It’s a new year and that means there are new rules and guidelines we have to follow when it comes to our careers or when we’re looking for a job.
2022 has been a challenging year for both employees and employers. It was the year in which we mastered hybrid working, and for many, the perfect workplace solution has yet to become a reality.
Employees prefer hybrid working more than their managers, which can lead to friction, but the data favors workers: a recent piece of Gartner research found that employees who get to decide when they work are 2.3 times more likely to perform better than those who don’t.
In addition, having autonomy reduces employee fatigue by 1.9 times – crucial for maintaining performance and helping fight burnout – and also makes people 2.3 times more likely to join their organization. to stay.
But that wasn’t the only dilemma American workers faced last year. Cost-of-living tightness impacted pay packages and technology layoffs hit hard. As we enter the first weeks of a new year, it’s a good time to look at how the seismic shifts of 2022 will shape the workplace of 2023.
Even more flexibility
Hybrid may have been the buzzword of 2022, but this year we’re looking at even more flexibility at work. A recent four-day-a-week, six-month pilot program coordinated by non-profit organizations 4-day week worldwideincluded more than 30 companies and nearly 1,000 employees in countries such as the US, Ireland and Australia.
And the results are eye-opening. After the trial, the participating companies rated their experience a nine out of 10, with none returning to a five-day work week. Sales increased by an average of 38% compared to the same period last year, and employees said the extra day was so valuable to them that 70% said they needed a 10-50% pay rise to return to a 40 – hour work week.
Work as a social space
The pandemic has changed a lot about how we work for the better, but one of the things that has been negatively impacted is the lack of access to colleagues, especially for those who are now working completely remotely. In 2023 we can hear more about the importance of social connections in our work, and how personal work and socializing in the office can provide that.
In reality, This is according to data from Gallup that having a ‘best friend’ at work is a big driver of employee happiness at work. Having a BFF at work contributes to communication and engagement and it has also become more important since the start of the pandemic: 49% of employees who do not have a work friend say they are currently looking for a new job.
Benefits become more important
Thanks to inflation and rising prices, wages were a huge driver of job movements in 2022. According to Pew research centerbetween January and March 2022, an average of about nine million workers left their workplace each month. From April 2021 to March 2022, 60% of those who changed jobs saw their actual income increase compared to the same month of the previous year.
This year, benefits take center stage. According to Indeed and Glassdoor Report on Hiring and Workplace Trends 2023among US workers aged 25-54, higher wages were the most common reason to look for a new job, but benefits are becoming increasingly important as part of a total package.
The report also found that searches for health insurance increased by 44% for higher-wage workers, searches for paid time off increased by 74%, and searches for retirement plans increased by 56%.
It’s the Year of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)
Gallup asked recently more than 13,000 employees which was most important to them when deciding whether to accept a new job from a new employer, and 42% of respondents said that “the organization is diverse and includes all types of people”.
Where once the focus of such interest was around gender, much of the recent employee interest in workplace diversity and inclusion measures can be seen as a result of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis two years ago, and the international Black Lives Matter protests that followed. Both highlight the importance of these issues for employees.
Moreover, the World Health Organization also estimates that 1.3 billion people, or 17% of the world’s population, live with a disability. In this context, the World Economic Forum says that it is the private sector that increasingly plays a key role in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, and must prioritize D&I initiatives on the CEO’s agenda and embed them in core activities .
Companies taking it a step further include Goldman Sachs, which has won a number of awards, including the Euromoney Awards for Excellence: World’s Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion.
Despite the rocky year it has endured with valuation declines and layoffs, Klarna, the Swedish fintech unicorn that provides online financial services, has also gained a reputation for its ambitious D&I goals.
And Shopify, the e-commerce platform, has a global strategy for diversity and connection, which was created after consultation with 250 employees in 13 countries around the world.
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