Study from Future Forum, a Slack-backed
consortium, shows that 93% want flexibility in when and how they
work; more than half are open to a job change
The Future Forum, a consortium launched by Slack Technologies,
Inc., (NYSE: WORK) to help companies reimagine work in the new
digital-first workplace, is releasing a new global study that
unpacks how 15 months of pandemic work has shifted employee
expectations. The Future Forum Pulse shows that flexibility now
ranks second only to compensation in determining job satisfaction:
93% of knowledge workers want a flexible schedule, while 76% want
flexibility in where they work.
And employers should take note: One in five (21%) knowledge
workers is likely to jump to a new company in the next year, and
more than half (56%) are open to looking for a new position.
The Future Forum Pulse is based on data from more than 10,000
knowledge workers in the U.S., Australia, Germany, Japan, France,
and the U.K (see detailed methodology below). In addition to the
research report, the Future Forum is also releasing three playbooks
developed with Herman Miller, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and
Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) in consultation with a
network of C-suite executives from companies as diverse as Chobani,
Levi’s and the Royal Bank of Canada.
The research and the playbooks paint a picture of flexible work
that is more nuanced than the choice between office-based or remote
work. Instead, flexibility is shown to require a new working model
that delivers always-on access to information, creates channels for
consistent communication and carves out predictable working
rhythms—without having to revert to an office-based 9-to-5
schedule.
“The past year shifted everyone’s expectations: People don’t
want to go back to pre-pandemic norms of office life, but they are
also eager to turn the page on the all-remote experiment that was
forced upon them for the past 15 months. Companies who want to
attract and retain top talent must look forward to an entirely new
way of working: a flexible model that fundamentally reimagines not
just where but also when and how people work.” —Brian Elliott,
Future Forum Executive Leader
Here are three key insights from the Future Forum Pulse:
1. Flexible working hours are more important than flexible
locations.
Flexible work, in all its forms, has become a default
expectation for knowledge workers. Ninety-three percent want
flexibility in when they work, while 76% want flexibility in where
they work.
Location flexibility has a significant impact on knowledge
workers’ ability to manage stress (58% higher for those working
fully remote), their work-life balance (45% higher) and their
overall satisfaction at work (30% higher).
But schedule flexibility has an even more dramatic impact:
Employees are more productive and significantly less stressed—and
they even report being better connected to the people and
information they need to get the job done.
But flexibility has its limits. Knowledge workers still want
some structure in their workday. Two-thirds (65.6%) want a balance
between full flexibility and a predictable framework. Typically,
this consists of a limited set of core team hours (e.g., 10 a.m.–2
p.m.) for meetings and quick responses, while allowing for
individual flexibility the rest of the day.
2. The office has a role to play, but digital infrastructure
is the big differentiator.
In the pre-pandemic era, leading-edge companies spent vast sums
on offices in prime locations and campuses with elaborate perks. In
the post-pandemic era, that same investment should be rerouted to
digital infrastructure.
Fewer than 20% say they see the office as a place for focused,
solo work. Instead, more than 80% of knowledge workers say they
want access to an office for in-person collaboration and team
building—activities like collaborating with co-workers and clients
(32.9%), attending in-person meetings (19.9%) and building
camaraderie (25.2%).
If offices are primarily for in-person collaboration and team
building, then digital channels are where work happens. Companies
that make the required investments in new digital infrastructure
see dramatic improvements, compared to those relying on legacy
systems. This shows up not only in expected areas such as
productivity (+54%) but also in the sense of belonging (over 2x)
and ability to manage stress and anxiety (over 5x).
The Future Forum Pulse also shows that the frequency of
communication within teams has a major impact on employee
satisfaction. Knowledge workers who use digital infrastructure to
communicate multiple times per day score significantly better than
those who rarely communicate: They have nearly 3x the sense of
belonging and over 2x the ability to manage stress and anxiety.
3. Flexible work is a game changer for working mothers and
Black knowledge workers.
In the U.S., working mothers have carried a disproportionate
burden through the pandemic, with half a million more women leaving
the labor force than men. Even though women were working from home,
the pandemic put a spotlight on the rigidity of work schedules,
which led to unprecedented burnout and attrition. The Pulse shows
this in stark detail: Women with kids score lower than men with
kids across each element of the Pulse, including work-life balance
(-38%), ability to manage stress (-50%) and sense of belonging
(-23%).
Flexible working models are a potential game changer. Women with
kids say that the number one benefit of a flexible schedule is
“being better able to take care of personal or family obligations
during the day” (men with kids rate “better work-life balance” as
the key benefit). Normalizing and encouraging flexibility for all
employees is one of the keys to reversing these numbers.
Black knowledge workers also have lower satisfaction scores
across the board. They have consistently lower satisfaction with
their relationships at work, are less likely to believe that they
are treated fairly at work, and are more likely to believe they
need to justify their work to their manager. Not surprisingly,
Black employees are even more likely to be looking for new
opportunities in the coming year: 72% of Black employees versus 51%
of white employees.
Flexible work opens the door to reversing these trends. Black
knowledge workers are more likely to say that working remotely is
better for their sense of belonging than to say it’s worse, while
the opposite is true for white knowledge workers. Sixty-eight
percent of Black knowledge workers want flexible work policies,
compared to 56% of their white counterparts.
For companies seeking to improve diversity, geographic
distribution matters: About 60 percent of the Black labor force is
located in the U.S. South, compared with only one-third of private
sector jobs. Building diverse and inclusive teams is possible only
when companies embrace the real flexibility that creates equitable
access to opportunity.
Winning the war for talent depends on asking three big
questions:
- How do we offer flexibility as a basic benefit? Giving
employees flexibility in when and where they work is not a perk;
it’s a core principle of how a modern company operates.
- How do we reimagine our infrastructure to create connection?
It’s no longer just about office space. It’s about the digital
center of gravity where work gets done.
- How do we reskill our managers to ensure that diversity, equity
and inclusion are a core competency? This is a vital step toward
ensuring that companies have the ability to attract and retain the
best, most diverse talent available.
The specific answers will look different for each industry and
each company. Winning the war for talent depends on accepting that
there is no going back to the pre-pandemic world of work.
Attracting and retaining the best talent depends on moving
forward.
Additional content:
- Read the full Future Forum Pulse white paper.
- Read the new Future Forum playbooks:
- More than just hybrid: a how-to guide for leaders on how to
really make flexibility work, co-authored with the Boston
Consulting Group (BCG)
- Building a Connected Organization, co-authored with Herman
Miller
- Moving from retrofit to re-design on diversity, equity and
inclusion: a how-to guide for leaders, co-authored with Management
Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT)
Methodology
Survey of 10,447 knowledge workers in the USA, Australia,
France, Germany, Japan and the U.K. conducted by Qualtrics April 26
to May 6, 2021. The survey did not target Slack employees or
customers. Respondents were all knowledge workers, defined as
employed full-time (30 or more hours per week) and either having
one of the roles listed below or saying they “work with data,
analyze information or think creatively”: Executive Management
(e.g., President/Partner, CEO, CFO, C-suite), Senior Management
(e.g., Executive VP, Senior VP), Middle Management (e.g.,
Department/Group Manager, VP), Junior Management (e.g., Manager,
Team Leader), Senior Staff (i.e., Non-Management), Skilled Office
Worker (e.g., Analyst, Graphic Designer).
The Future Forum Pulse measures how knowledge workers feel about
their working lives, on a five-point scale (from “very poor” to
“very good” across seven dimensions on a scale from -60 (most
negative) to +60 (most positive).
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210615005480/en/
Steve Sharpe pr@slack.com
Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK)
過去 株価チャート
から 10 2024 まで 11 2024
Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK)
過去 株価チャート
から 11 2023 まで 11 2024
