Young Worker Safety Perceptions and Supervisor Trust

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs has remained a psychology staple since its inception in 1943. The model is formed into a simplified pyramid that conceals the complexity of its original research.

Maslow’s original hierarchy describes five levels of the human experience with examples of how each need can be fulfilled, saying that each level must be sufficiently met before someone is prepared to tackle the next level. Here are the five levels from bottom up:

• Physiological such as food, water, shelter.
• Safety such as personal security, resources, sources of income
• Social such as friendship, sense of belonging, intimacy
• Esteem such as dignity, respect, recognition
• Self-actualization meaning creation, exploration, aesthetics[i]

Impact of Social Movements on Safety Perceptions

For our discussion let’s focus on level two, safety. Three major social movements have impacted our personal sense of safety over the past several years, and each of them therefore impacts how much we take that personal sense of safety for granted in the same ways as we would have done so in the past:

• The Me-Too movement originated with people who were mostly women telling their sexual abuse stories over social media before taking center-stage with the convictions of Harvey Weinstein and other men of power. The movement alerted people of the world that sexual abuse was more prevalent and happened to a far broader group of victims than had ever been assumed before, including well-known celebrities.
• George Floyd’s murder-by-cop was made real to the world by a video that displayed the full 9 minutes and 29 seconds that police officer Derick Chauvin drove his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck to asphyxiate him. One of many trust-breaking outcomes is that Black people and all people now have non-dismissible evidence that an officer of the law actually did deliberately kill an innocent person.
• And while “psychological safety” might be a new term to some, McKinsey’s research has demonstrated that it is both a driver of worker productivity and also that we have too little of it. The term means feeling safe to take interpersonal risks, to speak up, to disagree openly, to surface concerns without fear of negative repercussions or pressure to sugarcoat bad news. McKinsey’s studies make clear that a psychological-safe environment improves retention, engagement, and more…yet too few managers have the skills and courage to create one.[ii]

These are just three headliners among many social patterns that continue to evolve, all wrapped around the negative psychological swings that developed during pandemic times.

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Further Reading: What is the Worst Way to Increase Young Worker Retention? Promote Them!

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Younger Workers Prioritize Safety and Mental Health

Much has been written about young workers’ mental health since COVID-19, with the American Psychiatric Association reporting over half of young professional workers said they needed mental health help in the past year.[iii] Reasons cited were the enormous growth of social media, political and cultural divisiveness, and unprecedented upheaval and change related to the global pandemic. And record numbers of young adults are living with their parents.[iv]

The pandemic also left a negative trail with our children. Having missed out on traditional schooling, test scores are substantially down[v] and absenteeism has nearly doubled[vi]…as has the number of students being home-schooled.[vii]

Compounding on these trends are more mental health issues, more adults living with parents, more absenteeism, less employee engagement, and less interest in relationships. These all call into question whether excessive social media has pushed our youth to be more distant and generally less involved…in their work and in the lives of others.

The outcome is that young workers are much more willing to abandon relationships that feel insecure or unsafe, both at home and in their places of work…and are much more willing to welcome relationships where they feel safe to be their authentic selves.

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Further Reading: Change One Performance Meeting to a Stay Interview for Retention

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Building Trusting and Safe Relationships with Stay Interviews

I shudder when I re-read the above, yet national data for young people continues to trend in this direction. What IS encouraging, though, is we can all help our companies present much safer environments for our young workers. And the best way to build trust is by giving them an opportunity to express their authentic selves in one-on-one conversations with their direct supervisor that have nothing to do with their performance, but instead are designed to build trusting relationships.

My work is predicated on the belief that the only group who can build trust and impact employee retention for any age worker is their direct supervisors.

The argument for this is simple: direct supervisors are in their employees’ faces every day, providing instruction, feedback, and building relationships. This is the person they discuss over dinner each night, good or bad, and this is the person they report to each day. And how they feel about that person, drives how they feel about your company.

When applying this principle to improving how we engage and retain our young workers, it reaffirms that Stay Interviews are the best way build trust. Here’s a quick refresher:

1. Direct supervisors invite each individual employee to meet, saying “I want to learn what I can do to make working here better for you”.
2. They are trained to ask five specific and heavily-researched open-ended questions during this conversation, as well as trained to listen, probe to learn more, take pages of notes, and develop at least one action they can take to help employees stay longer and engage more.
3. The part that says “managers are trained” is more complex because managers must develop new skills…and practice those skills. The Stay Interview training that we provide consumes three full hours of skill practice, role-play, and feedback to ensure each manager is comfortable scheduling their initial Stay Interviews the very next day.

By asking, listening, probing, and taking notes, supervisors can then work with them on the spot to identify actions to address their concerns – safety, mental health, or others. These are the parts that matter most to young workers and the ones that work best for building the trusting relationships that retain them longer.

Master Training: Employee Retention Intensive for HR Leaders

Based on Dick Finnegan’s ground-breaking work with Stay Interviews and Finnegan’s Arrow, our expert facilitators will equip you with all the tools you need to refine and implement your retention strategies to build a thriving, engaged workplace culture.?Secure your spot today!

[i] https://www.cnn.com/world/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-explained-wellness-cec/index.html

[ii] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-psychological-safety

[iii] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

[iv] https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/25/success/parenting-adult-children-living-home/index.html

[v] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/student-gpa-and-test-score-gaps-are-growing-and-could-be-slowing-pandemic-recovery/#:~:text=At%20every%20letter%20grade%2C%20post,peers%20who%20earned%20an%20A.

[vi] https://www.propublica.org/article/school-absenteeism-truancy-education-students#:~:text=Nationwide%2C%20the%20rate%20of%20chronic,professor%20of%20education%20at%20Stanford.

[vii] https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhernholm/2024/04/30/rise-of-homeschooling-and-its-transformative-impact-on-education/