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Are your employees happy? If they are, it may be waning.
Employees who’ve been with a company an average of less than three years are 3% happier than those who’ve been with a company three or more years, according to a BambooHR analysis of employee satisfaction data from January 2020 to June 2024.
While Anita Grantham, BambooHR’s head of HR, hopes new employees’ happiness might be the result of recruiters and hiring managers accurately advertising a role’s responsibilities and investing in onboarding, she said it’s likely because they’re just in the honeymoon phase.
“When somebody switches jobs, they’re excited…They’re usually making more money because they weren’t making that at their previous job, or they’re moving because they got a promotion,” Grantham told HR Brew, later adding, “It’s like any relationship, when you get to know someone or some organization or some group better, you see all the things.”
As the excitement wears off, employee happiness may naturally decrease, especially if employees feel their concerns aren’t being acknowledged by HR, she said. To ensure employees feel heard, she recommended that people leaders respond, or explain why they can’t respond, to all feedback.
“One epiphany I’ve had over the last year is that I can look at this feedback I’m getting and if I’m not going to address it, I need to say why,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they’re going to agree with the methodology, so they may never get happier, but if they feel like they have context for how it’s been described, they at least could move to a neutral.”