CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
EMPLOYEE MOOD BAROMETER: TIPS FOR EMPLOYERS 2020 has been full of challenges and experiences that would suffice for a whole generation: lockdown, a sudden collapse of certain sectors coupled with rapid growth in others, and forced retraining. There has also been a revolutionary change in the manner of performing work: first a shift to home office (whenever possible), followed by a timid return to the offices. It was in this situation on the labour market that we conducted our “Employee Mood Barometer” survey on a group of almost 1,000 people selected from among the clients and candidates of Gi Group, Grafton Recruitment, Wyser, and TACK TMI. We asked them about their sentiments connected with employment. The conclusions are, unfortunately, not very optimistic: employees have a middling opinion of all the fields under analysis, while employers fail to read the moods in their teams correctly.
an average of 6.2.; they proved to be greater pessimists when providing an answer on how the employees in their organisation assessed their position on the labour market in terms of remunerations. In my opinion, their assessment also followed from a better know ledge of their organisation’s financial standing as well as the economic situation of the industry or even the country as a whole. The question concerning potential pay raises in the coming quarter serves as a case in point here. As many as 80% of employers who rated employment We asked the respondents about stability in their organisations at 5 or lower the degree to which they were satis- answered definitively there would be no fied with their salaries and employ- raises. This reaction was most probably ment stability as well as about the level connected with the COVD-19 pandemic of their job satisfaction and trust in their and their macroeconomic knowledge. superiors. We were interested whether the perspectives of employees and Where else have we noticed a discrepemployers were similar. The result of any ancy between employers and employees given category is always an average concerning salaries? When asked about of all the replies provided according to the level of raise that employees would a 10-degree scale. have to be granted to rate their situation as 6 or higher, the biggest group As it turns out, employees have a middling of employers (42%) replied it would opinion on all of the analysed aspects have to amount to around 20%. What (between 6 and 7) and their superiors fail did employees have to say to that? to read the team moods correctly. The difference in this case was huge: a pay raise of 20% and 25% was indicated Interestingly, as regards salaries, the senti- by two groups of 25% respondents (with ment barometer displayed a higher an almost equal distribution) as a condireading in the case of employees (6.6). tion necessary for them to rate their posiEmployers were less optimistic, with tion as 6 or higher.
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The above difference can also be explained otherwise: perhaps the general opinion that “employers think their employees are always dissatisfied with their wages, no matter how much they are paid” is proving to be true? Let me leave it here as food for thought. The next question was concerned with employment stability and, as it turns out, employees had a better opinion about it. The mood barometer equalled 7.1 in their case, compared to 7 in the group of employers. Does it mean that the employee market continues, as labour market experts have been claiming all along? This suggestion is supported by information received from our clients: most organisations refrained from layoffs and many have actually expanded their teams. It is a good sign that employees have a sense of security concerning their jobs despite the current economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, when asked about the factors that make employees at their organisations consider their jobs stable, employers listed safety and regularity of salary payments as the main priority. Safety of the organisation ranked second, followed by the attractiveness of the product or service offered by the organisation. Meanwhile, employees
Outsourcing&More | January–February 2021
