Profits are up! However, a business culture of toxicity — rather than insufficient compensation — is pushing employees out of the workplace.
Is your workplace culture toxic? People think that we should blame inadequate pay for The Great Resignation. However, according to a recent MIT Sloan Management Review report, a business culture of toxicity, rather than insufficient income, is pushing employees out of their jobs.
The report states that a hostile working culture is 10.4 times more likely to cause employee turnover.
The data revealed three aspects of a venomous culture:
- refusal to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity;
- disrespectful workers; and
- unethical behavior.
Retailers are the most likely to go, but huge companies such as Space X are also prone to toxicity.
Following poisonous corporate culture are job uncertainty and rearrangement (3.5%), high levels of innovation (3.2%), failure to acknowledge employee success (2.9%), and inadequate reaction to Covid-19 (2.9%).
Surprisingly, low pay came at 16th on the list of predictions. Even more surprisingly, business culture predicted employee defection more than fatigue or gain.
Toxic Culture’s Aftermath
Mental health difficulties were on the increase as 2021 came to a close. According to a McKinsey and Company survey, one in three workers reported adverse effects of returning to work on their mental health, including anxiety and depression.
Does your company consider the needs of others?
According to an All Points North (APN) Lodge survey of 1,000 individuals, recent events have increased Americans’ anxiety, panic attacks, and sadness. Many people avoid getting help because of the stigma attached to mental illness. More than half of Americans (54%) seek trauma counseling. According to APN statistics, it’s been a rough year for many people’s mental health.
But the only way out is to develop ourselves and our thoughts. APN wants all of our customers to feel supported and cared for.
Job burnout soared as the workplace entered 2022, the third year of the pandemic. The APA’s Work and Well-Being study indicated that 79% of 1,501 workers had experienced work-related stress in the month before the poll. Three-quarters of employees said work-related stress sapped their interest, drive, and vitality. Approximately 36% felt cognitive tiredness, 32% emotional exhaustion, and 44% physical fatigue, 38% from 2019.
Masks/No Masks, Vax/No Vax
The politics of masks and vaccinations (and a lack of support from the government and the workplace) have led to cynicism among employees. Particularly those in public-facing occupations.
According to organizational psychologist Michael Leiter, honorary professor of organizational psychology at Deakin University in Melbourne, cynicism is poisonous because it weakens people’s views about the importance of their job.
In light of the APA findings, companies and policymakers should prioritize stress-reduction initiatives.
As demands expand, businesses need to concentrate on maintaining balance, removing items off the plate when they add something new, said Christina Maslach, an emerita psychology professor at UC Berkeley. The importance of this is vital in healthcare settings where attrition is high.
Interim Retention Strategies
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 24 million Americans abandoned their employment between April and September 2021.
The Workman January 2022 Human Workplace Index asserts that employers’ actions will impact their team and that 81.5 percent of employees feel empowered to hold leaders responsible for a better workplace in 2022.
Over half (56%) stated they would leave within 30-60 days if their employers did not make necessary improvements.
MIT Sloan Management Review found four employee retention measures for Culture 500 organizations from April to September 2021 that you may use to increase worker retention in the short term.
- Lateral career possibilities predicted retention 2.5 times more than salary.
- Remote employment was the second most significant predictor (1.5).
- After that came company-sponsored gatherings (1.3).
- Predictable timetables came last (1.2).
Moving Beyond the Minimum
Leaders that are serious about winning the struggle for talent during the Great Resignation and beyond must do more, concluded the MIT Sloan Management Review report’s authors, Donald Sull, Charles Sull, and Ben Zweig.
They must identify and address the underlying causes of employee disengagement.
Above all, they must address factors that foster a culture of toxicity. Jewel has teamed up with SaksWorks to establish a work culture program to increase engagement, loyalty, and productivity. Workplaces wasted an estimated one trillion dollars in a year due to sadness and anxiety alone, she rightly said.
Employers must get engaged and aid their workers because we must.
Isn’t it the employer’s duty to think about these things? No, but you have people at your job, and you must deal with their struggles.
There are a few inexpensive, easy remedies to ease workplace agony.
Understanding how emotional well-being influences physical well-being boosts productivity and minimizes turnover.
We need to discover a comprehensive strategy that boosts productivity.
Connection heals. Create a highly connected work environment and explain to leaders why it’s a “win-win.” After all, you can’t count hen’s teeth without a hen.
