Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Definitely a big
Speaker 1: week for the workforce. We mentioned a DP today, we
Speaker 1: get another read tomorrow and then of course the Friday
Speaker 1: Jobs report. In the meantime, the giant Global Communications from Edelman,
Speaker 1: they continue to do their own research on employers and employees.
Speaker 1: Their latest trust barometer is out and with it we
Speaker 1: get a reading on the empowered employee. So let's get
Speaker 1: to it with the founder and CEO of Edelman, Richard Edelman,
Speaker 1: back with us on the phone in New York City.
Speaker 1: How are you, hello, Carol? How are you doing? I'm
Speaker 1: doing okay, although trying to get the real picture, looking
Speaker 1: for transparency, uh, in terms of what's going on with
Speaker 1: our workforce, because it feels like COVID once again slowing
Speaker 1: down the return to work. Uh. You know, companies requiring vaccines.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff going on. You talked to
Speaker 1: CEOs and heads of companies all the time. Before we
Speaker 1: get into your barometer. What are you hearing from them
Speaker 1: about the out luck? I think it's very cloudy and
Speaker 1: we can't get a firm handle on when the delta
Speaker 1: variant is going to peak, and therefore all of us,
Speaker 1: including Edelman, have postponed return to office from the day
Speaker 1: after labor Day to October or you know, we don't
Speaker 1: know yet. And um that there will be a hybrid
Speaker 1: approach to the workplace is clear that we want to
Speaker 1: keep our employees safe as the most important factor. And
Speaker 1: again it goes into our study which shows that you know,
Speaker 1: employees definitely have been changed by COVID because they're not
Speaker 1: going to just work for money or raises or or
Speaker 1: advancement at the company. They just aren't going to do it.
Speaker 1: They have a different set of values. Now, well, and
Speaker 1: let's get into it. I've got the study in front
Speaker 1: of me and I've been looking over it, and you
Speaker 1: guys do look at a lot of different things. And
Speaker 1: it's safe to say, I know in talking with Piers
Speaker 1: uh and different companies and people are leaving companies. They're
Speaker 1: what matters to them. Sometimes it's now being able to
Speaker 1: work closer to home, or to work part time, to
Speaker 1: be more at home maybe with their families, or some
Speaker 1: of them are making, you know, significant career changes or
Speaker 1: just dropping out of the workforce altogether. Tell us what
Speaker 1: you set out to do this specifically with this trust parameter,
Speaker 1: because sometimes you're looking at brands and the relationship between
Speaker 1: brands and consumers. This one really looks into what's on
Speaker 1: employees minds. Well, employees UM somewhere between twenty of them
Speaker 1: say that they're going to quit their job in the
Speaker 1: next six months. And again we were amazed that by
Speaker 1: a two to one margin, by six people said I
Speaker 1: want to work for a company that has great values.
Speaker 1: Half of them said I want a different work life balance,
Speaker 1: and only of them said, you know, it's all about
Speaker 1: the pay. That that's why I'm going to change jobs.
Speaker 1: And so it's like a three cornered um try Pod Carol.
Speaker 1: And so it's got to be paid well. I gotta
Speaker 1: have a chance to advance. That's obvious. That's only table
Speaker 1: stakes now on. In addition, I need work life balance,
Speaker 1: I need a flexible workplace um. And the last is
Speaker 1: I want to work for a company I admire. I
Speaker 1: want to work for a CEO who stands up and
Speaker 1: speaks up on diversity and inclusion, sustainability, local policing, etcetera.
Speaker 1: So what do you make then, of all the financial firms,
Speaker 1: Because there's definitely a bidding war going on for you know,
Speaker 1: junior level investment banking. We had a story about Chinese
Speaker 1: companies going after quants and really competing with the Wall
Speaker 1: Street firms in terms of what they're paying their folks.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you look at this data, Richard, is
Speaker 1: there any breakdown or differences variations when it comes to
Speaker 1: the type of industry that we're talking about. Because I
Speaker 1: do wonder if Wall Street, with raising the money, are
Speaker 1: they going after the right thing. I think they're chasing
Speaker 1: the wrong rabbit. I mean, it's not enough to say
Speaker 1: to the Goldman employee who's working undered plus hours a week,
Speaker 1: we'll give you more money. I think that they want
Speaker 1: work life balance, and they also want um Goldman to
Speaker 1: do UM more investing in in UM you know, green
Speaker 1: energy or the you know, the future of of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, diverse owned businesses and so again UM. The
Speaker 1: smart company will also realize that the belief driven employee
Speaker 1: will be more loyal, will advocate for your firm, will
Speaker 1: recommend it, you know, as a place to work. And
Speaker 1: and that's gold in today's marketplace, because we've got to
Speaker 1: keep our people as opposed to getting recruited away. Alright,
Speaker 1: one third of the people have left their job because
Speaker 1: the company remains silent on a societal issue that they
Speaker 1: should have addressed, like the murder of George Floyd. So
Speaker 1: we've got to keep these people. All right, Let's get
Speaker 1: back to our guest. Richard Edelman, chief executive officer over
Speaker 1: at Edelman, still with us on the phone from New
Speaker 1: York City. I want to go through some of um
Speaker 1: the highlights too. I know we've been going over your
Speaker 1: latest Trust Barometer report. It is about the powered employee.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because you take a look at maybe age differences,
Speaker 1: young employees most likely to choose jobs based on belief. Uh.
Speaker 1: Is this really just a younger employees thing, Richard? Or
Speaker 1: is it all age groups. It's not only all age groups, Carol.
Speaker 1: It's it's a bunch of countries. China is actually the
Speaker 1: most profound finding of Chinese said that they feel that
Speaker 1: they can get their companies to change policies on what
Speaker 1: they're doing on sustainability, for example. So I think it's
Speaker 1: it's quite transversal. And and this belief driven person actually
Speaker 1: UM goes to the marketplace and says, I want to
Speaker 1: work for this company because I believe in it. And
Speaker 1: that's a really important thing for c e O s
Speaker 1: to appreciate that my nine and nine to one, if
Speaker 1: they speak up on issues such as UM human rights
Speaker 1: or economic inequality or genuine equality, they're going to get
Speaker 1: better people because those people where millennials want to be
Speaker 1: change agents. Well. And what's interesting too in terms of
Speaker 1: your research, because I was curious about UM in talking
Speaker 1: to employers and talking to employees, who's and increasing their
Speaker 1: power and leverage? Is it people who are making a
Speaker 1: lot more money? Is at the middle income spectrum? What
Speaker 1: about those variations? Again, it's across the income spectrum. And
Speaker 1: what's phenomenal is also the likelihood that these believed driven
Speaker 1: employees are going to speak up. Uh, They're not just
Speaker 1: going to do it through the company channels. They're gonna
Speaker 1: tweet it out or be on social other social channels.
Speaker 1: They're going to even organize some boycotts of the companies
Speaker 1: if they're not satisfied with the progress. So in a sense,
Speaker 1: you're doing a trade off, Carol, between you want the
Speaker 1: belief driven person who's going to be more loyal and
Speaker 1: more advocating, but you have to accept the fact that
Speaker 1: they're gonna want to have a say, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: want to say it publicly, and I think we should
Speaker 1: like that. We should be more transparent with them. We
Speaker 1: should show them what we're trying to do with their companies,
Speaker 1: explain our vaccination policy, for example, and then have them
Speaker 1: go advocate for us, because they're damn believable. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think if anything, you and I've talked about this,
Speaker 1: like during the pandemic, employees really were well. First of all,
Speaker 1: employers relied on employees who are now working at home
Speaker 1: and juggling a lot to keep their businesses going. But
Speaker 1: employees really we're looking to their employers to help them
Speaker 1: with whether it's childcare issues, health issues. Um we talked
Speaker 1: a lot about mental care. Even it's even bigger than that.
Speaker 1: The employer is the number one source of credible information
Speaker 1: because the world is so politicized now. Um Peugh came
Speaker 1: out with a report today that said only of Republicans
Speaker 1: believe in mainstream media versus seventy of Democrats. So I
Speaker 1: get my information from my company. I also expect my company,
Speaker 1: uh somehow to retrain me because people are afraid of
Speaker 1: losing their job. To automation or AI and and so um.
Speaker 1: You know, my company trust is local, Carol. As we
Speaker 1: talked about before, bus starts with between my CEO and
Speaker 1: the company. And my CEO part is so important, it's
Speaker 1: the number one thing in building trust between employer employees.
Speaker 1: Does the CEO model the behavior? Richard? How much of
Speaker 1: this though, is the cycle wherein you know, you've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of economic and market and labor market cycles.
Speaker 1: I mean, right now, employees need workers. We talk about
Speaker 1: this every day on Bloomberg, that there's a disco disconnect,
Speaker 1: that there's more demand than supply right now. And I
Speaker 1: do wonder do the findings of this latest trust parometer
Speaker 1: do you think this stays with us, this empowered employee
Speaker 1: going forward. It's not just the empowered employee, it's also
Speaker 1: a belief driven consumer who has the same sort of
Speaker 1: view about business as a force for good and business
Speaker 1: actually stepping into the void left by government on so
Speaker 1: many parts of our society. And so this is a
Speaker 1: long term trend. And it's also consistent with investors who
Speaker 1: are investing in companies where there is a clear sense
Speaker 1: of good relation between employer and employee. Hey, one thing
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about. And this is something
Speaker 1: we've talked about I have certainly with my colleagues and
Speaker 1: and just some peers off air often is the burnout issue,
Speaker 1: and there is one of the findings in this latest
Speaker 1: Barometer Trust Parometer that you talk about burnout now a
Speaker 1: bottom line issue because the conversations often are that a
Speaker 1: lot of workers are saying, I don't think my employer
Speaker 1: really understands how fried I am. I may take a vacation,
Speaker 1: but i still come back and I'm fried because I'm
Speaker 1: still worried about COVID, I'm still worried about will my
Speaker 1: job still be there, I'm worried about family members. Talk
Speaker 1: to me a little bit about the findings and burnout
Speaker 1: and what you're hearing. Well, half the people um in
Speaker 1: our survey said that they are feeling burned out and
Speaker 1: and and sixty six percent said, you know, we think,
Speaker 1: you know, we've done a lot more for our employers
Speaker 1: since the pandemic started, and we're not, you know, getting recognized.
Speaker 1: So for me, the smart employer is going to say,
Speaker 1: I've got to pay them well, but I also have
Speaker 1: to care for them. I have to put my arms
Speaker 1: around them. I have to make sure that they appreciate UM,
Speaker 1: that that they feel appreciated, and that they have UH
Speaker 1: in a way flexibility. For example, we don't have to
Speaker 1: have an eight hour shift that you show up at
Speaker 1: seven am and you know, get off at at three
Speaker 1: that that we're going to make it clear that we
Speaker 1: want you to deliver your kid to school. So you
Speaker 1: feel okay about it, then you can jump into the
Speaker 1: shift at the second hour and and make it up.
Speaker 1: So I do think it's an urgent need for UM
Speaker 1: employers to stop having an industrial era mentality about their
Speaker 1: workforce and have a human approach to it. This is
Speaker 1: the change moment. Yeah, it does feel pretty dramatic. Hey, Richard,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. I'll always look forward to it.
Speaker 1: Richard Edelman, chief executive Officer of Course, founder of Edelman,
Speaker 1: on the phone in New York City,