DEI efforts continue to expose weak spots

“Don’t just take into account what you’re hearing from your candidates, or your current employees, because there’s also a large group of people who aren’t even getting to your inbox because of what you’ve done, or what you haven’t done,” said Kelli Mason, cofounder and COO at JobSage in Austin, Texas, which did the survey of 1,907 Americans in April.

And when it came to those inside the organization, almost two-thirds of workers (64%) want their employer to take a public stand on social issues — and for younger employees, the number is even greater (82%) found the JobSage survey.

Greater voice

Because of the shifting landscape around workers and their relationships to their jobs, employees are finding they have a greater voice around such matters, and employers should pay close attention.

“During the pandemic, candidates did have a lot of market power and so they were able to speak up and say, ‘I’m not going to apply to a company that doesn’t take a stand on social issues; I’m not going to continue working for a company that doesn’t take a stand,’ so candidates had a lot of power and employees had a lot of power during the pandemic to be vocal about what they want from an employer,” said Mason.

Many of these socially conscious workers (27%), said they would be willing to take less salary to accept a position with an employer that takes a stand on issues. These workers said, on average, they would take a salary slice, to the tune of US$5,177.36 per year.