Share your Experience: We are still gathering responses on our question from last week to highlight in a future issue of The Workplace Report. What are some of the creative compensation tactics your organization is using? Please email responses to yogita.patel@wsj.com. 

Last month, we talked about how your annual employee survey isn’t enough to appropriately measure employee sentiment about your organization. The Covid-19 pandemic has amplified an additional dimension to this conversation, and that’s employee voice.

“Employees now expect that we will have discussions on issues that are broader in scope,” said Jeff Schwartz, senior adviser for the future of work at Deloitte and vice president of insights and impact at talent marketplace Gloat. “We now recognize that employees are the opposite of widgets and have social priorities we need to consider.”

Employee voice involves workers using a variety of internal and external vehicles to speak up regarding everything from compensation equity and work flexibility to their organizations' stances on climate change and the war in Ukraine.

Employee voice that’s activist in nature is picking up steam. For example, Disney made headlines when its employees pleaded with the company’s CEO to take a public stand as the Florida Senate was set to pass a bill barring classroom instruction involving sexual orientation.

As business use of social media has increased, so have employees’ spheres of influence and their desire to connect and align with their organizations’ values.

Leaders may not be comfortable engaging in such discussions. However, if you dismiss the collective concerns of your workforce as employee whining or are threatened by contrary opinions, you may create an unhealthy or negative company brand.

According to Ms. Lamothe-Jensen, this may result in high turnover and a less-than-stellar reputation when hiring. On the other hand, programs that encourage employees to post positive and uplifting content have the opposite effect.

“Employees want their employers to participate in these conversations and take a stance on world events and issues,” said Leah Tate, senior vice president of human resources at Belden Inc.

If you’ve created a culture of transparent communication, touchy topics are bound to arise. Belden will soon deploy a new platform called teQuitable, which provides digital access to confidential ombuds who help workers voice concerns and navigate solutions. TeQuitable will also provide analytics that help Belden to respond to issues before they escalate.

Mr. Schwartz suggested using talent marketplaces to understand what’s important to your workers. “By creating new pathways for people, you tap into a whole new source of information and insights,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz shared the example of a Unilever engineer who used an internal talent marketplace to express her passion for diversity and women’s leadership. A six-week project with the D&I organization opened the door to a permanent position as manager on that team.

You can also learn about your level of employee engagement based on the workers who are—and aren’t—applying for internal positions.

Above all, don’t be afraid of what your employees have to say. Being well-informed can only help you stay ahead of potential problems that will affect your business down the road.

For its report, “Employee Expectations 2022,” Workday analyzed 19 million comments submitted by nearly 1.8 million employees across more than a thousand companies to ascertain how worker priorities are changing.

The data illustrated that around 12% of employee comments in 2021 were related to ESG themes, with those involving environmental and social issues seeing the biggest increases year over year. Workday also found that millennials—or those born between 1981 to 1996—are driving the conversation around ESG and are much more likely to voice their opinion about social issues.

Access the full report.

🎥 WATCH: Holograms have long been featured in science fiction movies. Now the 3-D light projections are popping up in workplaces around the world. Here’s why companies are exploring their use in fields like medicine, education and entertainment.

In February, the share of retired workers re-entering the workforce climbed to around 3% of total retirees, its highest level since early March 2020, according to an Indeed analysis of federal labor data.

But he worried his finances wouldn’t sustain his family’s standard of living over the long term, and after 18 months, he reluctantly started to hunt for a new job. He returned to work, in a similar role at an IT service management company in February and says he has been pleasantly surprised: His co-workers value the experience he brings, he says, and he feels a sense of confidence from having left the workforce in his 50s and returning to a job he likes.

Second Career: John Broschak, 58, retired in February from his job in utility operations after the pandemic grounded him. He had been accustomed to crisscrossing Michigan to visit plants, inspect machinery and check in with staff and found remote work monotonous.

“All of a sudden, I’m staring at a screen using Zoom,” he says. “Any last joy in the work that I was doing got sucked out in the ensuing 18 months.” To ease the transition to retirement, he opened a martial arts school franchise and began construction on a second home in Arizona. His new work has been so invigorating, he says, that he has also launched a consulting business, providing leadership coaching and technical consulting for the utilities industry. He now works essentially full time, but with better balance, he says.

Flexibility: Patti Key of Durham, N.C., 57, had retired in May 2020 from her position as head of global sales at the Ixia Solutions Group at Keysight Technologies, in part to quit a grueling travel schedule. Last spring, though, a former colleague asked if she would be interested in coming out of retirement to become chief revenue officer at a private-equity-owned company attempting a turnaround.

The role didn’t require international travel and had a clear three-year timeline. Plus, she would earn what she had been paid previously, with financial incentives for success.

Employee Rights Act Puts Workers at the Center of Labor Law (The Hill)

Disney-Owned Companies Voice Support for LGBTQ+ Employee Walkouts (Out Magazine)

How ESG Is Changing the Landscape in Labor and Employment Law (Reuters)

The Response to Ukraine Will Change the Way Companies React to Conflicts (Quartz)

The Emotion Missing From the Workplace (The Atlantic) 

Correction to March 30 Issue of The Workplace Report: Portillo's Hot Dogs offered equity to all field managers and team members at its restaurant support center at the time of its IPO. Last week's newsletter incorrectly stated that Portillo's Hot Dogs is now offering equity to all field managers and team members in restaurant support.

Alexandra Levit is a business and workplace author and speaker. She is the weekly columnist anchoring The Workplace Report. Yogita Patel curated and edited this newsletter.

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