Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
The one thing we’ve learned over the past few weeks is that managing change will be essential for success in 2025. Laws, policies, procedures, etc. are being changed every day. These changes will have an impact on our personal and professional lives. Organizations and individuals might be okay with some of these changes. Others, maybe not.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because I listened to a webinar recently that might be helpful in thinking about our role as human resources professionals and helping organizations navigate change. The webinar was titled “Employee Activism and Its Impact as Laws and Politics Rapidly Evolve” and was hosted by Christopher Ward, Patrick McMahon, and Pauline Wizig from the firm of Foley & Lardner LLP.
The webinar reminded me of an article I shared recently about employees being organizational influencers. Activism is about creating change and employees might be looking for organizational support when it comes to making change happen. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about change inside the organization. Think of employee activism as change outside the organization. It could be related to social justice, climate change, or politics.
Right now, I know many organizations are trying to steer clear of taking sides politically or socially. One of my takeaways from the webinar was that as much as organizations might want to do that, sometimes it’s not always possible. And staying on the sidelines could be harmful to the organization. It reminds me of theories about power. If an employee perceives that you have power and you do nothing with it, that can hurt your credibility as much – if not more – than when you use your power and employees don’t like it.
During the webinar, the presenters emphasized how technology is playing a huge role in employee activism. Employees can use technology tools like social media to amplify their messages. Now, the answer to this isn’t to draft a policy that says, “nobody can talk to anyone about anything”. What might be better is for organizations to discuss how they want to address employee activism. The webinar mentioned a resource from Harvard Business Review that could be a good place to start.
In the article “A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Employee Activism”, the authors introduce six types of responses. I could see leadership using these to discuss what’s happening within their organization and how to address matters when they arise. The six types are:
- Non-existent – As in leaders know nothing and do nothing.
- Suppression – Leaders squash the conversation, indicating certain topics are not up for discussion.
- Facadism – Leaders are all talk and no action.
- Defensive engagement – Organizations do what legal counsel tells them, and nothing more.
- Dialogic engagement – Organizations take steps to understand the issue and employee concerns.
- Stimulating activism – The organization publicly stands for a particular cause and supports employee activists.
The HBR article goes into more detail about these six responses and is worth checking out. The takeaway for me in the article and the webinar was that organizations don’t have to respond the same way to everything. It’s okay to take a stand on some issues and not others. This doesn’t mean we don’t care. Just like in our personal lives, we don’t donate to everything. And that’s okay. Do what you can. And someone else will do what they can. Together, we’ll create change.
I do not anticipate employee activism going away. In fact, it could be amplified given the current environment. Organizations might want to consider taking a proactive approach to employee activism. This gives the organization a process for listening to employee feedback and responding in a consistent manner.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Chicago, IL
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