Reimagining work around the world: new survey
With the workplace in flux, EY’s ‘2022 Work Reimagined Survey’ shows what matters to employees. Leaders can lean into the opportunities and build workplaces that will attract, recruit and retain people.
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The Great Workplace Return?
While employees are keen to go away and travel on business, they are looking less favourably on a full-time return to the office. Four in five employees around the world want to work at least two days remotely per week. This year, only a fifth voiced reluctance toward fully remote working, compared to 34% last year. In an interesting finding for employers based in large conurbations around the world, 40% of people with a 30-minute or less commute were significantly more likely to be open to working fully in person in the office. The figure falls significantly to a quarter when commutes extend to 30 minutes and beyond.Whether or not employers are receiving these clear messages or responding effectively is an open question. When asked about their organisation’s commitment to providing flexibility around when and where people work, more employers (78%) than employees (67%) felt this was the case.And when it comes to promoting hybrid work to attract and retain talent at a time when some element of hybrid working is a clear factor in talent management, just 49% of employees agreed with this statement compared to 75% of employers. This suggests that employers struggling with skills shortages may do well to raise the profile of their efforts in this area, for example through campaigns such as Flex From 1st, offer different forms of flexible working and via line managers.Back to the future?
Other areas where employers are out of step with employees is on the question of whether productivity has improved since the beginning of the pandemic (41% versus 64% respectively) and whether organisational culture has improved since the pandemic (40% versus 61% respectively).It seems that leaders are keen to get back to a pre-pandemic normal, while employees are happier with pandemic-induced workplace changes.However, pay is one area where employers and employees are more closely aligned. Around four in five (79%) of employees are looking for opportunities to increase total pay. Employers (83%) agree that the pandemic has accelerated a need for extensive changes to a rewards policy, including compensation, wellbeing, flexible benefits, time off and personal development.Yet meeting both business and employee needs is likely to be another balancing act, despite some shared priorities.When asked what three factors would be decisive in accepting another job offer, employees responded with:- higher pay (35%)
- flexible working (32%)
- better career opportunities (25%).
- learning and skills (37%)
- flexible working (36%)
- investment in employee wellbeing (32%).
Wellbeing at work
If this is the case, it reinforces the view that employers could benefit from being more inclusive and valuing diversity and equity (DEI), especially from the vantage point of wellbeing.As well as delineating the data by employer and employee, EY broke the figures down for age, role, gender, industry, ethnicity and country. Among the key findings here are that across the whole sample, men report higher levels of wellbeing (59%) due to new ways of working introduced by the pandemic, compared to 17% who saw their wellbeing decline. For women, four in ten saw improvement, while 29% saw a decline. This bears out studies carried out by consultancies like McKinsey, as reported by Relocate Global's Think Global People magazine. Generation Z and Millennials were also more likely to look for new work, according to the EY survey. Interestingly from the perspective of perceptions of productivity and willingness to return to the office, those working in executive leadership (66%) and technology (65%) benefited most from the wellbeing effect. Those seeing the fewest benefits were people working in customer service (32%), administration or general staff (36%), operations or logistics (38%). These are likely front-line occupations among the large minority of jobs where remote working is not an option for operational purposes and where people still had to go to a physical workplace throughout lockdowns. Around three in ten of these three groups saw their wellbeing decline – the largest decline among the 11 occupational groups. By country/region, more people in India (75%), the Middle East (70%) and Indonesia (70%) experienced positive impacts from changed ways of working compared to Scandinavia (32%), Japan (29%) and New Zealand (29%).Accentuating agility
The ability to be agile in response to and pre-empting change is one of the key success factors for organisations and individuals in this age of uncertainty. EY notes that optimistic employers – those that have been “proactive in their approach to flexible work, real estate and technology” – are more likely to agree they’ve seen positive outcomes.Concluding its report, EY says: “Work has been reimagined by employees and employers, but their visions don’t always align. Both see flexibility and hybrid work as the new normal, though further details reveal divisions. Employees are still willing to leave their jobs to advance their career and pay potential."For employers and employees alike, international remote working and distributed workforces are attractive options or already established. However, embedding these successfully still means paying attention to culture, rewards and benefits.“Global uncertainty connected to inflation and labour costs are fuelling reluctance among employers who are not eager to reset pay and career opportunities," continues EY. "If companies don’t address pay equity between internal and external labour markets, then efforts toward improving culture, productivity and DE&I will be neutralised by turnover."By acting with intentionality, leaders can build trust and orient their organisations toward an optimistic future.”Join us at the Future of Work Festival on 9 June to be part of a unique experience driving innovation and collaboration for growth. Book tickets here.
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Read more in the spring 2022 issue of Think Global People.
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