The past few years have seen increased
attention to the ways we work, but not all trends are new or are
likely to be permanent changes
If you believed every Future of Work trend you read about in the
past few years, we might all be working from an RV on the beach,
and business travel would be dead. But of course, professional
conventions are back and many office workers are getting
reacquainted with their commutes.
In the spirit of mythbusting, Qualtrics (Nasdaq: XM) took a look
at today’s hottest workplace trends to evaluate which are the real
deal – and which will join “digital nomads” as short-lived
fads.
“It’s easy to get caught up in the popular conversation, but I
would encourage leaders to check in directly with their own teams,”
said Qualtrics Chief Workplace Psychologist Dr. Benjamin Granger.
“Leaders should leverage insights from existing employee listening
efforts and engage in direct dialogue with team members about these
trends to determine if they mirror what’s happening in the
organization.”
Myth: The pandemic shook up employee priorities so much that
people now care more about company values than pay.
Reality: Values are an important priority for employees, but in
2022, compensation was the most important factor for people when
evaluating hypothetical job offers.
Employees do pay attention to and care about how well their
company’s values align with their own. Employees who say their
company’s values align with their own are less likely to consider
leaving (33% versus 44% of employees with values that don’t match).
However, in 2022 as global inflation spiked, compensation carried
three times as much weight in the decision-making process as the
company’s social and environmental focus. It was the most important
factor in the decision when people were asked to compare two
hypothetical jobs.
Myth: Gen Z set boundaries between work and their personal
lives by inventing “quiet quitting” and “career
cushioning.”
Reality: These are buzzy new names for behaviors that employees
have exhibited for decades and are not specific to Gen Z.
The share of employees displaying behaviors that could indicate
they are “quiet quitting” did not significantly increase since the
beginning of the pandemic, even among Gen Z employees. In fact, a
higher share of young workers said they were very or extremely
likely to do something good for their company even if it wasn’t
expected of them in 2022 (57%) compared with 2020 (54%).
“These are modern names for age-old challenges that
organizational leaders have faced for decades, but technology and
social media created new ways for them to manifest in the
workplace. In our increasingly digital and dispersed workplaces,
leaders should be prepared to look out for slightly different
signals of employee withdrawal,” said Granger.
Myth: The answer to burnout is wellness benefits, like
meditation apps, on-site gyms and healthy lunches and
snacks.
Reality: Strong fundamentals of work are effective ways to avoid
burnout, and employees say more flexibility over when and where
they work is among the most impactful ways to improve their mental
health.
Concerns about employee well-being and burnout led companies to
introduce new wellness benefits, but data from the Qualtrics
Employee Experience Trends Report finds that the fundamentals are
just as important.
The top drivers of reducing the risk of burnout are:
- Believing in company values
- Having work processes that enable productivity
- Believing career goals can be met at a company
- Being treated with respect
- Believing that the company has an outstanding future
Employees also say more flexibility around work would improve
their mental health - especially the flexibility to choose which
hours they work instead of following a strict schedule, and the
freedom to take care of personal errands or appointments during the
day.
According to Granger, “It’s very natural for organizational
leaders to explore benefits or things that can be added to address
employees’ needs, but adding resources or activities to employees
already full plates isn’t necessarily the answer. Humans have an
innate sense of fairness, and when something seems unfair - like
not being paid equitably for their work - it can take a significant
mental toll.”
Myth: Demand that employees work from the office is solely
coming from executives at the top.
Reality: Employees newer to the workforce also prefer to spend
at least some of their time in an office with their coworkers.
Younger employees (18-34 years old) were the most likely age
groups to report increased willingness to work 2 days a week in the
office, according to Qualtrics research. Spending time together can
help newer employees learn a company’s working norms and gain
valuable insights from peers and mentors. Qualtrics research on
mentorship found that the most successful mentor-mentee
relationships were most likely to meet in person.
“Affiliation is a powerful and universal human need and while
this can happen in virtual environments, employees across the globe
acknowledge the benefits of being in-person sometimes,” said
Granger. “The key is to bring people together with purpose -
effective collaboration and the development of social and
leadership skills are great reasons to come together in
person.”
Trends with Staying
Power
Of course, some trends are more than myths, and are likely to
become new norms in the ways we work.
Video conferencing is here to stay. The pause in business
travel forced employees to adopt this technology at a large scale,
and even as travel resumes, a number of meetings can now be held
just as efficiently by video. Over the course of the pandemic, the
percentage of global workers who say teams collaborate effectively
and that their company continually improves how work gets done
increased1, an indication of the effectiveness of this
technology.
Leaders are more invested in employees. The pandemic
highlighted a need for leaders who care holistically about
employees, and show genuine transparency and empathy in challenging
and uncertain times. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of HR and People
leaders report increased attention to the employee experience among
senior leadership than there was pre-pandemic. Research shows the
benefits of engaged, happy employees on the customer experience,
ultimately contributing to bottom-line results.
Mental health isn’t a taboo topic at work. The pandemic
opened the conversation around mental health as people increasingly
showed signs of anxiety and depression, in part due to social
isolation in the early days of pandemic. This shared experience
reduced the stigma of talking about mental health at work, and
workers feel more safe to discuss it, with an increasing share of
employees reporting that they have trusting relationships at work,
according to the Qualtrics Employee Experience Trends Report.
About Qualtrics
Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the experience management
category, is a cloud-native software provider that helps
organizations quickly identify and resolve points of friction
across all digital and human touchpoints in their business – so
they can retain their best customers and employees, protect their
revenue, and drive profitability. More than 18,750 organizations
around the world use Qualtrics’s advanced AI to listen, understand,
and take action. Qualtrics uses its vast universe of experience
data to form the largest database of human sentiment in the world.
Qualtrics is co-headquartered in Provo, Utah and Seattle, and
operates out of 28 offices globally. To learn more, please visit
qualtrics.com.
12023 Qualtrics Employee Experience Trends Report
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230509005568/en/
Lauren Braun, Qualtrics press@qualtrics.com
Grafico Azioni Qualtrics (NASDAQ:XM)
Storico
Da Nov 2024 a Dic 2024
Grafico Azioni Qualtrics (NASDAQ:XM)
Storico
Da Dic 2023 a Dic 2024