Low wage workers not after big designations, but want higher pay and training opportunities

A new survey conducted by McKinsey Co. and Cara Plus, a division of non profit group Cara Collective, has highlighted that low wage workers at the front line are looking for more pay and also greater opportunities for training and skills enhancement, not just big designations.

The survey notes that during the early days of “The Great Resignation” the high voluntary job quits were driven by low wage workers who switched to join better pay jobs. They are now in high opportunity and low off sectors like health care, hospitality and food service, as opposed to high paying sectors like technology and finance that are also recording higher number of layoffs.

The survey report, that has been shared with Forbes, states that this is the main factor that currently “employers place too high a premium on “intangible benefits” such as employee recognition, time off and bigger job titles, the last of which ranked among the bottom five priorities for frontline workers but was near the top for surveyed managers”.

Furthermore, the workers are now looking for employers with “supportive managers” as a key factor while looking for job switch. “In an hourly role with high turnover rates or limited opportunities to interact with managers, the boss’s behavior may also reflect the reality that managerial training is less prioritized in frontline settings—or might not be as top of mind”, Forbes quotes the survey report.

“The nature of frontline roles tends to be much more production-related,” said Sara Wasserteil, a managing director for Cara Plus. “Oftentimes, the incentives of the manager are [focused on] ‘you’ve got to go do your job’ versus ‘are they checking in on their team.’”

“They’d rather say ‘give me an opportunity to take on a new responsibility,’” Davis says, than “getting an employee of the week [award] or a Starbucks card.” To keep hourly workers engaged, he adds, the starting point is transparency and communication. “There’s a huge opportunity for corporations to help them understand what support is out there for them.”