The Achievers Workforce Institute has published a report entitled The Tech-Enabled Employee Experience. The report looks at attitudes to working environments and the technology that helps cement loyalty in today’s workforce. At 26 pages in length, the report starts with an executive summary with the addition of the key findings from the report.
The report highlights that the workforce has changed during COVID with a taste of hybrid working is now demanding permanent change. This is not a move to specifically working from home, the office or hybrid but the flexibility to do all three. One of the key findings identified that belonging could drive three times more productivity.
To achieve a sense of belonging, employers must adapt to these new employee desires. However, 56% of HR leaders indicated that the C-Suite have not recognised that the ways of attracting and retaining staff have changed radically since the pandemic. This does not mean they want to always work from home, though. 85% of home workers want to work in a hybrid way, and 2/3 of business leaders want them back in the office.
There are concerns for remote workers where employers see the advantage of home working, with almost half concerned by the lack of career opportunities. The solution, unsurprisingly, is technology, according to the authors.
The report
The report itself is divided into 6 sections
- Belonging: The North Star. This looks at what belonging is and its impact on employees. The authors then reveal how employees can increase their sense of belonging in their organisation.
- Coming to terms with the new world of work. Shows how employees feel about the world of work
- Building trust in the new world of work. This section identifies the importance of trust within organisations. It then identifies three key drivers for gaining trust in leaders:
- Takes action on feedback
- meaningfully recognises employees
- happy with remote/hybrid options
- Remote worker trends: This looks briefly at the sentiment towards remote, hybrid, and office work. The answer is that all options are required, presumably down to personal circumstances. The report might have been stronger with a qualitative question to ask why people answered this way.
- Digitisation of belonging: Identifies four areas for HR to focus on the improve belonging in a hybrid workplace. They are:
- Network
- Recognition
- Wellbeing
- Feedback
The report dives deeper into these, explaining each concept
- Adapt and thrive. Argues the case for investment in these four areas. This is possibly the weakest of the sections in the report.
The report then provides some localised statistics from Australia, Canada, Singapore, the UK and the USA. HR leaders in Singapore (75%) and Australia (60%) find it hard to attract talent far higher than in other locations. Other regional variances are displayed but not explained in the report.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is certainly an interesting report and well worth a read. The findings cannot be dismissed lightly, with roughly 3,500 responses from employees and another 1,386 responses from HR leaders. The report is an easy read, with more analysis than statistics which is refreshing for a whitepaper based on a survey.
Achievers Workforce Institute’s Chief Workforce Scientist, Dr. Natalie Baumgartner commented: “A major concern for company leaders is fostering a culture of connection and belonging with a dispersed workforce. We know that a strong sense of belonging drives a 3x return on a wide number of business outcomes.
“Many leaders believe that to achieve their desired culture, employees must be in the same physical space. However, the world of work has changed and so must our approach to creating a sense of belonging for employees. Employees are sharply focused on having an experience of connection and belonging, but they are confident they can achieve it while working from anywhere.”
