Since May 2019, we’ve been monitoring the experience of more than a million employees across 700 organizations. During that time, the social and political climate in the US and the world has been turbulent at best and highly volatile at worst. According to our dataset, this has had a surprising effect on the employee experience over the past few years. Here are the three big takeaways and trends to watch out for in 2023:
People are being more thoughtful about what and how they communicate in the workplace and feel more respected overall
In 2022, people were:
- 32% less likely to mask inappropriate comments as humor
- 23% more likely to avoid interpersonal conflict stemming from different social and political views
- 14% less likely to experience tension due to differences in social opinion than in prior years
They were also experiencing more respectful workplaces overall, with a 17% increase in employees that say they feel respected at work.
In 2023, we expect this trend to continue as the greater social and political climate remains difficult. As a result, employers will continue to step up and launch programs aimed at creating a sense of collective social responsibility and well-being. Employees will also receive more DEIB training and development, which will lead to the development of better communication skills.
People are speaking up more when it’s warranted
In 2022, employees were 56% more likely to address questionable remarks made by their coworkers than ignore them. They also experienced between a 12% and 35% increase in our measures of psychological safety, which include questions like “My organization has created an environment where I feel safe speaking up”, “I feel I believe my management would minimize or be dismissive of a complaint that was raised”, and “I believe others would criticize me for raising a concern or incident.”
A safe and functional work environment can come from allowing all individuals to speak up without fear when necessary. Given the competition for talent and the ever-increasing access to data about employee experience (e.g., Glassdoor), we are hopeful–and expect–that this trend will continue.
Businesses are eager to track and link diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) metrics with business productivity metrics
In 2022, receptivity to Emtrain’s culture analytics for DEIB has been overwhelmingly positive. Our unique value proposition allows us to capture employees’ sentiments as they are engaged in a learning experience. In this way, the Emtrain solution simultaneously addresses two critical business concerns for every HR leader – training and engagement metrics.
In 2023, we expect to see an increase in demand for DEIB metrics and skill-building training for employees at all levels and across all industries. Skill-building is not only essential for a successful and productive team but dives much deeper into specific skills that teach employees how to, for example, mitigate bias, help a colleague during a bad day, be an upstanding employee, use empathy in communication, and more. Combining DEIB metrics with business productivity metrics can be a powerful and impactful tool to convince your stakeholders to invest further in your people and create change.
Check out our latest webinar to dive deeper into our predictions and data points and how the employee experience is transforming the workplace. Access the on-demand webinar here: https://emtrain.com/resources/how-the-employee-experience-is-changing-in-the-workplace/
This blog post was co-written by Emtrain’s Senior Data Analyst, Colin Sorenson and Senior Director of Organizational Psychology, Dr. Leann Pereira.
