Most job satisfaction surveys have resulted in the same results for more than a decade. They point to the same managerial perception problems versus what employees really value! Here is a long list of other reports and statistics suggesting and supporting an actual factual basis for these endless negative employee employment comments and actions. I believe these reliable, studies and statistics bring great credibility and weight to why current strategies fail and current employees are so dissatisfied:
1. Real wages over the last 30 - 40 years have declined because of inflation, meaning employees fall behind every year, while profits soared. Lack of available credit is but one result.
2. In April of 2012 Department of Labor (DOL) stated 70+% of employers violate labor law standards and wage and hour laws, while private Labor Law Firms estimated 90+% of employers are in violation! This means almost every company!
3. Real employee health care coverage has declined, if it exists at all, while employee out of pocket expenses, insurance premiums and insurance company’s profits have skyrocketed.
4. Employee retirement security has all but disappeared as employers contribute less and less, if at all, to retirement. Once a reward for service and an incentive to stay, it is now an employee Do-It-Yourself savings retirement, while our federal government is trying new limitations on Social Security and Medicare.
5. State’s Right-to-work laws have freed employers to fire people with implied, but not legal, impunity.
6. Private sector union membership has declined from 38% to 6+%, the lowest level since 1950.
7. Federal Agencies charged with enforcing employment laws, until recently have been un-mandated, understaffed and underfunded…..meaning minimal enforcement considering the scope of problems.
8. Retaliation toward employees complaining, enlightening and whistle blowing is a quickly growing legal complaint. Employers consistently show they are clueless, don’t care and won’t change.
9. Generations of workers have experienced, first hand, how their parents or grandparents loyalty to “the company” has been rewarded by having been sent packing after a lifetime of work.
I will stop here….there are many more. In summation, employees are stuck, have fewer protections, little representation and fewer opportunities. The employee’s presence with you, the employer, is one of the few leverages and control they have left. Today’s newest employees work to live their lives, while the boomers lived to work. Younger workers will and do leave in an attempt to find a work life balance, security and an employer they can support and who supports them.
Additionally, we constantly hear there are not enough qualified people for the millions of available jobs. This may be true in some cases, however, enough hiring isn’t happening because there simply are not enough jobs compared to the number of unemployed (currently 40Million according to DOL). Some are not hiring due to lack of economic confidence, some only want to hire the employed, some only want to hire the perfect employee, but most have either forgotten how to hire or never knew how to hire in the first place.
The above items should become the basic list to investigate and address as a beginning to changing your company culture and employee relations challenges.
Next: Why do stuck wages affect business growth?
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