Flexibility of working hours, work-life balance, security, improvement of working conditions… the pandemic has heightened the expectations of employees towards their managers. Startups like Bloom at Work offer companies the opportunity to provide internal feedback through anonymous questionnaires to better gauge their expectations. According to a survey carried out by Workforce Institute UKG with 4,000 employees in 11 countries, 77% of French people feel that they are heard at work. An encouraging figure which nevertheless hides strong disparities depending on the situation of employees and the subjects discussed.
Parents, juniors and minorities struggle to be heard
Whispering in his manager’s ear doesn’t seem right for everyone. If more than three quarters of French people believe that their opinion is taken into consideration, 86% of those questioned admit that their colleagues are not all heard in an equal or fair manner. The voices of under-represented people would thus be taken less into account for half of the French. A figure which places the Hexagon in the bad pupils on this point.
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The junior profiles – Millennials and Generation Z – also feel that their opinion does not really have any weight compared to that of experienced profiles. Only 9% of them feel they are listened to in the same way, 16% think they can make suggestions and speak freely to their managers and 78% speak of ignorance on the part of their supervisor. The weight of the hierarchy and a lesser knowledge of the codes of the company undoubtedly work against them. However, 57% consider that their managers take their comments seriously, against 76% for seniors. During the pandemic, parents also felt ignored by their employers or managers (69%) and 58% of them expect a change in the coming year.
Angry subjects
Certain themes seem to have found less echo than others with officials. The most taken into account topics are schedules (30%), safety (21%) and vacation requests (18%). Conversely, they perceive a less attentive ear when they bring up subjects relating to inclusion, diversity, equity, the recruitment process and the performance of managers.
As a result, 43% of employees admit to telling their supervisor what they want to hear and nearly half of them prefer to anonymously post their opinion on the company through an external application such as Glassdoor. A third of those questioned even prefer to change teams or resign rather than express their opinions to their supervisor. This testifies to a glaring lack of confidence within companies.
Note that the more employees are involved in the company, the more this feeling tends to disappear and, conversely, the more employees are listened to, the more they feel involved. It is a virtuous circle which then allows managers and employers to benefit from valuable feedback to improve, advance, innovate and above all involve and retain talents.
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