Years of disruption have propelled employers and employees into distinctly different worlds of priorities, pressures, and prospects.
Now in its fourth iteration, the latest EY 2023 Work Reimagined Survey reveals an emerging skyline for the “next normal” of work, detailing the contours of a rebalance in workforce realities and what factors contribute most to better outcomes.
Organizations are no longer purely driven by the lingering consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers now see their challenges through the cyclical lens of economic, labor and geopolitical pressures, requiring workforce strategy to more fully move beyond any one business function. Hybrid work has evolved to require more thoughtful considerations for how technology, office space and amenities influence productivity, culture, and trust, but also consideration of the risks involved with a more mobile workforce. Employees, meanwhile, are guided largely by structural workforce realities, retaining more perceived power in the labor market and being willing to change jobs to get what they want. Many employees are driven by a need for better total rewards packages amid high inflation and cost of living, by their desire for better well-being, and by a need to have the skills to succeed in a world of continued work flexibility.
The survey shows:
- Thirty-four percent of employees say they’re willing to change jobs in the next 12 months, with employers being more likely than employees to think economic challenges will reduce likely employee turnover. Pay remains the primary employee concern, keeping focus on comprehensive total rewards programs.
- Employers and employees believe the power balance has slightly shifted back toward employers in the last year, although employees have gained 8% in perceived power since 2019.
- Cultivating trust and having a people-centric leadership model is linked to significantly better organizational outcomes, including perceptions of better culture and productivity.
- Skills-building and training are top priorities for employers looking to upskill and reskill their workforce and for employees looking to remain competitive in a still strong labor market.
- Both employees and employers show enthusiasm for Generative AI (GenAI), with a net positive 33% expecting benefits to productivity and new ways of working, and 44% net positive for impacts on flexible working. But both groups see GenAI training as a low priority.
- Among knowledge workers whose work is traditionally based primarily on using analysis or subject expertise in a professional office setting, more than a third prefer to work fully remote, with stronger preference shown among women than men. Just a fifth of employers prefer fully remote, with a majority wanting employees to work at least two or three days per week in an office.
- Better quality commercial real estate is not enough to attract employees back to the office on its own, but organizations with higher-graded workplaces are also more likely to report better productivity, culture, and a decreased likelihood of employees wanting to quit.
Cyclical and structural pressures have revealed stark and persistent differences between employer and employee priorities. Navigating the way forward will rely on leaders seeing this Great Rebalance as an opportunity to re-energize their workforce strategy to be technologically evolved yet inherently people-centric, agile and resilient.
The EY 2022 Work Reimagined Survey reveals employee and employer insights amid a “Great Resignation.” Some employees feel empowered; gaps remain.
Dramatic changes in the ways we work and think about work have caused a tidal shift in how we view our priorities and prospects in daily life. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a work realignment already in progress, and transformed our understanding of success, purpose and value. Rising inflation, The Great Resignation, and calls for commitment and action on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, are further reshaping a workforce terrain that we’re all trying to navigate with new eyes. As the initial waves of health-driven change roll into new ones, the workforce is resettling into pools based on how we work, what we value and who we are.
It’s a new moment with new opportunities and a need for greater context for the how, what and why of work.
The EY 2022 Work Reimagined Survey reveals insights from more than 17,000 employees and 1,575 employers across 22 countries and 26 industries. The findings explore chief motivators of workforce turnover or retention and highlight areas of focus for leaders looking to lean in to the opportunities of the moment.
The survey shows:
- Both employers and employees recognize that making provisions for hybrid and flexible work is a necessity, but not all employers have created and communicated a formal and clear policy and guidelines.
- Employees feel empowered, yet nearly half (43%) of respondents say they’re likely to leave their employer in the next year. Total pay is their chief concern amid tighter labor markets and new opportunities.
- The groups most expecting to leave their jobs identified as being Gen Z or millennials in the United States (53%) and working in the technology/hardware sector (60%).
- Employers who have shown a proactive approach to the changing world of work feel more optimistic about what’s happening now and next in terms of changes to productivity and culture.
- Both Total Rewards and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) are seen by employers and employees as areas demanding greater attention and action.
We find ourselves poised to fully reimagine a more sustainable and human-centered workforce strategy. By responding decisively to the moment and recognizing the necessity for sustainable transformation of business, employers can redefine a new way of working that preserves the talent pipeline and future value.
How we’re working in a changed world
As much as the world would like to move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, we find ourselves still rocked by a world in flux, including in the ways we’re working. Both employers and employees at first — necessarily — focused on short-term decisions to forge through one of the biggest health challenges in a generation. But now attitudes and strategies toward work are being molded by other macrotrends. Analysis from The World Bank shows expectation for slowing economic growth and persistently high inflation in coming years, and a need for coordinated action to address the severe costs of weather and climate disasters.
This backdrop colors the landscape for business investment and employee sentiment at a time when The Great Resignation appears to still be in full swing in some parts of the world.