A Dayton-based artificial intelligence company at the intersection of machine learning and behavioral psychology, released its first Job Confidence Index. The index reveals how employee confidence impacts U.S. employment numbers.
Dayton-based Cognovi Labs released the index, powered by their Emotion AI, to give a real-time look at how employees emotional experiences relate to resignations and other job-related metrics across the country. Current regional data may point toward some stability for executives concerned about worker retention.
“The Job Confidence Index for the first time captures the cause and effect of public sentiment and employment decisions,” said Beni Gradwohl, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Cognovi Labs. “While this may be clear in retrospect, the Index allows these to be measured in real time and at scale. Since the vast majority of human decisions are made on the basis of emotion, it is crucial for employers to understand the experience of their employees in a hyper-active job market, and have the tools to proactively engage to improve the workplace.”
The Job Confidence Index captures confidence in overall job-related conversations along with trending workplace issues such as health benefits, diversity, parental leave, psychological safety and retention. The index also showcases shifting emotions toward each issue and how it evolves over time.
Conclusions are developed from the emotion AI’s analysis of public social media conversations relative to seasonally adjusted numbers published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“When you connect with your workforce on an emotional level, you create opportunities for meaningful engagement,” said Cognovi Labs’ Chief Psychology Officer, Nirit Pisano, Ph.D. “Without appreciating employees’ wants, needs and decisions, policies that employers implement are less likely to resonate. This index offers a guide to help employers respond with emotional intelligence to their employees, creating a more positive work environment for all.”
Here are some key findings from the Job Confidence Index:
- A spike in confidence toward job issues results in increased hiring the following month, while very low overall confidence leads to reduced hiring. The relationship was established by analyzing monthly Confidence Scores and next month's employment numbers for the past four years.
- As seen in the Great Resignation, high confidence in job security leads employees to willingly explore new job opportunities and subsequently quit. In contrast, low confidence in job security will indicate a lower quit rate the following month.
- When employers support their employees to feel high confidence in their workspace, whether remote, in-person or hybrid, employees will tend to remain in their jobs. Low confidence in their workspace leads to the opposite – a higher quit rate next month.
- Trust toward in-office work in 2019 was at a level of 81 out of 100 in online conversations. That number dropped to 44 in 2020 and has not yet recovered in 2022, currently sitting at a score of 59.
- While conversations around diversity in the workforce continue to be prevalent, the public’s confidence around diversity at work remains low. This is caused by years of consistently high levels of trust and hope surrounding diversity efforts, but with low assurance for change.
- Online conversation about paternity leave is extremely low when compared to the volume of maternity leave discussions. Nevertheless, paternity leave inspires a greater belief in what lies ahead.
- If employees feel highly confident around compensation and benefits, they tend to stay in their jobs. In contrast, low confidence in comp and benefits leads to a higher quit rate next month.
Currently, compared to other regions in Ohio, the Dayton region overall held fairly high job confidence within its counties ranging from moderate to high.
However, dipping into individual topics, job security confidence is at or below the moderate level in most eligible counties with Montgomery County still remaining fairly high. Additionally, while work culture trended in high confidence, workspace confidence and job security confidence is low. Compensation and benefits are also at a moderate confidence level for the area.
Based on Cognovi Labs key findings, this may indicate that the region's workforce is presently displeased but lacking the job security confidence to explore new career paths. Something that could change in the near future.
Normally, low workspace and compensation/benefits confidence would lead to workers seeking additional opportunities and may begin pursuing additional opportunities. However, with a low job security confidence and high work culture confidence, unhappy workers may not feel secure enough to look outside their current jobs.
See the full index dashboard including national, state and local data here.
Cognovi Labs is an innovator in psychology-driven AI, enabling clients with predictive tools to engage, inspire and maximize their impact.
Their award-winning AI reveals how audiences are feeling in the moment and what drives their decisions. Clients then communicate with emotional intelligence to evoke specific emotions in an intended audience to accelerate company performance.
In the past, Cognovi Labs provided free indexes to support public health and wellbeing. First, measuring public anxiety at the start of the pandemic and followed by a confidence index surrounding the Covid vaccine.
