Employers care more about customers than employees: Worker survey

December 15, 2022 at 08:30 AM EST

WASHINGTON, D.C, Dec. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While most U.S. workers have strong relationships with their employers, they believe their organizations care more about relationships with customers than employees, according to a new study.

84 percent of working Americans surveyed agree their organization “shows concern for its clientele.” By contrast, only 68 percent agree their employer “is concerned about people like me.” When evaluating employer actions, workers are more positive, with 79 percent agree their employer “takes care of the people who work here.”

The results are from the Argyle Public Relationships Index™ , an annual survey of working North Americans by Leger and Argyle, a leading North American engagement, communication and reputation advisory firm.

On most dimensions of relationship health, workers believe their organizations are doing better with customers than employees, most notably in showing greater commitment to meet customer expectations (+10%), and allowing them to influence the decisions or direction of the organization (also +10%). Interestingly, the two areas where organizations are seen to do equally well with customers and employees are in earning trust and satisfaction.

“In a slowing economy and a tight labour market, leaders aspire to excellent relationships with both customers and employees – but workers believe their employers are doing much better with their clientele than their own people,” says Argyle CEO Daniel Tisch. “Wise employers are investing more time in employee engagement, showing more concern for workers’ well-being, and giving employees more influence over their decisions.”

ESG ratings from employees: Slow progress – but a greater sense of purpose

Most employees give their employers positive marks for their performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, but the numbers are similar or slightly more negative than a year ago, suggesting progress has been slow:

76 percent of respondents agree that their organization “has strong, effective and ethical management and governance practices,” up one percent from the Argyle/Leger 2021 survey.
73 percent agree their organization “performs strongly on social issues, such as health and safety or equity for women and people of colour,” down three percent.
62 percent agree their organization “performs strongly on environmental issues, such as reducing its negative impact on the climate,” down two percent.

In one encouraging finding for employers, 82 percent of respondents believe their organization lives up to its stated purpose, up six percent from a year ago.

The State of Social

The study also found that a clear majority of employees say that their employers are performing well on every dimension of social performance measured, including demonstrating a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (75 percent); protecting human rights (73 percent); creating training and development programs (71 percent); supporting employee physical and mental health (71 percent each); and supporting rights and opportunities for Indigenous peoples (61 percent).

Still, there is a persistent gap between those performance scores and the level of importance employees place on social issues. The largest importance-performance gaps were evident in employee assessments of physical and mental health support, followed by training. More details on the ‘State of Social’ portion of the survey, conducted in partnership with ESG Global Advisors, are available here.

About the study

The Argyle Public Relationships Index™ is based on a survey of 1,002 working Canadians and 1,000 employed Americans, completed between August 16-25, 2022, using Leger’s online panel. Leger’s online panel has approximately 400,000 members and a retention rate of 90%. No margin of error can be associated with a non-probability sample. For comparative purposes, though, a probability sample of 1,000 respondents would have a margin of error of +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.

Public relations research suggests there are six dimensions of relationships between organizations and their internal or external publics: trust; satisfaction; perceived commitment to meet expectations; caring for those with whom you work or do business (“exchange relationship”); concern for people like me (“communal relationship”); and people’s perception of their ability to influence the organization. Argyle and Leger express appreciation to Dr Terry Flynn and Dr Alex Sevigny of McMaster University for their counsel in the development of the model for this ongoing research.

About Argyle (www.argylepr.com)

For 40 years, Argyle has been chosen by the world’s biggest brands, put big ideas onto the public agenda, and grown to become one of Canada’s largest and most acclaimed communications and public engagement firms. Argyle’s clients span many sectors, including finance, technology, health care, agri-food, travel, professional services, infrastructure, government, non-profits and many more.

Argyle has more than 140 full-time employees in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Halifax, Chicago and Washington, D.C., with affiliates in Montreal and Quebec City, and in more than 40 countries around the world. Argyle is a proud to be a founding agency of Believeco Partners, a leading North American owner and operator of independent communications and marketing agencies.

About Leger

Leger is Canada’s largest independent full-service research firm, with over 600 employees in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver in Canada, and Philadelphia in the United States. The LEO (Leger Opinion) panel is the largest Canadian panel with over 400,000 representative panelists from all regions of Canada. Leo was created by Leger based on a representative Canadian sample of Canadian citizens with Internet access.

Poll aggregator 338Canada.com gave Leger the highest rating among all polling firms in Canada for the accuracy of its studies. See https://338canada.com/pollster-ratings.htm.

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Breanne Stephenson
Argyle
8196613783
bstephenson@argylepr.com

Victoria Stratton
Argyle
4372654275
vstratton@argylepr.com

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Employers care more about customers than employees: Worker survey

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