Mind the Gap

Every week, headlines are made as different leaders of global organizations issue mandates that appear to disregard any employee preferences and call for a full-time return to the office. While our data showed a significantly increasing number of people going back into the office, we also captured whether this was autonomous or mandated, and were surprised by the results. Close to 8 in 10 employees said they’re currently in jobs giving them the autonomy to choose their workplace each day and 7 in 10 are happy with the flexibility they currently have.

In 2023, a piece of Microsoft research investigated the increase in time spent communicating across all apps, and the impact it was having on employees to focus and work. Interestingly, the leading barrier to productivity according to that research was having inefficient meetings. With this in mind, we wanted to find out what the root causes of inefficient meetings are.

As meeting equity has shifted in hybrid work, we know that people have been challenged in online meeting environments and making sure everyone can equally participate is vital. At the same time, poor meeting agendas, not being able to read the room and issues like people speaking over each other could be easily remedied with the right guidance and training.

Surprisingly, the simplest and most easily solved issues are still the biggest. Quality of internet connection (48%), quality of audio (32%) and quality of video (28%) were rated significantly higher, as the leading barriers to productivity in meetings.

Despite the increasing number of people returning to the office at least once a week for work, most meetings still take place online. Here, the basic “meeting hygiene” factors still appear to be the ones most needing our attention. We know that less than 1 in 3 knowledge workers are using headsets with a boom-arm and only 19% are using a webcam. With this in mind, organizations can tackle some of the biggest pain points of modern-day meetings with professional technology, giving every employee the right audio and video solutions to meet.¹

Over the past decade, mental wellbeing awareness has increased in the workplace, with organizations and leaders doing more to address mental health and employee wellbeing. However, it can be difficult to address a problem if you don’t know it exists. While more than 7 in 10 Gen Z employees report being generally satisfied in their current jobs, 52% report feeling stressed and burned out. At the same time, almost half of all Gen Z’s we surveyed are expecting to change jobs within the next year.

Burnout and mental health should be a major area of focus for any organization wanting to protect its most valuable resource, its people. However, it’s difficult to solve if you’re not sure where it exists. As much as Gen Z also report that changing jobs is a career development driver, companies need to consider retention and wellbeing strategies across their workforce. Top-down, hierarchical leadership, with rules around when and where people work will easily lead to further disengagement. In a world where job possibilities are endless, Gen Z is ready to leave if their needs aren’t met.

Key data points:

What does it take to get to the top? In a world of social media, influencers and access to information, the factors that affect our perceptions of career importance, and what it takes to get to the top, are broader than ever. As pay transparency grows, hierarchies flatten and work-life balance is reframed, people’s career aspirations might shift. Regardless of what type of career individuals might want, 82% still say that career achievements are important to their personal sense of identity and success.

But while the youngest generation is no less career focused than those before them, they do want to do so with greater work-life balance. Gen Z is often considered a work-life balance focused generation, but our data shows that 43% say that work and career still play a bigger role than their personal life. However, when asked about what measures constitute success in their careers, almost 1 in 3 say work-life balance is an important measure. Gen Z is not looking to compromise one for the other and has a different expectation, where being ambitious with their career while maintaining a strong work-life balance is a core goal.

This could be based on the number of entrepreneurs and creators in today’s world, or other factors like the rise in the gig economy or side hustle. It comes down to control, and a generation who are far more focused on taking control of their lives and careers on their own terms, with far more options and less dependence. Organizations should be mindful of the ways in which they enable and engage Gen Z, with an awareness of the factors that matter most to them.

Leading a team is challenging in today’s world of work is more challenging than ever before. Our roles and team needs are evolving at a faster pace than ever, AI is integrating into our workflows, and a generationally diverse workforce call for different needs from their managers. So, what matters most to employees today when looking at the qualities they most want in their manager?

Gen Z would rather have an empathetic manager than an experienced one and consider honesty and integrity five times more important than experience in a field of work. Less than 1 in 10 Gen Z employees consider experience and knowledge an important quality and even less find experience within the company important.

With a hybrid workforce, day-to-day connection as well as long-term belonging is driven by people. People are going into the office to connect with other people, and find that having more personal conversations or forming friendships in the workplace is what make them feel more connected to their work and the organization.

As such, managers need to re-engage with their teams. One meaningful conversation a week with someone’s manager can make all the difference between their sense of connection and belonging, or disengagement with work. It’s more important now than ever that leaders make time for honest, empathetic, and transparent conversations. Employees in our survey said that even chat messages or online catch ups can help nurture this sense of belonging. Leaders should make use of all the communication channels available to them in hybrid work, as well as with facetime in office, and remember that not every conversation needs to be work focused or operational. Often, the ones that aren’t are those that foster employee belonging the most.