Nottingham Trent University Professor Helen Shipton led a fascinating study that reveals significant gaps in opportunities for UK workers to have a voice at work, which affects individual well-being and job satisfaction, as well as organisational learning, resilience and innovation.

A fascinating and important study about workplace expression

Helen led this important study with the Centre for People, Work and Organisational Practice at Nottingham Business School in partnership with the CIPD and YouGov. During the study, Helen and her team questioned more than 2,370 employees across the UK.

Helen is a Lead Researcher at Nottingham Trent University, author of the report Talking about employee voice: employees’ experiences and Director of the Centre for People, Work and Organisational Practice. 

"Nearly three in ten employees report low psychological safety at work. Employers therefore need to create safe environments for people to speak out, which can positively impact well-being and organisational effectiveness," says Helen.

“Line managers are shown to have a critical role in this by enabling employees to voice their issues and ideas in one-to-one meetings. This shows a need for all line managers to be trained to understand the value of employee voice, encourage individuals to voice issues that are important to them, and to suggest improvements to the way things are done in the organisation, or share innovative ideas.”

Some people feel unable to express themselves at work

Helen's findings are fascinating. The study showed that a significant proportion of employees believe they can't share matters that are important to them as individuals, as well as those which could enhance the way things are done in their organisation.

The respondents were asked which issues they experience in the workplace, and whether they feel able to raise them.

The results showed that work pressure is the most common issue experienced by employees (43 per cent), while just under a third have been affected by considerable organisational change (29 per cent). Over a fifth (22 per cent) of those who have raised an issue at work felt that they had no advice or support.

Helen also discovered that the most common channel for voice across the respondents is one-to-one meetings with a line manager, with 62 per cent expressing their views through this channel. Almost half (49 per cent) of employees express themselves through team meetings, while only 17 per cent mention trade unions as a voice channel.

Overall, findings showed that just half (50 per cent) of respondents are satisfied or very satisfied with the amount of involvement they have in decision-making at work. Employees working in small and private sector organisations are more satisfied with their level of voice, compared with those working in large and public sector organisations.

However, only a quarter indicated that they feel able to freely express themselves at work and a quarter said that they often choose not to speak up, instead remaining ‘silent’, even though they have something they’d like to say.

A significant proportion of employees (38 per cent) also reported that they have little, if any, control over their terms and conditions of employment, such as pay, holidays and flexible working.

A positive link between voice and job satisfaction

Nottingham Trent University's study aims to continue to explore practical solutions for organisations in more depth.

Daniel King, Professor of Organizational Studies at Nottingham Trent University's Nottingham Business School and report co-author, gave his insights on the study.

He said: “Our findings suggest that organisations offer limited scope for sharing matters that their employees consider to be important. However, there is a positive link between voice and job satisfaction, which means employers should create ways for all staff to have a voice, which can in turn boost their attitude and motivation at work.

“These findings are important in the context of creating good work and quality jobs, because they point towards factors that can empower or disempower people in shaping their working lives.”

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