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While people universally want flexibility for themselves, 68% feel it should also be available to every employee regardless of role.
In a recent report by O.C. Tanner, only 27% of leaders surveyed feel strongly prepared to help their people navigate change. Yet, employees who perceive their leaders have the tools to help them manage change are 76% less likely to experience burnout.
At the same time, they are:
- five times more likely to feel a sense of community,
- six times more likely to thrive at work, and
- 10 times more likely to feel a strong sense of trust.
Based on data gathered from more than 42,000 employees, the 2024 Global Culture Report examines the current state of the workplace to help equip leaders with insights and strategies to meet today’s most immediate and consequential challenges head on.
Among other pressing topics, the report provides an extensive analysis of the group that makes up four-fifths of the world’s workers – many of which feel overlooked and underappreciated, despite being essential to success. The group, referred to as “the 80%,” overwhelmingly lacks access to the tools, technology, and opportunities necessary to connect and advance in their workplace, and the autonomy and voice to shape their workplace experience.
Interestingly, the study noted that when employees have a voice in organisational changes, there are greater odds of:
- belief the organisation is people-centric (eight times more likely),
- feelings of trust (eight times more likely),
- sense of community (five times more likely), and
- thriving at work (three times more likely).
Overall, only 59% of employees feel their leaders’ expressions of empathy are accompanied by meaningful action and support, and only 58% of organisations take action to improve after receiving employee feedback. This is particularly significant as employees picture themselves staying 2.5 years longer at their organisation when their leader is empathetic.
Referring back to the above, workers in “the 80%” category are nearly twice as likely as their corporate peers to feel they had no options when they accepted their jobs.
Moreover, half of “the 80%” feel expendable at work; only 30% feel seen and valued.
Taking it further, nearly two of every five in “the 80%” say they are viewed as inferior by employees in the office — 35% report senior leaders minimise or dismiss their ideas, and 39% say their work is not valued as highly as office work.
To tackle such workplace challenges, the report identified five contributing factors to creating equitable flexibility:
- leadership support,
- organisational support,
- employee empowerment,
- work choice, and
- time management.
When flexibility is equitable, employees are eight times more likely to want to stay another year.
While people universally want flexibility for themselves, 68% feel it should also be available to every employee regardless of role. However, only about half (57%) say their culture supports flexibility in every job. Conversely, the odds of burnout increase by five times when employees are dissatisfied with the level of flexibility at work.
At the same time, the odds of employee fulfillment when an organisation supports skill building is five times more likely: Currently, 83% of workers have notd that it is important for prospective organisations to offer skill-building opportunities — and the top reasons for wanting them are to improve performance in a current job (54%) and to achieve personal growth (53%).
On the other hand, organisations that don’t provide any skill building have 76% lower odds of having a thriving workplace culture and 72% lower odds of having employees say they still want to work there in a year.
Quantitative findings came from online survey interviews administered to employees across Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UAE, the UK, and the US. The total sample size was 42,446 workers at companies with more than 500 employees.
Lead image / O.C. Tanner
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