HR Insights
December 23, 2024

5 things employers think they do well, but employees disagree

Do you think your organisation is really good at something when it comes to your employees? Futurist Alexandra Levit lays out the case for why you might want to think again in certain areas.

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Leaders have long had the problem of balancing what’s best for employees with what’s best for the organisation’s bottom line. But that challenge has gotten worse in recent years. Many companies today are operating on thin profit margins, which puts extra pressure on the workforce. Despite this situation, the post-pandemic era has been characterized by a renewed focus on holistic employee care. 

Companies have undertaken measures to improve organisational culture and the employee experience with respect to hiring practices, concrete career pathing, workload, flexibility and benefits, and technology resources. But according to Dayforce’s 15th Annual Pulse of Talent survey of nearly 9,500 employees in nine countries, many workers feel their employers still aren’t doing a stellar job in these areas.  

Respondents were asked the following question: “Thinking only about your employer’s culture, how likely are you to recommend your current employer to your family and friends as a potential employer?” Based on their responses, people were divided into three groups: Culture Promoters, Culture Passives, and Culture Detractors. 

Obviously, Culture Promoters are more engaged at work and more likely to feel that their organisations are meeting their needs. Detractors are significantly less positive, but what makes this group dangerous is that most do not plan to leave. This means that many companies are filled with disengaged, less productive employees at all levels of the organisation who think and very likely speak negatively about their employer. 

The survey reveals significant employer-employee gaps in areas that have the potential to significantly impact organisational performance, business continuity, and customer satisfaction. Let’s look at five areas emphasised by Dayforce’s data. 

Hiring practices 

A Robert Half survey of senior managers found that nearly four in 10 (39%) feel that candidate ghosting – in which an applicant cuts off communication suddenly – is more common now. More than one-third (33%) attributed ghosting due to a poor interview experience.  

Many HR leaders pride themselves on a consistent, considerate, and informative hiring process. Yet today’s companies are plagued by procedure-oriented issues that can be dealbreakers for candidates, including multiple rounds of interviews, premature and intrusive reference checks, and open positions being summarily put on hold or canceled.  

Many organiations are also working to remove bias from their hiring processes with AI-based technologies. But some have taken their deployment of AI so far that a candidate might not engage with a human during the interview process at all.  

HR professionals are often unaware just how damaging this scenario can be and what it tells candidates about the company’s culture. This typically doesn’t end well, as 69% of Pulse of Talent respondents would or have turned down an opportunity because of a company’s culture. 

Concrete career pathing 

According to Dayforce’s research, a large percentage of both executives (81%) and HR leaders (76%) see career paths in their organisations that align with their goals, but only 40% of workers feel the same way. 

Leaders may think their organisations are doing well at providing internal growth opportunities and roadmaps because they have personally managed to advance, because they have a written internal mobility policy, or because they have put dollars behind certain learning and development initiatives.  

In reality, many organisational cultures make internal moves prohibitively complicated, or do not provide a means and direction for employees to pursue the next skill or level. The lack of a viable path forward often drives a talented and loyal worker into the hands of a competitor.  

Manageable workloads  

Some organisations have used the integration of AI-based technologies and automated components as an excuse to decrease headcount – either via layoffs or by failing to replace employees who leave. Leaders may feel that because technology improves productivity and efficiency, human workers are perfectly capable of doing more with less.  

Many employees do not agree. And it’s causing levels of burnout to remain sky high. In this year’s Pulse of Talent, 78% of respondents said they had experienced symptoms of burnout in the past year – a level that’s essentially gone unchanged for years now.  

Burned out workers don’t necessarily quit, however. Dayforce’s research found that only one in five Culture Detractors is actively looking elsewhere due to concerns about job availability and a potential recession. This may give leaders the mistaken impression that staffing and workload are balanced and optimised. 

Flexibility and benefits 

By necessity, most companies stepped up work structure flexibility and supportive employee benefits during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in the period since, many are dialing this back – mandating a return to the office and cutting mental health and holistic lifestyle offerings. 

For their part, a majority of executives (72%) and HR leaders (66%) surveyed in the Pulse of Talent don’t seem too bothered by these changes, claiming that employer-offered benefits are still good or very good at meeting their needs. But a far smaller percentage of workers (42%) feel the same.  

And many Culture Detractors are not nearly as satisfied as Culture Promoters with their organisation’s degree of flexibility in terms of how, when, or where employees work. Culture Detractors are also disgruntled with current benefits: only 21% said their companies’ offerings meet their needs. 

Technology resources 

To avoid falling behind, many leaders adopt the strategy of deploying as much new technology as possible. This often leads to a dizzying array of non-integrated systems that are difficult for employees to master and use. While organisations may confidently proclaim that they have, for example, expensive online collaboration tools or virtual employee assistants built with generative AI, this doesn’t necessarily translate to employees’ applied technology skills. 

Applied technology skills involve an ability to understand and leverage the technologies available to do one’s job most productively, and they aren’t a competency that comes naturally to many employees outside IT circles. 

Organisations can’t just provide the technology – they must have an upskilling infrastructure in place to ensure adoption. The tendency to fall down on this second step may be the reason only 39% of Culture Detractors believe they have the technology they need to be efficient in their jobs. 

It’s understandable but not ideal that leaders often have inaccurate perceptions of the employee experience they’re providing. Fortunately, you can mitigate the risk here by simply recognising there’s a blind spot and actively seeking the perspectives of your Culture Detractors.  

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