Employees are demanding workplace reset: Edelman

Workers' expectations of their employers continue to rise and are to the point of outright demands on an array of issues, according to the latest survey by global communications firm Edelman.

The company, which issues the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, released a special report on trust at work on Thursday that found employees want a workplace reset.

Edelman surveyed around 7,000 employees for the study, quizzing roughly 1,000 people in each of seven countries: U.S., U.K., Brazil, Germany, Japan, China and India. Seventy-two percent of respondents said it is more important than ever that employers rethink what work means to employees, and two-thirds (67%) said they are reevaluating how they spend their time and what is important to them because of what has occurred in the world in recent years.

The report referred to the expectations employees have of their employers as "unprecedented," with employees saying that career advancement (83%), personal empowerment (80%) and societal impact (71%) are all strong expectations when considering a job, and lacking those factors could be a deal-breaker.

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Employees also want to work for organizations that are committed to action on social issues, according to the findings, with 61% of respondents on average across the seven countries saying they are more likely to work for an organization where the CEO speaks publicly about the controversial issues they care about.

In the polarized U.S., workers were less likely (51%) to say they want their CEOs to speak up.

"I think that there's a general consensus around wanting companies to act first to make sure that there is substantive change on diversity, equity and inclusion, on sustainability, even on geopolitics," Edelman CEO Richard Edelman told FOX Business in an interview. "As for the CEOs speaking up and speaking out in a public manner, there is a change: Republicans and independents are both cautious about that; Democrats seem to want more CEO activism."

"I think it's important to see that the role of the CEO is very fundamental to the discussion because CEOs have a privileged position. They are definitely seen in a certain way as the lead voice in delivering on change," Edelman explained, saying that companies are, in a sense, seen as a delivery vehicle for workers' aspirations.

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The survey found that employees want to partner with employers on change, with 74% of respondents saying they expect to have influence through their jobs, and since 2021, employees are 7% more likely to say they will work with their employers on changes within the organization rather than taking grievances public.

For years, workers across the board have expressed far greater trust in their employers than any other institution the survey asks about, which are business, non-government organizations, the media and the government. The trend began in 2017.

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"I think employees are looking for something more important from their employer," Edelman said, noting that employer trust is 60 points higher than government and 20 points higher than business.