Dive Brief:

• Despite an improving U.S. unemployment rate, new findings from a survey conducted by HRO Today Magazine and Yoh, the talent and outsourcing company (owned by Day & Zimmermann), showed a steep decline in overall employee well-being during the 3rd quarter.
• Using four "well-being" components – involuntary job loss possibility, likelihood of promotion, anticipation of a raise, and trust in company leadership – the survey showed an overall decrease in well being from 102.3 in the second quarter to 97.8 in the third quarter, the largest drop to date and lowest recorded score since the survey began in 2014. 
• Specifically, the index showed dramatic declines across the board in optimism for job promotion potential, raise potential and trust in leadership.

Dive Insight:

“Increasingly, we are finding that worker sentiment correlates more closely with financial market fluctuations and leadership sentiment rather than the employment market," said Andy Roane, vice president of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for Yoh. "As such, it is the responsibility of leadership and talent managers to monitor and assess employees’ well being on an ongoing basis."

Roane added that as the talent landscape changes, employee sentiment has become more reactive than ever to external and internal factors such as economic health and company leadership. To identify the root of their stressors and provide ways to build positive sentiment, HR and company leadership need to take a proactive approach to understanding employee sentiment and discover ways in which to improve it.

Roane says one key takeaway from the study is that HR must be proactive. While declines in employee well-being can often be seen in real time, this does provide an opportunity for HR and company leadership to quickly improve sentiment by being transparent about promotions, raises and potential job loss. "By being proactive with information to employees, companies will be better able to keep their best talent," Roane said.