Kind leadership is pivotal
to a great revival.

In the second annual Humankindex research, Signature Consultants continued to examine the impact of kind leadership and cultural values amid a complex landscape. In addition to conducting an online survey of 1,004 full-time (30+ hours per week) workers aged 18 and older, in partnership with national research and data firm Dynata, Signature also surveyed 200 C-level executives with national representation.

Kind leadership is a recruiting game changer.

The 2022 Humankindex finds job seekers will increasingly take leadership and culture into account when making job decisions.

83%

of employees agree that “kind leadership is more important to me than ever when choosing an employer/job.”

86%

of employees agree that leadership style and culture will have an impact on their future job decision, with 52% saying it will have a significant impact.

89%

of employees agree that “in order to build a high-performance workforce, companies will need to promote a culture of kindness to attract more talent.”

71%

of C-suite leaders agree kind leadership and culture are more vital than ever to recruiting and retaining talent.

74%

of C-suite executives named “we are able to hire a wider range of specialized talent and skills to drive innovation and success” as the top benefit resulting from a culture of kindness.

An organization is 5X more likely to be considered innovative if a company is kind.

Employees named a leadership style of “puts kindness before anything else” as most correlated to competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Boosting financial performance and competitive edge.

A company’s leadership that “puts kindness before anything else,” led to more of a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

50%

of companies named “we have increased our financial performance” as top benefit resulting from a culture of kindness.

70%

of companies strongly agree/agree that their company’s kind leadership style has led to more of a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

A different view from the C-Suite.

The driving factors behind the Great Resignation are no doubt, numerous and complex. Arguably, however, one of the leading causes is a long-held disconnect among C-suite executives and their frontline staff.

52%

of employees who agree their company's leadership has embraced the value of kindness more since the pandemic.

80%

of C-suite leaders who agree their company's leadership has embraced the value of kindness more since the pandemic.

Meaning over money.

In a year where everyone is facing financial challenges due to inflation, meaningful work remains more valuable than money to most employees, particularly younger IT professionals.

6 of 10 workers

7 of 10
IT workers

say they would rather have a management team that helped them find meaning in their work than receive a 5% pay increase.

What’s better for business, kindness or profits?

Clearly, profits matter in business. Without it, organizations wouldn’t survive. But is it best to lead with that? Signature’s research has found several tangible positive outcomes to putting kindness first and before profits.

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