Hi Friend,
According to a study by Ruder Finn, Activism Is Mainstream, more than half of Americans have supported a social issue in the past six months and nearly a third of those actions were directed toward a company. The engagements ranged from signing an online petition to boycotts and protests. Companies are grappling with how to respond. Individuals are looking to businesses to leverage their power and are demanding transparency and action.
This reminded me of conversations I had last week in Washington, D.C. I spoke at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Economic Empowerment Summit and sat on stage with gifted minds from investment houses, fintech startups, and high-growth tech companies such as Lyft. In describing WAGER’s entry into Enterprise Services I was continually asked, “Why would companies invite you talk to employees about compensation? Isn’t that crazy?” Actually it’s not crazy at all. My answer is always the same, “Your employees are already talking about compensation. But they’re doing it amongst themselves. These are digital natives who only know transparency. If you don’t create space for tough conversations, another company will.” This is retention in 2020.
In the meantime, changes are incremental and we will continue to rely on our neighbors and hard-to-find data. In this newsletter I am revisiting an interview we did at the beginning of this year (before we had thousands of followers!) and how one man gave a simple but life-changing gift to his colleague, Do you want to know how much I make? Here’s hoping you find good neighbors and great allies this holiday season!
Happy Holidays!
See you in January
Your ally,
Cynthia
