Every CEO wants to believe their employees are clocking in for more than a paycheck every day. They believe in their corporation’s mission and perceive their employees to be just as enthusiastic and engaged as they are. They believe their employees’ compensation is more than enough motivation to fully dedicate themselves to the company’s mission in their day-to-day operations. However, a recent study conducted by Glassdoor has shed a very different light on employee engagement with regards to corporate culture.
Glassdoor surveyed 5,000 adults across 4 different countries, including the United States, and found that salary is not the only factor in an employee’s satisfaction with their job. Job seekers are upping their standards when applying for jobs. The study concluded that 70% of applicants would not apply to a company unless its values align with their own. This will only become more prevalent as time marches on, with data points on age producing some unexpected results. The study defined the demographic of millennials as individuals aged 18-34. Those individuals indicated they valued a company’s culture more than the level of compensation. This is significant, because millennials are currently the largest employed generation in the workforce.
As they age, corporations will feel the pressure to change their corporate culture so they can retain existing employees and create a healthy corporate environment for future employees. Social media and smart technology are largely responsible for this shift in the attitude of job seekers. Not only is news and information about corporations ubiquitous and accessible, but current and former employees also have platforms like Indeed and Glassdoor to share their employment experience with the world. With a constant communication line to the rest of the world, the line between one’s work life and personal life will only continue to become more blurred. As such, daily happiness and satisfaction within one’s job is more important than ever.
The study went on to state that 74% of employees who participated in the survey said they would leave a position if the company’s culture has declined. Amanda Stansell, the senior economic research analyst for Glassdoor, points to all of these as reasons why corporations must take their current culture into account, “Even if the company culture is good, it can change, especially if they aren’t reactive and constantly measuring employee satisfaction and actively working to improve it.”
Forbes also noted in recent months that many corporations are expanding internal investigation teams in order to address pervasive internal issues more efficiently. The more we know about the cycle of corporate culture tells us when leadership is engaged. CEOs and management must engage with their employees beyond their quotas and productivity level. Some leadership may believe things like a pitch-in or birthday parties for employees are enough to keep employees happy, but the problem runs much deeper. Employees want to see leadership actively improving daily operations by listening to employee feedback and instituting new strategies that contribute to the health of the workplace. This means supervising communication lines and holding apathetic employees accountable when they contribute to stalls in operations. It is an opportunity to lead by example for the entire workforce. When employees see engaged leadership, they feel validated in their part of driving success within the corporation. This leads to increased engagement within the workforce, which leads to increased productivity. Increased productivity means happy leadership, which starts the cycle anew with happy employees.
When a corporation is functioning as a well-oiled machine, it can be easy to neglect the corporate culture in day-to-day operations. If productivity is up, leadership remains happy—but executives and management must make a focused effort to take an interest in their employees’ happiness in the workplace. This prevents employee apathy, improves daily operations, and overall, contributes to the long-term health of the company. The company retains employees at a higher rate, which decreases turnover expenses, and creates a fortified workforce essential to promoting success.