How to Foster a Workplace Worth Tweeting About 
Brandwatch and Monster just released some intriguing data that shows how employees take to social media to express feelings about their jobs. Their report analyzed more than 1.1 million tweets in the U.S over the course of a year and found that, despite often dreary reports of widespread disengagement across Corporate America, more workers are expressing that they "#love" their jobs than hate them Tweet: More workers are expressing that they “#love” their jobs than hate them - a hopeful finding to be sure, and a deeper dive into the findings shows some interesting revelations.
Expressions of #Love and #Hate
Over the course of a year (ending in March 2015) people were four to five times more likely to tweet about loving their job than hating it. During that time period, there were over 942,000 mentions of "love my job" compared to just 201,000 mentions of the phrase "hate my job". Not surprisingly, people were most likely to tweet about loving their jobs on Friday before having a weekend away, and least likely to tweet about them on Sunday before having to return to work.
Employees in the tech industry tweeted the least about their jobs, (despite whether comments were positive or negative) making up just 2% of the conversations around disliking jobs, and 4% of conversations about loving jobs. This is likely due to the fact that tech workers have a much better understanding of the potential implications of publicly posting opinions. Interestingly, the most "hate" oriented posts came from the retail industry, with one of the top ten negative workplace hashtags overall being: #retailproblems.
Building a "Tweet-Worthy" Workplace across Industries: Different Challenges, Consistent Commitments
Overall, the study found that mentions of "I love my job" came from a wide variety of industries, supporting what we see at Great Place To Work®: that employees' experiences of the workplace can be positive in the face of just about any industry-specific challenge Tweet: Employees’ experiences of the #workplace can be positive in the face of just about any challenge . And among the 2015 100 Best Companies to Work For, 89% of retail employees report that theirs is a great workplace, which approximates the average seen across all 100 Best Companies, demonstrating that greatness is an achievable goal—even for retail organizations.
In our recent whitepaper examining industry-specific strategies of companies that earn a spot on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, we see that the best workplaces, across all industries, overwhelmingly demonstrate a number of the same commitments. These include:
- Fostering a consistently positive employee experience across job roles and departments
- A commitment to volunteerism and philanthropy
- Treating employees fairly regardless of personal characteristics
- Providing a favorable physical work environment
- Nurturing a caring, welcoming and friendly workplace.
Attention to these commitments, no matter the industry, can be hugely impactful in building a great workplace culture—one that may even inspire your employees to catapult #ilovemyjob tweets into the ether by the gigabyte.
