Can Corporations Keep Up with a Changing Work World?

Written by Steven Urban and Kat Cox

It’s been four years since the COVID-19 pandemic caused shutdowns around the world. In the years since, the nature of work has changed in every industry, from service jobs to manufacturing to knowledge-based work. Workers themselves have changed, with 40% of adults reporting mental health issues like anxiety and depression in 2021, up from 10% in the first half of 2019.

Most people have accepted that we’ve entered a new paradigm that will never go back to our previously known “normal”, from a higher cost of living to greater uncertainty in our daily lives due to political strife and economic conditions out of our control. But are corporations adapting to our post-pandemic world, or are they keeping their heads in the sand and refusing to change?

What Workers Want and Need

After the pandemic, more and more workers have come out saying that they want certain baseline conditions in a job. Somewhat surprisingly, these conditions aren’t necessarily as simple as higher pay or better health benefits. Instead, workers now want flexibility, psychological safety, and to do meaningful work that they’re good at.

Choice and Flexibility

Remote work was one of the biggest changes to come out of the pandemic. Workers don’t appear to want remote work to be their only option. What they do want is a choice in where they work and when.

Why people leave jobs or look for new ones may be one of the biggest indicators of what workers want. According to a study by Pew Research, 45% said they left because their jobs didn’t offer them enough flexibility in their schedules. Gallup reported in 2023 that 90% of U.S. employees who work in an office did not want to return to the office full-time. Harvard Business Review reported that 40% of employees in the U.S. said they’d look for another job or quit outright if they were forced to return to the office full-time.

As of January 2022, 61% of workers who had the option of working in an office or from home chose to work from home because they wanted to. Interestingly, a majority of the workers who chose to go into their workplace’s office to work reported that they felt more productive there than working from home. The key to what employees want when it comes to the time they put into work is choice: they’d like to work where, when, and how they can be most productive while still balancing their personal lives, health, and responsibilities.

Meaningful Work

Beyond choosing when, where, and how to do their jobs, employees increasingly want their work to matter. Gartner reported that employees are seeking a sense of personal value at work, which means reflecting on what brings them joy, what makes them feel whole, and where they need to create boundaries. The less they feel a job aligns with the answers to these questions, the more likely they are to leave a job.

Forbes also reported that employees want to work in a place that gives them meaningful work and purpose as well as the opportunity to advance and grow, both in their careers and personally. This means they want employers to offer them training, development opportunities, and a clear line of advancement, plus chances to contribute to a broader mission.

Empathy and Support

Employees also want work-life balance and respect for personal needs, including empathy from their employers. They want benefits for taking care of family members, especially children, and mental health. The American Psychological Association’s 2022 Work and Well-Being survey showed that 81% of employees reported that how employers support their mental health will play a role in how they look for future opportunities.

According to that Pew study, 57% of workers quit their jobs in 2021 because they felt disrespected at work. And 48% of those with children under 18 years said they left a job because of childcare issues. It goes beyond providing mental health benefits, workout equipment, or paid time off. Employees want to feel that their workplaces support them on a personal level.

What Workers Get Now

When it comes to flexibility and remote work, there’s a disconnect between what employees want and what employers are willing to give them. A 2022 report by Business Insider lead with the headline that 85% of managers don’t trust their employees to be productive when they’re not in the office. Harvard Business Review reported that 40% of the managers they surveyed said they weren’t confident they could manage their workers remotely.

Still, hybrid and flexible schedules have been gaining in practice in U.S. corporations. As of January 2024, the Journal of Accountancy reported that the number of companies requiring employees to work in the office full-time dropped from nearly half at the start of 2023 to less than 4 in 10 at the end of the year. The split across full-time in-office, fully flexible, and hybrid schedules across U.S. companies was almost equal. And according to Inc., companies that offer flexible work programs bring in twice as many hires as fully in-office programs.

Corporations do appear to be hearing what workers are saying when it comes to mental health. According to Mercer, 76% of respondents to a Mercer study of workplaces said addressing employees’ mental and emotional health would become a priority within five years. And 94% of large employers say they’ve strengthened mental health coverage or added new programs to support mental health in the past three years. But while the Gartner study reports that while 82% of employees want their organization to see them “as a person”, fewer than half (45%) say they believe their organization sees them this way.

Keeping Up in A New World

Empowering employees to be authentic, productive, and healthy at work is the new standard when it comes to workplace goals. How can employers and employees both find new ways to function in this new paradigm?

Giving employees the tools they need to collaborate, get their work done, and balance their well-being is essential. At Build Your Alliance, we provide evidence-based coaching for teams, individual contributors, and leaders to establish self-awareness and build a foundation for better working relationships. Our programs give employees and employers the power to create an environment of resilience and trust.

Book an initial consultation to talk with a certified BYA coach and find out which programs can help your business become the sort of place employees want to work through meaning, wellness, and flexibility.