacks, feedback, revenue, and other metrics. In return, employees commit to asking questions and sharing feedback, challenges, and ideas.” Better UP  The transparent organization has significant advantages.  Most important, transparency builds trust.  Trust and accountability go hand in hand Forbes. Also, when people understand the workings of the business, and how their job fits in, they are much more engaged.  There is a direct correlation between engagement and productivity Leadership Today.  Last, research shows that transparency may make employees more creative.  When employees feel like they know what is going on, they feel psychologically safe.  This makes them more able to innovate Neuroleadership Institute.

You can create transparency by creating opportunities to:

• Share status, progress to plan and lessons learned
• Create many channels and methods for communication
• Listen and answer questions

While it is often more time consuming to be transparent.  It is worth the effort Fellow.

2. Make Sure There is Two Way Communication (and you act on it)

“Two-way conversations between company leaders and employees is the foundation of trusting and healthy work cultures” Slack Report.  Building a two-way communication loop can enable the company to utilize the “untapped” insights of its employees.  At the same time, it shows employees that their viewpoints have value.  It connects them to the leaders and encourages continued information sharing Lattice.

Lots of companies focus on speaking out to their employees.  Few focus on listening to what comes back.  Even fewer take meaningful action on the feedback they receive.

There are many tools on the market that facilitate reciprocity in communication.  Step one though is creating a culture that encourages people to speak their minds.  “Leaders of high-performing, well-respected companies are known for their “open-book communications.” They create a culture of trust by sharing information quickly and freely and building relationships with employees … that enable their organizations to thrive.” Ivey Business Journal

It’s still not enough if leadership provides tools so employees can offer their thoughts on issues they see.  The key to successful two-way communication is to act upon the information the employees provide.  Asking for feedback and ignoring it is worse than never asking in the first place CNBC.  The easiest way to begin to take steps to address employee feedback is to hold meetings to go over the input and then ask for advice on how to solve the problems Lattice.  Then listen carefully without becoming defensive and tell the group what you will do with the information.  Some issues managers can address themselves.  Some companies build cross functional teams who review the data and work together to build company-wide solutions.

3. Let Employees Know If You Will Speak Out On Social Issues

I am not in any way suggesting that all leaders should speak out on all issues.  I am suggesting that leaders ought to let their employees know their position on addressing social issues inside or outside the workplace.  Deciding what to do is quite difficult because there is no clear answer.   73% of employees in the Edleman Trust survey said they would be more likely to work for a company if it were to publicly support or demonstrate a commitment to human rights Edleman Trust Barometer.  Conversely, 58% of customers now believe it’s inappropriate for companies to take a stand on political and social issues Forbes.  This topic is very fraught, and splits across party lines, but we will continue to be faced with difficult and controversial issues.  So, it is better to have a strategy on how you will approach them than to ignore them and hope for the best.

Employees want to know where their leaders stand.  Without a clear plan employees can feel like their leaders are hiding, merely virtue signaling or just bending to pressure Forbes Business Council. Like it or not, equivocating when something significant happens is another way to erode trust.

There are examples of companies both for and against speaking out who told their companies how they would approach these situations.  In 2020, Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, told his employees that their company was going to be “politically neutral”.  He lost 5% of his workforce, but those that remained are clear on the culture Decrypt .  At Upwork and Target, on the other hand, employees know that leadership uses a rubric to decide what issues should be communicated outside the company and which remain topics for internal discussion  Wall Street Journal.  These employees are also clear on what to expect.

4. Focus on Fairness—Especially in Pay

Behavioral Scientists have proven that human brains are literally wired for fairness  Science Daily. Being equitable is not just a social construction; basic responses in the brain are sensitive to inequity. So, it is understandable why employees lose trust in leadership when they believe there are pay inequities.

First, when people find out that there are large pay gaps between their salaries and the market, it leads them to question what other things happening at the company are not fair. Fast Company  Their belief in their company’s good motives decreases. Further, when employees feel they are underpaid, their productivity drops Lexington Law.

Second, when the multiples between the pay of the C-suite and the average employee seem significantly out of proportion to the value the executives bring, distrust increases.  When that happens, employees believe their leaders are more concerned with their own wealth than with the health of the company or the circumstances of their workers. Fast Company

Because people’s feelings about pay inequity are so strong, it would suggest that this is an area where employers should be as transparent as possible.  That is, they should describe how the company sets salaries and raises.  Many companies share the pay structures they use and show employees the market data.  Pay is a complicated topic, but one worth investing time explaining.

We would be naïve if we think this new year will be any less tumultuous than the last one.  The path to enhancing employee loyalty, commitment and effectiveness is to build an infrastructure that demonstrates employees are trusted and their needs and perspectives are considered.  It’s so much better to have employees helping you build the company rather than blowing things up.

**(Full transparency, I have been listening to the KE$HA song on repeat since I started to write this article.  If you want to hear it, it’s on youtube at this link Song).