August 2022 Management Newsletter

As per the report on August 5th by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American economy added?528,000 jobs?in the month of July, and the unemployment rate trended down to 3.5%. In July, we also witnessed significant corporations and startups announcing layoffs, but the overall job cuts dropped by 21% compared to June. Overall the market is hot. There is demand and availability of top talents. As an organization leader of a high-performing, high-velocity team(s), it is tough to retain the top talents and keep them focused on the deliverable. This month, I will share two essays under 700 words; the first focuses on how to retain talents, and the second explores how to use natural language understanding for employee sentiment analysis.

Retaining Talent During a Hot Job Market

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High-performing employees provide much value for organizations, improving profits by more than 20% and contributing to improved operational efficiency. However, the world of work has evolved due to The Great Resignation, as employees arguably have more control over their future than before.

Strong talents no longer have to stay in one company to feel valued and, amid a hot job market, will take their skill sets elsewhere to achieve the kind of career advancement, financial stability, and work-life balance they crave. Therefore, companies have to work harder to retain talented employees by providing more flexibility, matching competing offers, and understanding their motivations to convince them to stay long-term.

Here’s how business leaders can best retain talent when the job market is full of options for employees.

Boosting Benefits

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No matter how hard someone works, he or she will look elsewhere if a competing organization offers a better benefits package than the current employer. Benefits boost the morale and motivation of employees by showing that organizations care about their employees beyond standard work parameters, looking out for their physical, mental, and financial benefits.

Around 86% of employers believe that health-related benefits are important for retaining their workforce, while close to 80% of millennials and Gen Z workers agree that open and honest discussions about mental health should regularly occur within the workplace. Companies are increasingly becoming more generous with their health benefits provisions despite rising costs. Organizations are providing more telemedicine access, stress management programs, and discounts for participating in company wellness programs, thus making health a priority for their employee retention strategies.

More Flexible Work Arrangements

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Remote and hybrid work have become staples in the new normal as 81% of professionals navigate the new work schedules. Modern work requires employers to offer more flexible work arrangements for jobs that don’t require people to be in the office five days a week. Telecommuting and the aforementioned work-life balance are critical to employees enjoying sustained spells of productivity at work.

Around 80% of American workers stated that they would turn down job offers if they didn’t offer a flexible work schedule. Some professionals prioritize work flexibility over the magnitude of the role they’re being offered. People are willing to take less just to have the freedom to work from home. As more businesses facilitate hybrid and remote work, organizations should consider the same, negotiating with their employees to determine for how many days they wish to come into the office.

The facilitation of flexibility shows a desire to invest in one’s employees.

Reframing Competing Offers

Employees have different motivations for wanting to switch jobs. Whether they’re seeking better compensation for their work, want to better validate their career trajectory, or wish to take on bigger responsibilities, employees always have valid reasons for wanting to switch jobs in a hot market. It’s not necessarily the case that the place these employees work at is bad–they just want something better.

Knowing that employees always search for better opportunities, regardless of their job title, business leaders should consider the following:

●?????Is the current job providing an optimal work experience for the employee to thrive consistently?

●?????Are the purpose and values aligned to their goals, and can you work together to achieve those goals?

●?????Where does the employee feel he or she should receive more compensation or credit?

?By looking at the beneficial aspects of the business and ensuring employee needs are met, employees may delay their decision to leave when a better offer comes in. The reframing of competing offers, including the suggestion that you can offer what the competition offers, convinces professionals to rethink the decision to switch. Again, if you invest in talent beyond the financial aspects, employees are more willing to trust you and the direction you’re taking them.

A hot job market shouldn’t end up leaving your business in the cold as your employees ponder where their careers are headed. Get creative and make sure you look at your employees holistically, so they’ll wish to stay with you for longer.

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Employee Sentiment Analysis using AI and the role of Natural Language Understanding (NLU)

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Language is our main way of expressing ourselves, and more business leaders need to pay attention to what their employees say to improve organizational morale and productivity. Language communicates feelings and reveals one’s comfort level with expression. But, language goes deeper than what’s said as business leaders need to understand the sentiments behind the language, knowing what their employees actually mean, for better or worse.?

Employee sentiment analysis attaches data to feelings, allowing businesses to examine large amounts of text before categorizing said data by attitude or sentiment. This type of analysis is regarded as the future of manager-employee relationships, using data to gain a real-time understanding of how employees feel on the job. Using advanced technology like artificial intelligence (AI) tools and natural language understanding (NLU), employee sentiment analysis allows business leaders to identify risks and opportunities to have a more positive impact on their workforce.?

How Does Employee Sentiment Analysis Work?

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The fundamental aspect that makes employee sentiment analysis work well is that it relies on open and unstructured text from various conversations, email exchanges, and text-based qualitative inputs for optimal functionality. Business leaders use machine learning to train the system on how to identify words that may signify issues employees have.?

One type of sentiment analysis platform analyzes email data, determining engagement levels, alignment, and leadership. Such systems connect with email server data, looking specifically at who emails who, the types of conversations they have (personal or work-related), and other information. The system never identifies users directly and is completely anonymous. However, the system derives sentiments down to the departmental level, providing hot spots and issues for employers to identify before they spiral into bigger problems that setback productivity.?

Understanding Sentiment Analysis Scores

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Employee sentiment analysis software aggregates tangible insights about a workforce, allowing business leaders to make conscious data-driven decisions that ensure they have a better handle on workplace morale.?

The software uses natural language processing to predict if the sentiment in different word combinations and phrases is positive, negative, or neutral. When the sentiment is identified, a numerical sentiment score is assigned on a scale ranging from -1.0 to +1.0. The scores are aggregated and visualized to support analysis spanning multiple dimensions, including:

● Business units

● Supervisors

● Job tenure

● Data sources

Sentiment analysis tools heat-map positive and negative sentiments across a business, allowing leaders to pinpoint areas that need more attention and identify the more happy-go-lucky areas, replicating their success. Through visualization, business leaders see where employee engagement peaks and declines, can track happiness levels, identify risk factors that must be mitigated successfully and pull information to refine performance management parameters.?

Why is Employee Sentiment Analysis Important?

Employee sentiment analysis extrapolates intent from comments and concludes sentiment from information gathered through onboarding and offboarding feedback, policy compliance, business feedback requests, performance reviews, and goal progress updates. AI and NLP go in-depth to analyze the communications from professionals and determine what needs to be done to encourage greater buy-in from employees. But why does this sort of analysis matter??

Simply put, employee engagement is a major point of emphasis for business leaders in a time when employees demand more work flexibility and humanity from their employers. They feel more empowered than ever before and will express discontentment without hesitation, desiring to test the open market.?

Highly engaged workforces ensure organizations enjoy more profit-making opportunities and boost operational efficiency, providing business leaders with confidence and their employees with their desired career advancement. A disengaged employee, by contrast, costs a company more than 3/10 of every $10,000 of salary, leading to increased frustrations from the top down. Employee sentiment analysis allows business leaders to spot issues before they fester, as well as boost the work areas where positivity is already at a maximum.??

With AI and natural language processing becoming more commonplace across industries, employers can use sentiment analysis to understand the emotions and demands of the modern workforce, keeping business intact and keeping their employees happy in every way possible.?

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Please give your feedback in the comment section, and please DM me with any suggestions for next month's topics.