How AI-Based Sentiment Analysis Can Improve Employee Satisfaction

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With tech talent in short supply, companies are desperate to retain the best. However, many are losing ground. Employees stay on site for much shorter periods of time than before.

What can you do? Sentiment analysis coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) is being leveraged to help companies in several ways: finding out what employees think of their work environment, how strongly they feel about training and employee development initiatives, skills are effective, what their concerns are, and how to spot danger signs, identify signs of burnout, identify indicators of job dissatisfaction, and prevent employees from leaving rivals.

The average seniority of an American employee is no longer what it used to be. Joining the firm used to be considered almost a lifetime commitment. Since the 1960s, however, the average length of stay has decreased. According to the United States Bureau of Labor, the current average is only 4.1 years. In some companies it is much lower.

"We are moving from older generations who joined the company after college and spent their careers with us, to younger generations who spend an average of 2.8 years and move on," said Andrea Legnani , Global Head of Alumni Relations at Citi.

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A study by CyLumena found tenure was even shorter among senior security executives: 18 to 26 months. Several factors can cause the change. The younger generations seem less loyal to their employer. A steady pattern of layoffs after each downturn hasn't helped. Entry-level staff are also happy to move from job to job in their 20s and sometimes even in their 30s, as they have no intention of starting a family until they are older and need to settle down. Other contributing elements may include the big resignation, a quiet start, or overwork due to operating with reduced staff. But burnout can also contribute, especially in IT areas such as cybersecurity.

A recent survey by Heidrick and Struggles found that the two most significant risks CISOs face in their role are stress and burnout.

"CISOs can't get ahead when they're stuck fighting fires," said Yoran Sirkis, co-founder and CEO of Seemplicity, a risk management and productivity platform. "With an average backlog of over 100,000 vulnerabilities at any given time, there's an industry-wide problem of security teams racing to catch up."

Research by A.Team and MassChallenge 2022 Tech Work Report surveyed nearly 600 tech founders and executives to provide insight into the future of work in the tech industry. Product and engineering roles were cited by 39% of employers as the most difficult positions to fill. Additionally, 62% of respondents said it took them more than four months to find the right talent to fill these vacancies. Nearly half (44%) said they lost a large portion of their top performers to the big quit.

Obviously, all is not well in the land of personnel...