“Employees want a voice”: research finds employees feel unheard at work

During a time when human-centric employee engagement is seen as critical to remedy the Great Resignation, new research has found that the majority of employees feel unheard at work, with only one in ten strongly agreeing that their voice is heard.

With four out of five workers responding that “having my voice be heard” was important to them, ranking it higher than training, organisations must now adapt to meet their team’s needs. This new research was conducted by the leading AI-powered collaboration platform, Howspace.

The research asked 3,000 employees across fifteen industries and seven countries about their experiences and attitudes to workplace collaboration. While numerous studies have focused on employee engagement, this honed in on the state and impact of collaboration.

The pandemic saw the broad adoption of technology that aimed to ensure that every voice was heard. However, Howspace’s research shows this has not been effective towards building employee-centric working models.

Since the pandemic, 80% of British workers and 80% of Finnish workers felt their voice within their organisation was the same or less significant.

In order for decision-makers to have the best information to make sound decisions and achieve a high level of employee engagement, they must embrace a human-centric way of working.

Instead, workers are losing faith in leadership to adopt a human-centric working model and don’t feel that their voice is considered. For example, the research showed that 72% of Public Sector workers feel leadership won’t change or will become even less human-centric.

Ilkka Mäkitalo, CEO of Howspace, said: “We simply cannot ignore the trends and these statistics—employees want a voice and will increasingly not work for organisations in which they don’t feel valued.

“Top-down hierarchies in today’s hybrid and purpose-led world simply don’t work anymore. Modern enterprises thrive under collaborative leadership that centres on transparency, inclusivity, and empathy.

“Leaders are facing challenges from every direction. They need to make the most of the collective brain power by ensuring every voice is heard, considered, and an essential part of decision making.”

Arantxa Balson, CEO of In4Impact, commented: “We see our clients redefine their approach to work, placing the quality and impact of human interactions at the centre of what they do and the way they do it.

“Whilst previous technological solutions may have failed at this mission, it is clear that technology if used correctly, can be of great help for leadership, transformation, and care.

“Automating solutions helps us free up time from repetitive tasks, and asynchronous work helps bring people together effectively.

“Working in this way enables the teams to address more complex issues, use their creativity, and build stronger relationships with their peers and partners.”