By Jane Genova

Not since the 1930s has there been so much disruption in management/labor relations. Back in the 1930s, that turmoil had been triggered by a confluence of forces: the Great Depression, the pro-union Roosevelt Administration, and Congressional New Deal policies. Consultant Gartner documents that currently it has been COVID which has reset what the workforce demands from employers. During the long pandemic those mandates evolved from a healthy, safe workplace to addressing more sophisticated needs.

Seismic shift in power

Employers are being forced to respond to those demands. Right now they need employee talent, motivation, and innovation. Their own businesses typically are in upheaval from digital transformation, upstart competition and customer expectations for new products, services, and delivery options.

Talent acquisition platform Lever found that 40 percent of the workforce plan to leave their jobs in 2022. That shoots up to 65 percent among Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) who are the future of labor.

The situation has reached the point that research by the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University discovered that a major concern of the chief legal officers is employee activism. Its focus could be external such as the stance of the business on social justice issues. Or it could be internal, like the process for investigating grievances. The outcome could be a walk-out, which happened at Activision Blizzard, along with damage to the brand and stock price from negative media coverage.

To put it bluntly, labor “has the upper hand.”

COVID accelerates questioning of values

COVID has been a game-changer in the daily lives of 80 percent of the workforce, documents management consultant McKinsey. Part of that has been an intense questioning of traditional assumptions about where work is done, how it is evaluated and compensated and the way management treats labor.

However, as professional services firm EY explains, those bold lines of thinking were already emerging pre-COVID. The widespread unemployment during The Great Recession triggered looking at money in a radical manner. That included considering downsizing lifestyles, that is, adopting minimalism.

Not requiring so much income opened the door to detaching from extreme careerism. When obsessed with a career, the ambitious typically will do whatever they perceive as necessary. What happened is today’s employees are tending to disregard blind obedience to employer standard policies.

Another factor has been the entrance of Generation Z into the labor market. They had not inherited the conforming work perspectives of Baby Boomers and Generation X. For example, they openly challenged the custom of being officially “on duty,” even when the tasks had been completed.

What Employees Require

It has become almost a cottage industry to analyze the needs and wants of current employees. Among those researching the issues have been Glassdoor For Employers, Slack, Prism Human Resources, Citrix, SmartBrief, McKinsey, and Gartner.

From all that information, competitive compensation and benefits can be determined. That data is increasingly available as public information. The push is for more of it to be easily available. Such transparency can end wage discrimination.

Flexible work models. Citrix Talent Accelerator found that 88 percent demand complete flexibility in hours and location. Almost 80 percent will accept reduced compensation to have that control over their work/life balance. That also extends to the employees’ ability to design their own career paths.

Clarity. There should be no mystery or hidden agendas about what tasks should be done, how, why, and the metrics used for determining success.

Essentially that zeroes in on what is the direct link between the job and both the business objectives and the purpose of the organization. Regarding the latter, workers have become preoccupied with meaning or what is beyond the bottom line. That is being called the “Triple Bottom Line” or ESG (Environmental Social and Governance) principles for assessing the values of a business.

Related to this is the Generation Z expectation to be evaluated and rewarded based on the value created, not inputs such as hours put in or volume produced. Once that has been done, workers want to put up the “off-duty” sign.

Fully equipped to do the job. That goes under the umbrella concept “professional development.” It covers training in technologies and data analysis, rotation assignments across various departments, mentoring, coaching in social skills such as needed in collaboration, and feedback provided just-in-time versus waiting for the annual performance appraisal.
Contract workers also expect development opportunities. In a survey, Gartner found that 32 percent of employers planned to replace full-time employees with contingent ones. During the pandemic management has been forced to reduce expenses and among the highest has been labor.

Respectful treatment. That is a wide-ranging demand. On the macro level it applies to the ability to make decisions and not be micromanaged. Top-down models of work life could be on short time.

On a more personal basis at the top of the list of employee demands is communications. Management should do deep listening and conversations should be two-way and penalty-free. Also they want to be able develop close professional relationships with colleagues. In addition, they expect a frequent and authentic thank-you for their performance.

Not crossing the line beyond the professional to the personal. The high-prolife terminations of executives not disclosing consensual workplace romances has brought to the surface questions about such human resources practices. In the article “Companies’ Anti-Fraternization Policies,” the influential Harvard Law School Forum on Governance presents an objective assessment of that tradition. A major argument against it is that the organization takes on a paternalistic role – which it should not. It is also pointed out that those policies generate questions which violate privacy.

Employer listening posts

Employers cannot plead ignorance of what workers mandate.

Reddit subreddits r/WorkReform and r/AntiWork send that message loud and clear.

Establishing enterprise internal social networks in itself provides insight into what is on employees’ minds and in their hearts. In addition, it signals respect for the employee voice. It is also becoming common to encourage employees to have their own social networks. Often management has access to them and can participate.

Surveys can be experienced as a sign of employer commitment to workers. Or they can be perceived as a charade to appear concerned about feedback.

But the most effective strategy could be to simply be open to observing what is going on in the workplace. For instance, if the clerk races out of the store after the shift should management be picking up that more flexibility is needed?

Unique model for each business

In today’s work environment employers must get “it” right. The “it” is creating a new model for management/labor relations. There are best practices; however, each retailer is different. That means investing the resources to make a perfect fit between the unique needs of the business and the unique group of human beings employed there.