Pew Survey Finds Interesting Results
A Pew Research Center survey revealed some thoughtful insights on workplace fear. It takes on many dimensions. It lurks everywhere and managers and supervisors need to be aware of it. Workplace fear can cause countless problems from absenteeism to embezzlement.
One way to counter these fears in the workplace is to help your employees be more confident. Good communication between management and those they manage is always a place to start. Let your employees know what is expected of them. Then let them know when they live up to those standards as well as when they don’t. Confident employees get more done.
The people at Pew have been conducting surveys on the workplace for many years. Pew is considered one of the most reliable and unbiased think tanks in our time.
Everybody likes to think they are critical to the successful operation of the company. And, if you stop to think about it, each employee is critical. If they weren’t why would you have them on the payroll?
The Pew Research Center recently conducted a study to learn the attitudes of American workers about the future of robots in the workplace. The results were interesting on a number of different levels.
Robots are hard at work already in America. They make a wide variety of things from cars to candy. They vacuum floors and wash windows. They are slowly replacing human beings in constantly expanding roles.
Computers are nothing more than robots. We don’t think of them that way, but they are. When asked, most people will describe a robot as looking like a humanoid. It looks like something from a science fiction movie. The reality is the robot lives in many forms.
The respondents in the Pew study showed some interesting insights into the way American workers view themselves. Although two thirds of the people in the survey thought that robots would be doing much of the work now done by human beings in as little as 50 years, 80 percent of those surveyed thought that their jobs would remain essentially unchanged and exist in their current form 50 years from now.
That’s confidence!
Workplace confidence is a good thing. In this case it demonstrates that these workers felt that they were a critical component of the companies they worked for. I am all about instilling confidence in workers. When I speak to groups of middle-level managers I stress how their jobs are to help each worker understand that they are an integral part of the entire process.
As happy as I am to see that the workers in this Pew survey are confident about the future, I recognize how the fear of being replaced can cloud the confidence of your employees. Be aware of that. A good employee is a valuable asset. The cost of replacing employees can cripple a company. Work to eliminate workplace fear and you will be doing yourself and your company a great service.
If you would be open to a conversation about me speaking to your company about workplace fears, I would love to talk with you. Contact me.