Editorial
In the recovery years following the 2008 recession, many thought leaders believed talent had officially claimed victory in its historical tug of war with organizations, achieving more leverage for pay and benefits. But as the global economy dips once again, tension has re-emerged.
While some organizational leaders are wielding their newfound leverage, we’ve also seen great interest among leaders in seeking to build desirable workplaces for the long term — workplaces that don’t just keep people in their seats for a lack of alternatives, but ones that attract future talent to join and stay. But what exactly makes for a desirable workplace for today’s employees?
Employees Attitudes Have Shifted
Employee attitudes about what is most important in the workplace can change in response to the environment, which we’ve been starkly reminded of in recent years. For example, during the heart of the pandemic, research found the social aspects of work were the most important factors to attracting Americans to one job over another. During the summer of 2022 (during the peak of inflation), compensation ruled.
We’ve also seen employee expectations rise sharply during this period, effectively raising the bar for employers.
Related Article: Your Employees Won’t Feel Heard Until You Act Like You’re Listening
Understanding of how and why employee expectations and experiences change is critical to creating desirable workplaces for the future. This all begins with employee listening. In our most recent survey of these trends that ran in late 2022, we identified some predictable changes:
- Compensation has become more salient to employees. As inflation rose, so did the importance of compensation.
- A large percentage of employees report experiencing burnout. While this trend likely resonates with us all, we learned that organizational leaders were most at-risk for burnout.
- Employees are struggling more with separating their work and personal lives. Likely due to the emergence of remote and hybrid work and always-on technologies, employees report the need for more clarity from their employers on when, how and where work should get done.
While certainly not exhaustive, these three trends represent how the employee experience has evolved in a very short period of time. It’s critical for organizational leaders to understand these changes so they can respond appropriately to evolving employee expectations.
But in order for leaders to prepare for a future which will surely bring about more change and disruption, leaders must look elsewhere.
Employee Motivations Have Staying Power
At their cores, organizations are essentially just groups of people with universal motivations that are largely unchanging. When it comes to motivation and performance in the workplace, a great starting point is David McClelland’s theory. McClelland outlines three intuitive, universal human motivators
- Motivation for affiliation. As humans, we are highly social (even the most introverted of us) and work is a natural place to build relationships. Employees form deep relationships in all sorts of work environments from in-office, to hybrid, to remote. The deep emotional connections we form at work are often the glue that keeps organizations (i.e. groups of people) working together productively.
- Motivation for achievement. While individuals differ in the strength of these motivations, every human has some need to achieve, grow and develop. This finding shows up in modern employee surveys in which growth and development often top the list of drivers of engagement and intent to stay.
- Motivation for power. Humans also have needs for power, and like any individual difference, this need manifests differently from person to person. For example, while some employees are driven to leadership, others have no such interest. But just about all people seek some degree of control over their work environment. We see this play out when perceptions of autonomy and feeling heard often show up as important drivers of engagement.
Related Article: How to Build a Modern, Holistic Employee Listening Strategy
McClelland’s theory is just a starting point to understanding what is true about human motivation in the workplace. But the upshot is that leaders must consider both what changes and what doesn’t when it comes to employee expectations and motivations.
Putting It Into Practice
With insights into current employee expectations/attitudes/priorities, what can organizations do to create a desirable workplace today? Here are a few research-based suggestions:
- Cross compensation hurdles early with job candidates. With pay at the forefront of peoples’ minds, take a fail fast mindset and be upfront about total compensation and pay ranges. If a candidate drops out early because of compensation, that means neither side is wasting time on something that ultimately won’t be a good match. Once this hurdle is crossed, move on to things that really motivate people such as their future relationships with their manager and team or their growth potential at the company.
- Clarify norms and expectations around time off. Employees struggling with work-life integration consistently point to a lack of clarity from their leaders. Leaders must directly address common questions such as: Can I leave work to pick up my kids at 3:30? or: if I get an email after hours, am I expected to reply right away?
- Combat burnout by hunting for inefficient processes. One of the biggest predictors of burnout is inefficient processes. Experiences that should work but don’t are frustrating and often appear small and inconsequential to leaders. But these experiences can build up, creating unnecessary work and redundancies that can frustrate employees and customers alike and ultimately contribute to burnout.
- Bring people together with purpose. Even the most fervent supporters of remote work that we have studied report value in in-person collaboration. This is especially true for complex problems that require many people to coordinate. As organizations continue to bring people back into the office, hammer home the benefits to employees (not just the benefits to the group as a whole) and create physical environments that invite collaboration (e.g. open spaces with white boards, not villages of six-foot cubicles).
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Related Article: Employee Feedback Is Critical to a Great Employee Experience
Future-Proof Your Workplace
The specific aspects of a desirable workplace will naturally change over time, and we should expect the rate of this change to accelerate with technology. Organizational leaders must understand these evolving expectations and this requires ongoing employee listening and dialogue.
But in order for leaders to build a desirable workplace for the long term, they must place bets for the future. Organizations are still groups of people at their cores, and the universal truths of what motivates people are unlikely to change anytime soon.
Ultimately, work can and should be healthy for people. Work invites us to build strong social connections (motivation for affiliation), gives us a social vehicle to grow and achieve something great (motivation for achievement) and affords us opportunities to exercise control over our lives (motivation for power). No matter what disruptions come, these can serve as a north star.
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