How AT&T Is Learning What 200,000 Employees Really Want

BY Christina Cook | November 02, 2022

For Ben Jackson, AT&T’s vice president of HR technology and analytics, listening to what 200,000 employees really want means to never stop learning. Successfully navigating the still-tight labor market involves two-way listening, and, as Jackson said, that starts with focusing on the employee experience: “You’re going to hear this theme a lot, and I think it’s exactly right. We are constantly listening.”

Jackson sat down with Jason Wheeler, a news anchor and editor for WFAA-TV, for a fireside chat at From Day One’s Dallas conference in October. During the conversation, Jackson shed light on how the expectations of workers have changed and how AT&T is responding. “We do a large annual survey of all 200,000 of our employees. And then we are constantly doing micro-segmentation listening, whether that’s focus groups or polling new hires, people who just changed jobs, or people who got promoted and are now supervisors for the first time. And we ask them questions like: Do you feel like you have what you need to be successful?”

To get the most out of their talent, Jackson said companies should commit to a listening strategy now. And while many companies chose to relax employee performance reviews during the height of the pandemic, Jackson said that at AT&T, “we are doubling down a little more.”

He continued: “We made a change to performance reviews in the middle of Covid by reintroducing the ‘how’–not only what you accomplished and how you drove results in the business, but your leadership skills and how you did your job. For us that’s really important. We use that information as we identify our top talent. Obviously, we want people who are delivering results and crushing it every day, but also how they lead others, and the skills that they use to interface with their teams.”

When the time came to begin asking some employees to return to the office, Jackson acknowledged the importance of the language used when communicating with AT&T’s workforce. Specifically, Jackson said that for about 40% of AT&T employees, working from home was never an option. Retail workers and technicians, for example, showed up to a physical site throughout the pandemic and Jackson shared that acknowledging the contributions of those employees, and their sacrifices, was extremely important. He said, “We worked really closely with our corporate communications partners to really go over each word to make sure that we’re continuing to recognize the 60,000 people and all that they did, but then also re-invite this other group back so that we can start to collaborate in person.”

Wheeler, right, is the editor of WFAA’s “Right on the Money” program

For the remote and hybrid workers, Jackson said that providing structure and purposeful reasoning for a return to in-person work was paramount. Department supervisors led these conversations and focused on the value of connecting in person.

Listening to employees also spotlighted a need for a renewed focus on mental health and wellness. “I think the long tail of Covid is going be the mental health outcomes. If you look at substance abuse, if you look at the effects of isolation, we have many people that were home by themselves for a long time and the mental health outcomes and emotional health outcomes that go with that, I think we’re going to be living with this for a long time.”

To combat this, AT&T has invested in a long-term solution with the appointment of a chief wellness officer for the organization. The company also hosts health and wellness fairs during which employees have free access to health practitioners at their job site. AT&T has also focused on making the process for workers availing themselves of these benefits easier and more streamlined. Ultimately, Jackson said, “The data is really clear that happy, healthy employees are productive employees. So, I think the health care aspect of what we can offer is maybe the most important right now. I think we’re going to see a wave of new solutions and new models, because the effects of the pandemic are going to be with us for a long time. We’ve got to find ways to continue to support people.”

During the pandemic and recent labor shortage, workers gained a lot of leverage in their relationships with employers. Will a recession change this balance of power? “If I had to predict, maybe we’ll see more softening [in the labor market] for about the next year or so. I think it’s going to swing back to the employer side, but comparing where we are now to where we were pre-Covid, I think the employee is going to retain a lot of power, especially people in technical talent,” Jackson said.

Christina Cook is a freelance writer based in Dallas. She writes about a variety of topics, including art, film, and live theater. Her 2017 children’s book, Your Hands Can Change the World, was a regional bestseller, and she is the founder of the hyperlocal arts blog Dallas Art Beat.

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