Balancing Employees' Flexible Work Expectations with Productivity Goals
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Multicultural Consumer

Balancing Employees' Flexible Work Expectations with Productivity Goals

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As companies pursue their business and productivity goals, they are actively exploring strategies to keep employees satisfied in a competitive labor market. These strategies include implementing hybrid and remote work options, and even experimenting with pilots of a four-day workweek. However, in addition to prioritizing employee happiness, companies need to identify work models that effectively foster innovation, creativity, efficiency, and value creation. It is essential to strike a balance between promoting employee satisfaction/ engagement and achieving broader organizational objectives. Our latest Multicultural Consumer Survey of 2,000 US people, including workers in a range of professions, highlights some emerging trends.

Trusted Insights for What's Ahead™

As companies pursue their business and productivity goals, they are actively exploring strategies to keep employees satisfied in a competitive labor market. These strategies include implementing hybrid and remote work options, and even experimenting with pilots of a four-day workweek. However, in addition to prioritizing employee happiness, companies need to identify work models that effectively foster innovation, creativity, efficiency, and value creation. It is essential to strike a balance between promoting employee satisfaction/ engagement and achieving broader organizational objectives. Our latest Multicultural Consumer Survey of 2,000 US people, including workers in a range of professions, highlights some emerging trends.

Trusted Insights for What's Ahead™

  • Most respondents believe that fully remote work is best for their own productivity but that a hybrid model best supports their company’s productivity. To address any concerns about reduced flexibility, organizations can emphasize the advantages of working on-site, such as increased networking opportunities, relationship building, collaboration, and personal growth.
  • Employees under age 35 were most likely (43 percent) among all age groups to say they would quit if called back to fully in-person work, highlighting the importance of multigenerational work policies, including flexible scheduling and remote work, especially for companies seeking to attract and retain younger talent.
  • A four-day workweek, currently being piloted by a small number of companies globally, would require significant work reorganization and coordination to offer continuous service for customers and manage emerging crises. Employees would need to show considerable flexibility. Right now, less than a quarter of respondents say they would accept lower compensation for less time worked, and only 30 percent say they would be willing to give up some work location flexibility in exchange for a four-day workweek. Younger employees, especially those under 35, are most open to sacrificing some compensation for a shorter workweek.
  • Almost half of respondents (44 percent) say qualifying in a trade will become more important over the next five years, compared to 25 percent who see a four-year college/university degree rising in importance for job seekers. In a tight labor market and amid demographic challenges, accepting alternative credentials opens the door for organizations to consider a wider, more diverse range of candidates and for employees to consider roles that were previously unavailable to them.

Finding a Balance: Personal vs. Company Productivity

Overall, 41% of respondents feel most productive when working fully remotely, but 35–55-year-olds, higher-income earners, and Asian Americans feel most productive with a hybrid model

In general, employees say that fully remote work is best for their own productivity but that hybrid work best supports their company’s productivity

Employees of all ages, races, and income brackets consider hybrid work more productive for their company than fully remote work; Black and lower-income workers are most likely to suggest the opposite

Employees younger than 35 and older than 55 are most likely to view fully remote work as less productive for their company than for themselves, which makes a business case for working on-site at least some of the time

Hybrid Work Models Are Important to Attract Age-Diverse Talent

Flexibility divide: the option to work remotely skews toward higher-income employees who likely work in offices; lower-income earners tend to work in jobs requiring on-site presence

People are most likely to say they wouldn’t quit their job if they were called back to fully in-person work

A Four-Day Workweek Would Require Significant Work Reorganization for Many Teams and Companies

Providing uninterrupted operations with a 4-day workweek would require significant coordination and employee flexibility

Focusing on Skills and Experience Lets Companies Tap into New Talent Pools

Qualifying in a trade is rising in importance compared to a 4-year college/university degree for job seekers

People 55+ see a shift to the need for more practical experience and constant learning and away from the traditional 4-year college education

For more on the topic of workplace preferences, see: Robin Erickson, Barbara Lombardo, and Rebecca L. Ray, The Reimagined Workplace 2023: Striking a Delicate Balance, The Conference Board, July 2023.  

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