A New Wave of Employee Activism Puts Execs on Notice

"Employee activism is on the rise and we expect it to become a defining feature of the workplace in the coming years." - Megan Reitz, John Higgins, and Emma Day-Duro, Harvard Business Review

Like millions of Americans, we were closely following coverage of campus protesters who were able to shut down premiere institutions of higher learning in order to share their voice about the War in Gaza. And we were struck by how similar the young students on television resembled the young workers in our office, in tech offices and in other workplaces across the country.

Which led us to ask ourselves two things:

1. How strongly do American workers feel about speaking out in the workplace about political and cultural issues that are important to them?

2. What can corporate leaders do to prepare or prevent outbreaks and disruptions in the workplace if workers want to speak out publicly on political or cultural issues?

To find out how strongly workers feel about activism in the workplace we partnered with Harris Insights & Analytics to survey American workers across the country. Harris collected 1,026 online interviews with full-time and part-time workers from every walk of life.

What Workers Told Us 

While many workers feel strongly about activism in the workplace, Gen Z employees especially are adamant. Among this group:

• 76% said it is important to them that their employer allows them to publicly share their position on social and political issues.

• 68% believe companies that support employee activism have a competitive advantage in the workplace. 

• 63% feel that embracing employee activism is necessary for building employee morale and loyalty at work.

The message is clear: Executives cannot afford to be caught off guard by the new wave of employee activism. To attract and retain top Gen Z talent, companies need a clear understanding of their expectations—and a way to meet them that builds culture without fomenting division. 

Failing to acknowledge and manage this new era of employee activism could have serious consequences for retaining workers. Two-thirds of Gen Z workers surveyed report being likely to change jobs if they found a company that speaks out publicly in support of the issues that are important to them. And they’re not the only ones; across all age groups, half of employees share this sentiment. 

Building a Culture of Engagement

Researchers Megan Reitz and John Higgins have done extensive research on how leaders can best manage employee activism. One of the more effective approaches they’ve seen is when leaders adopt a procedure they call Dialogic Engagement.

This is what they call the, “Let’s sit down, Listen and Learn” phase. They write that smart leaders understand that they don’t know enough about certain issues and are curious to learn more, and take steps to share decision making - marking a critical shift in the power dynamic.

The goal of this process isn’t to develop a laundry list of issues that the company must develop a position on for each one. The goal is to begin a process of engagement that shows leadership is interested in employee activism and to begin to identify the top areas of concern and areas of synergy with the thinking of company leaders.

"Leaders tend to be ill-equipped to handle outspoken employees. But with employee activism on the rise, leaders need to be wary of mishandling their response. These missteps can be damaging for leaders and companies, which can suffer from reputational damage and ongoing employee unrest."

The Wrong Way to Respond to Employee Activism

by Megan Reitz, John Higgins, and Emma Day-Duro

Harvard Business Review

Feb. 26, 2021

We’ve seen a failure to adapt to Employee Activism bring disarray to companies in the last few years. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong proudly stated that his employees must “check their politics at the door.” Reports state that more than 60 employees instead walked out the door after this policy announcement. Google fired 50 employees for protesting the company’s alleged ties to the Israeli military. All of those employees are making their case to the National Labor Relations Board and some are considering litigation.

It’s time to Manage Culture Like You Manage Crises

Harvard researchers state plainly that trying to remain apolitical will not be met with success. Looking back on the recent protests on college campuses, the goal of every leader should be to start planning on managing employee activism in order to avoid a fate similar to so many college presidents who got caught flat footed. Many of them lost their jobs and still more lost their reputations.

Just as companies embraced the need to protect their brands and bottom lines through ongoing crisis communications processes and planning, it’s beyond time that companies begin to manage culture the way they manage crises. 

For most organizations, crisis management is a process that involves many different operations within the company. The goal is to put a plan in place ahead of unforeseen crises so the organization has a plan in place for reacting and management is aware of how certain crises will be handled within. If researchers are correct, it’s time that Employee Activism gets similar treatment. One single person within the organization needs to drive the process. But the first step in the process should be to establish a  committee or board that will help identify issues workers care about most. And this same group needs to be instrumental in driving a plan that gives workers a voice and an outlet that can be managed.

An employee activism plan also offers some management benefits to companies and leaders. First it can build a level of engagement with young workers in particular that company leaders don’t often have substantive engagements with. For these young workers, this engagement with leadership can galvanize and energize them. Unlike crisis management, employee activism management can build for leaders a more constant and continuous way to engage employees on issues that matter to them.

In fact, employee activism planning should be another platform that company leaders can utilize to build narratives and messages that motivate employees and differentiate themselves from competitors. Leaders will find that engaging workers helps them engage their workforce in a  way that is authentic to them.

So much of leadership communication is really about the audience being addressed. Too often internal audiences get neglected or overlooked and building an employee activism process can put some discipline back into internal engagement. The people that work in your organization can be an internal communications priority again. They’ll no longer be a secondary audience you address with the occasional blog post. 

The bottom line is that Employee Activism Management isn’t just a way to speak to employees. It’s an important way to let them speak. Getting there is a journey. But it’s a journey worth taking.

Read the full findings of the national survey we conducted in partnership with Harris Insights Interactive and Analytics HERE, and reach out to find out how we can help you, your company, and your leadership team prepare for this new era of employee activism.

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