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Recently, the New York Times came out with a Q&A article that addresses H.R.-related complaints from folks around the country. We wanted to see how Pendant could possibly help alleviate each situation and maybe even prevent problems altogether.
Here’s the question I’d like to look at:
I’m really struggling with my new manager. He’s not very good at managing our tight-knit marketing team and we are all suffering. He has instituted new practices to build transparency on team projects, but isn’t transparent about his own work or even the company’s initiatives or goals. He doesn’t involve us in important projects we’ve historically been involved with, and tries to tackle it all on his own (even though we’ve offered ourselves to be involved!). Team morale is the worst it’s ever been and none of us feels empowered to do our jobs. There doesn’t seem to be an avenue to escalate the team’s frustrations. Frankly, what’s your opinion on whether H.R. should be notified of the manager’s impact on the team’s morale and productivity? My husband says it would be career suicide. Should I just sit back and watch the team dissolve as my colleagues depart?
— Anonymous
While the New York Times writer mostly offers ambivalence in response, we think Pendant can prevent any lose-lose scenarios for this individual. The first step feels obvious–make this person feel less intimidated by H.R.!
We all know Human Resources exists to both protect companies interests and advocate for employees. It can certainly feel like a tough tightrope to walk for H.R. professionals, but Pendant can help grease the wheels between H.R. folks and everyone else.
Rather than having to fret over how to pose a question to an H.R. rep, “Anonymous” can start by asking Pendant’s AI assistant about their issue. They won’t have to worry about rubbing anyone the wrong way, or sending the wrong message with their question because, well, it’s an AI chat bot! More specifically, it’s an AI chatbot that knows the H.R. rules for their company backwards and forwards. I tried to put on the proverbial shoes of the person who wrote into the Times and see how Pendant could help me navigate the problem. I was surprised by the AI’s response after I explained everything.
The AI suggested that I use my company’s benefits to help me with the situation. My initial thought was, “How could benefits help me address issues with my manager?” But then, the AI assistant reminded me of certain benefits that are certainly more actionable than anything the Times recommended.
According to the Employee Assistance Professionals Organization, 97% of companies with more than 5,000 employees offer EAP, and 80% of mid-sized companies (1,000-5,000 employees) offer EAP. To quote Homer Simpson: “I like those odds!”
There’s a very good chance that this person’s company offers a benefit specifically for situations like this. An EAP can provide confidential support and practical solutions to help deal with workplace stress, leadership challenges, and morale issues. Yet another amazing, underutilized benefit that Pendant can help communicate to a workforce. Whether it’s through confidential counseling or using a third-party mediator to communicate, an EAP will make providing feedback about management a much more productive endeavor.
According to our own survey data, only 5.18% of teachers feel like their benefits are explained very well, which means that a benefit like EAP could easily slip through the cracks for most employees. Using Pendant, employees can use the AI-powered assistant to directly connect to benefits that exist to help out in situations like this.
Having a feedback system built into a company makes a massive difference for both the employees and leadership. Having a safe space to communicate team-wide frustrations allows leadership to make informed decisions. If you’re running a company and received team-wide negative feedback for a manager, then that’s an easy indicator that something can be improved. Acting on the feedback given on Pendant will improve the lives of employees and increase trust with leadership.
If the person who wrote in to the Times had a built-in feedback system with their company, they wouldn’t have to feel afraid of voicing an issue, let alone a team-wide issue. As the CTO of Pendant learned personally, open communication is the best benefit you can offer:
“Great things happen when you invite colleagues to share their thoughts freely:
The easiest way to gather mass feedback from your employees is through Pendant’s survey system. You can regularly issue surveys to employees via Pendant, which they can easily find in their notifications or in the “Surveys” portal after logging in.
After you click through, employees can see any surveys that you’ve prepared for them:
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In this case, the survey asks for feedback about a specific gym benefit, but the survey tool allows for collecting qualitative and quantitative data about any subject. Let’s take a look at the gym memberships survey:
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You could easily swap out these questions to get to the heart of the employee experience at a company. For example, you could ask “Do you feel like you have a good relationship with your supervisor?” Or, perhaps, “If you don’t have a good relationship with your supervisor, why not?”
Collecting quantitative data gives you an easy snapshot of the company experience (i.e. “10% of employees feel they have a bad relationship with their supervisor”), and qualitative data gives you specific insights (i.e. “I feel like my supervisor is not creating a positive environment for our team because he doesn’t involve us in important projects”).
Employees get the opportunity to express their opinions anonymously, and leadership gets valuable insights about the struggles employees face.
With Pendant, you can provide employees with an AI-powered H.R. assistant that's available 24/7, and easily collect feedback through regularly distributing surveys. If the person who wrote to the New York Times had these resources, I’d bet they wouldn't have felt the need to write in at all.
