Shifting Employee Sentiment on Inclusion and Leadership Integrity

Over the last year (from September 2023 to September 2024), Emtrain collected 20 million employee responses about the culture skills and behaviors of their co-workers, managers and leaders as it relates to ethics, respect, inclusion and belonging. While the 2024 employee sentiment is similar to 2023, there’s an interesting uptick in employee sentiment. Particularly about respect, inclusion and belonging. Along with a noticeable drop in employees’ view of their leaders’ integrity and accountability. The employee sentiment data and the analysis can be found in Emtrain’s 2024 Culture Report. 

Surviving Layoffs Generates Respect, Inclusion, and Belonging

Per Emtrain’s 2024 Culture Report, employees report a 4% increase in their sense of belonging. However there is a 5% drop in their view of leaders’ integrity. How should we interpret employee feelings of increased inclusion and belonging? While at the same time they are skeptical about their leaders’ ethics? It seems that people who survived layoffs in the past year (or two) are feeling like they belong on the team and in the organization. Just the fact that their manager did not select them for layoff while their peers were being laid off, demonstrates they’re needed and wanted on the team. Additionally, employees are reporting less friction and in-group/out-group dynamics this year due to politics and social views. It’s a dramatically different environment than early 2022 during the War for Talent. This was when employees held significantly more power and pressed employers to develop a better employee experience and strive for DEI and social justice objectives. Sometimes at the expense of profitability.  

The business environment is clearly very different now. There isn’t exactly a War for Talent going on and people are happy to have a job. People feel included and like they belong. They have no desire to rock the boat with demands for a better employee experience or DEI goals when profitability and revenue per employee are clearly the highest priorities right now.

The Drastic Business Cuts Makes Employees Question Leader’s Integrity 

At the same time, employees just experienced a very rough adjustment. For many, it was the first downturn of their career. The pendulum swung so quickly from prioritizing the employee experience to prioritizing employers’ need for profitability. This left most employees in shock and not understanding how and why the party was over so quickly. When employees lack information and understanding, they naturally become skeptical and doubt their leaders’ business intentions. In fact, just the recent Grubgate scandal at Meta where Meta fired a dozen employees for misusing their $25 dollar meal voucher has caused a number of Meta employees to view their leadership skeptically. The employees start to doubt whether the misuse of the meal vouchers was the real reason for the terminations. They start to doubt whether those terminations were motivated by legitimate business reasons. After two years of experiencing numerous layoffs and business decisions that prioritize gross margins and profitability over employee experience, employees have grown skeptical of their leaders’ personal integrity. They question the decisions being made and their motivations behind them.  

Workforce Strategies for 2025

As the economy starts to strengthen in 2025, watch for the pendulum (and market power) to start swinging back towards the center. This means people leaders better start focusing on a more balanced approach to the employee experience. Just because employers have power now doesn’t mean that will last throughout 2025. Employers should also think about identifying practical ways to rebuild employees’ trust in their leaders. Look for opportunities for leaders to demonstrate their integrity and accountability to the business. Taking a more centrist approach to the employee experience and rebuilding employee/employer trust will be critical to managing the workforce as the pendulum starts to swing back in 2025.

The September 2023 to September 2024 employee sentiment data and the analysis can be found in Emtrain’s 2024 Culture Report.