Worker’s main worry regarding Brexit is their employer’s lack of strategy towards the divorce from the European Union (EU).
This data comes from Peakon, which is a platform that gives employees the opportunity to provide anonymous workplace feedback, showing an absence of strategy from their employer being their main concern.
The past four weeks have seen a spike in the number of negative employee comments surrounding Brexit, as well as employees from Europe, the US and Singapore showing concern for what it will mean to them.
Dr Joe Cainey, Peakon’s director of data science, said:
It’s clear from our data that Brexit is a global concern, and weighing on the minds of employees worldwide. As deadlines for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU have come and gone, employee concern has continued to rise, in March of 2019 and November 2018. Employees are most often raising the issue of Brexit in relation to their company’s strategy, suggesting concern about their organisation’s ability to succeed in this uncertain political environment.
Dan Rogers, chief marketing officer (CMO) and co-founder of Peakon said:
We’ve witnessed large spikes in comments aligned with significant Brexit developments across the past couple of years, notably November 2018 when the new deadline for a deal was proposed, and March 2019 when the first Brexit deadline was due to be enforced. The rate of comments has remained relatively high since these milestones and we’ve seen a steady increase since Boris Johnson took office as Prime Minister.
Interestingly, only half of the cooments come from the UK workforce. We’ve seen 12 per cent originate from Europe (France, Germany, and Italy leading), and notable interest from the US and Singapore. On average employees are commenting about Brexit in a negative context, especially with regards to their company’s strategy. A prolonged period of Brexit uncertainty with no clear resolution is forcing businesses to defer major hiring and investment decisions. In order to successfully navigate uncertainty, it is increasingly important for companies to put their people first, and focus efforts on retaining talent. Companies seek our guidance and support to understand the needs of their people, and address them effectively.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
