5 Things Employees Want Employers to Know (But Are Too Afraid to Say)
We often wonder about the deeper dynamics of our workplaces, yet we are frequently too afraid to have the honest conversations required to understand them. Fortunate is the organisation that fosters a culture of open communication and genuinely values employee feedback. These companies already understand their teams' silent needs and actively address them.
For organisations that are not quite there yet, here are the five most common insights I hear from employees during coaching sessions. I hope this list encourages you to take meaningful action in your own workplace.
1. Employees want to know how their work fits into the grand strategy
Every organisation operates on a strategy that dictates the actions needed to fulfil its mission. Executive teams have a core responsibility to communicate this strategy—not just to shareholders, but to every single employee on the payroll. When people understand the bigger picture, they are empowered to align their daily actions with company success.
The Reality: Consider a general plant cleaner who sweeps floors daily. Limiting their identity to "just cleaning" restricts their growth and organisational impact.
The Strategic Shift: A cleaner who understands the broader strategy will notice and report a worn conveyor belt that is spilling material and hurting overall product output.
As a leader, your job is to communicate the strategy, set clear targets, and assign ownership. Celebrate progress collectively. Remember: micromanagement usually happens because someone in the chain of command has stopped operating at their true level. Fix these execution gaps with transparent communication.
2. They feel underutilised and crave a challenge
This does not mean your employees are sitting around with nothing to do (though that does happen). Rather, it means they are spending too much time on work that fails to stimulate or challenge them.
When individual tasks do not match personal strengths, engagement drops. For example, you might have two safety officers on your team with completely different professional desires:
One may drown in administrative paperwork but thrive when physically working with teams in the field.
The other may genuinely prefer updating policies and ensuring documentation has zero discrepancies.
Both roles are vital, and both employees become highly valuable when their responsibilities align with their strengths. Help your employees build individual development plans linked directly to company succession planning. Show real interest in their daily work and let them act in higher-level roles to stimulate growth. Furthermore, before you reject a tuition or study application, find out why they want to learn. In most cases, they have spotted a gap in knowledge or systems and want to close it to benefit your business.
3. It hurts when senior managers do not live company values
Company values are not just catchy phrases designed to boost public image. They are the foundational guiding principles that dictate what behaviour is acceptable. Because they actively shape corporate culture, they must be regularly communicated and evaluated.
If your core values include respect and open communication, allowing leadership to act in opposition to those values breaks trust. Employees willingly accept accountability and disciplinary measures when they break the rules, but they expect their superiors to be held to the same standard.
4. It is okay for leaders to be vulnerable
Do not get so caught up in chasing targets that you forget to be human. Leaders often hide their struggles because they fear looking weak. However, intense workplace pressure takes a toll on everyone, including the person in charge.
When a team shares a baseline of trust, communicating honestly when things go wrong becomes much less daunting. It allows the team to pivot quickly, redirecting their efforts toward solutions that yield fast wins and relieve collective pressure. Before lashing out over a missed deadline or subpar performance, try communicating the human impact of the situation. Leave room to learn from mistakes and discuss what compromises need to be made.
5. Before an employee resigns, they have usually exhausted every available avenue
It is easy to judge team members who leave unexpectedly, labeling them as "quitters." What often goes unnoticed, however, are the silent battles they fought before making that choice:
The exhaustion of excessive overtime
The guilt of missed early childhood milestones
Secret visits to mental health professionals
Hundreds of rejected job applications
Hours dedicated to coaching and personal development
Employers frequently discover these pain points during exit interviews, but by then, it is too late. While employees appreciate workplace professionalism, they ultimately need their employers to remember that they are humans first. They want to feel seen and heard before they reach their breaking point.
The Bottom Line
While the list of what goes unsaid in the workplace is long, these five themes consistently dominate coaching sessions. Human resources teams and leadership coaches work tirelessly to bridge workplace gaps, but we can only do so much. Ultimately, employers bear the responsibility to communicate expectations clearly, and employees bear the responsibility to show up and deliver on their commitments. Mutual success rests firmly on the shoulders of both parties.
About the Author
Refilwe Maphanga is a value- and purpose-driven management consultant and coach. As a chemical engineer with over a decade of experience in the mining and smelting industry, she is the founder and director of Refilwe Maps Consulting (Pty) Ltd. Her practice specialises in leadership development and operational efficiency, helping organisations and individuals transform their potential into peak performance.
Get in touch: info@refilwemapsconsulting.com
Comments