New Research Reveals Breakdown Between Employees and Employers in Recognition, Trust and Communication of Mission and Values

Happy Monday! It’s John Garrett coming to you with another episode of Green Apple Slices. And I have with me the Accountants Group Leader for Sage in Canada, Rachel Fisch.

Rachel: Hello. How are you doing this morning, John?

John: Great. That’s two weeks in a row that I’ve nailed your title. So boom!

Rachel: Two weeks in a row that I’m home. But how was L.A.?

John: L.A. was fantastic! So many great people, such a great event with Sage Sessions that I’m looking forward to the nine others throughout the rest of the year.

Rachel: Yeah, I think Chicago is next in April and Toronto’s after that in May. So yeah, you’re going to be busy. We’re going to keep you busy this year.

John: Yeah, definitely, definitely. So spreading the Green Apple message all over the place. But every Monday, we always get together and chat through an article or something we find online about engagement or culture, things like that, just to get people thinking about things on their Monday morning commute.

And this one was with Reward Gateway. It was one of their blogs. And I thought it was really interesting. It was new research reveals breakdown between employees and employers in recognition, trust, communication and mission and values. That’s pretty important.

Rachel: It is pretty important.

John: They surveyed over 2,000 people in the U.K., U.S. and Australia. The thing that was really interesting in this was the discrepancies between what leaders of companies think are really important issues. And then when the employers are like, “Yeah, but that’s not being communicated, or it’s not being reinforced to us at all.”

Rachel: Yeah. So let’s call them out.

John: Yeah. I mean when it comes to like being informed about the corporate mission of the firm or the company or being informed of the values, people are like, “Yeah, it’s about 25%, 30% of people feel like they know that stuff.”

Rachel: And yet…

John: And meanwhile, 90% of leaders are like, “It’s so important that they know this.” And it’s like, “Well, what’s the disconnect here?”

Rachel: Right. So eighty-nine percent of employers say that it’s critical that they know this, 25% of employees say that they actually know it. So what’s going on there? I’m sure that’s not the only stat that has that big of a gap, right?

John: Right. It also goes to employee recognition where people feel like they’re not being recognized in line with the values of the company.

Rachel: And yet eighty-four percent of employers or senior decision makers say that they’re doing enough. So they say they’re doing enough, employees aren’t feeling it. I wonder though what is it that they’re doing that they think communicates recognition. Because if you kind of go back to like people’s currency, how they feel recognized. If you’re a gift person getting a gift, “Oh, my goodness. I feel so recognized.”

If you are not a gift person, if you are a more verbal person, “Hey, great job on that project.” Then you kind of have to know your currency of the employees in order to communicate recognition in a way that they feel it, as opposed to how you think they should be feeling it. So I think that’s sometimes a disconnect when you get to that manager-employee piece, but that’s just a guess.

John: Yeah. I mean I think there’s a phrase out there called the platinum rule as opposed to the golden rule of treat others how you would want to be treated. The platinum rule: treat others how they would want to be treated. So meet them where they’re at. And I’m sure that that first group with the values and all that stuff, I’m sure it was communicated to them via mass email that went to their spam folder. So that’s probably why they didn’t get it.

Rachel: Possibly, yes.

John: Right. Yeah. So it’s just meeting the people where they’re at, human-to-human interaction, taking a moment to talk with people and it’s those little things that we’ve brought up a couple of times before.

Rachel: Yeah. And then the last one about transparency and this one I think is, again, a little bit of a tricky one. So it’s saying that 30% of employees say that they feel like they’re being communicated to open and honestly, right. That they trust their employer to communicate them, right, that feeling of transparency.

But eighty-six percent of employers say that their organization is transparent. So again, it’s we say we’re transparent, the employees aren’t feeling it. I think that in many cases in management and other situations, it just isn’t possible to be 100% open and honest and transparent with their employees. There are just some things that it’s really not prudent especially in like a publicly traded company for example to really be communicating.

The trouble with that though is that managers then communicate what they are able to communicate. And yes, we are communicating everything we are able to. I think though the employees feel when they’re not able to be communicated, that when they’re feeling held back on a little bit. Is that crazy?

John: Sure, yeah. No, no, absolutely. But the thing is if the leadership would just say, “Hey, we can’t comment on this any further.” Or rather than sugarcoating everything and rah-rah everything, it’s just call a spade a space and be like, “Hey, here’s the deal.”

And it’s just leveling with people and being honest with them as opposed to, “No, everything’s great.” And meanwhile people are being let go left and right, furniture being sold off. “No, no, no, everything’s fine.”

Rachel: No, everything’s fine.

John: Exactly. Yeah. So there is certainly a middle ground that has to be walked there. But it’s just really interesting how the discrepancy between what leaders think is really important and what they feel they’re communicating versus what is actually being communicated to the people. And so it’s just taking some time to make sure that that gets across. If it’s really that important, then make sure it hits home.

Rachel: Yeah. When you’re talking to your employees, ask them. How do you want me to recognize you? What is a value to you that shows you that I value you as an employee? It’s really not hard to get those answers. You just have to have the conversations.

John: See, there it is. There it is. And the surveys are in in Canada, 100% of people are happy with the Green Apple Podcast.

Rachel: Exactly.

John: So I guess we’re communicating properly. So yeah, so if you want to read the article or get more into the numbers, you can go to greenapplepodcast.com and check that out. Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss any of the episodes every Monday and Wednesday. And yeah, have a great rest of the week, Rachel.

Rachel: You too, John. Take care.