HR teams must take a balanced approach to employee needs and organizational priorities to create a sustainable and thriving workforce, writes Jacob Morgan, best-selling author, speaker, & futurist.
In a bid to attract and retain top talent in a competitive landscape, many companies have implemented a wide array of programs designed to keep employees happy and committed. But this is shortsighted and unsustainable.
Gen Z's entry into the workforce underscores the need for resilience and adaptability—qualities that superficial perks can’t foster. Across generations, Gen Z is often seen as the least resilient and adaptive, with studies describing them as having low confidence, being unprepared for the workforce, and struggling with loneliness and lack of purpose.
Books like "Bad Therapy" by Abigail Schrier and The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt highlight how this younger generation grew up in overly protective environments, leading to struggles with real-world challenges. This phenomenon is akin to the concept of “stress wood,” where trees grown in stress-free environments, such as a biosphere, lack the strength developed through adversity and fall over once they reach a certain height. Companies must create environments where employees feel valued, heard, and challenged to develop the resilience needed for long-term success.
As this generation enters the workforce, companies are becoming surrogate parents, offering extensive support that isn't sustainable or realistic. The big challenge for organizations is figuring out what role they should play. Many CHROs implement programs because their competitors do, which may benefit the company in the short-term, but can negatively impact the long-term.
We need to ask: what role does the employee play? Why is it always the company’s responsibility to take care of engagement and purpose? Why isn’t the employee responsible for these things too? A balanced approach is needed, where employees take responsibility for their engagement, performance and growth.
Imagine employees with different ‘knobs’ to adjust based on their priorities. For instance, if you have a knob for career growth and crank it up to maximum, you're looking at working more than the standard 30 to 40 hours a week—maybe even 50 or 60 hours. Turning down that career growth knob could allow you to stick to your 32 or 40 hours a week and enjoy more work-life balance.
Similarly, for benefits, you might want to crank up the compensation knob, opting for a higher salary. You might prefer fewer monetary benefits but more perks like a gym membership, access to on-site counselors, and well-being professionals. The idea is to have a ‘dashboard’ where employees can flexibly manage their work preferences and career paths. This flexible, customisable approach seems more realistic and scalable for workforce sustainability.
Employees primarily care about five key aspects at work:
- Compensation: They want to be paid well.
- Leadership: They seek leaders who coach, mentor, and support them.
- Learning: They desire opportunities to learn new things.
- Advancement: They look for chances to advance within the organization.
- Flexibility: They want flexible work arrangements.
If companies provide these, they can create an environment where people want to show up. Gallup’s Q12 employee engagement survey reflects these core aspects, with questions about whether employees' opinions count, if they know what’s expected, if they are learning and growing, and if they are discussing progress.
These questions cover the core aspects of work, and many of these indicators are at an all-time low. For instance, only three in ten U.S. employees believe their opinions count at work. If employees feel their opinions don’t matter, it doesn’t matter what kind of perks or well-being programmes are offered—they won’t like their job.
Many companies focus on perks but neglect core aspects like training, development, and fair compensation. While recognizing employees' challenges is important, an environment without rules, structure, or performance expectations—akin to Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island— won't lead to success. Companies are at a crucial inflection point, and the next few years will be telling in how they address these challenges.
HR's role is pivotal in this scenario. HR needs to transition to touch every part of the organization, almost like a Chief Future of Work Officer, which is challenging for many as they are used to dealing with compensation, policies and regulations. They aren't typically trained to think about the future of work and employee experience in a holistic sense.
This shift requires a new type of HR leader, possibly from outside traditional backgrounds, and new types of HR training focused on broader, future-oriented strategies. HR has a unique and pivotal role to play as the driver behind these changes.
Interestingly, few HR leaders think about these issues. When I share these ideas, they often say, "Oh, that's interesting. We never thought about that."
In my 2014 book, "The Future of Work," I discuss concepts like internal freelance marketplaces, the gig economy, and working for multiple employers. After a decade these predictions are starting to materialize, but full-time employment won’t disappear, and employees still seek stability.
Looking ahead over the next few years, I don't foresee a workforce that is drastically different from today. Most people will likely still have full-time jobs, participate in annual performance reviews, and complete annual engagement surveys. Many employees will continue to work from an office, although hybrid programs will become more accepted. The fundamental structure of work won't change dramatically in the near-term.
However, there will be changes within the broader context of work. We'll see more emphasis on upskilling and reskilling within organizations, greater integration of AI in various roles, and investments in enhancing the employee experience. HR will continue to evolve. So, while the overarching framework of work might remain familiar, the details and how work is executed will undergo transformations.
So, in the short term, we won't see radical shifts like a world without full-time jobs or offices, or AI replacing three billion jobs. But at a more granular level, we'll observe significant changes in how work is done and how organizations operate. The future will bring macro changes within the existing framework, altering the landscape of work in meaningful ways without completely overhauling its foundational structure.