Korn Ferry's new Motivation Meter, which examines workplace trends and dynamics affecting employee sentiment across employees' roles and career stages, reveals that the UK has the lowest levels of motivation, with only 60% of professionals indicating that they are motivated compared to 71% globally. The research also reveals a significant gap in motivation between CEOs (81%) and those who are not managers (57%), which is attributed to several factors, including the reprioritisation of work-life balance, uneasiness around the rise of AI, and ongoing struggles to find a sense of purpose at work. Millennials were found to be the most motivated generation (75%), with motivation decreasing as age increases.
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Demographics
This report from Deloitte reveals that around one in three young people feel only neutral or feel negative about their work. It identifies that this sentiment reflects the key challenges young people are experiencing at work, including a lack of fair and reasonable pay, lack of opportunities to build skills and experience, and a lack of flexible working hours. The research and insights uncover three critical opportunities that must be unlocked to enable and accelerate ‘meaningful work’ for young people, and these opportunities are critical in driving benefits such as greater health and well-being, stronger skills and increased employability, and progress toward equity and increasing belonging.
This report from PwC reveals that more than two-thirds of employees (68%) say they have experienced more changes at work in the past year than in the 12 months prior. The top three areas of change at work are: use of new tools and technologies (48%), increased workload (46%) and changes in team structure and daily responsibilities (both 43%). The research reveals that employees are increasingly prioritising career growth and willing to switch jobs to develop their skills, with 78% agreeing that learning opportunities influence their decision on whether to leave their current employer. Non-financial rewards are as critical as pay - employees rank financial reward (77%), fulfilment (69%), and flexibility (64%) as their top job priorities. This year's findings also reveal a heightened expectation for employers to address climate change and reduce their environmental impact, suggesting the need for a proactive response from employers to ensure alignment with their workforce.
The latest PwC Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey reveals that more than half of workers feel there's too much change at work happening at once, and 44% don't understand why things need to change at all. The report proposes six actions businesses can take to build a future-fit workforce in an age of transformation, including (1) leading in new ways to build resilience among a stressed out workforce; (2) engaging employees on change to drive transformation; (3) helping employees lead on innovation; (4) instilling confidence in Gen AI; (5) recognising how critical skill-building is to workers; and (6) prioritising the employee experience for performance.
The Open University’s 2024 Business Barometer report outlines the major skills challenges and opportunities facing UK employers, finding that 62% of organisations are currently facing skills shortages and 68% report this has increased the workload on existing staff. Moreover, while artificial intelligence (AI) and green technology adoption may be increasing, many organisations say they are not yet confident in deploying them, which could further impede progress in innovation and efficiency.
This roundtable discussion looked at the shifting demographics and how employers are navigating multi-generational workforces.
Gallup’s latest report estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy US$8.9 trillion, or 9% of global GDP and examines what leaders can do to improve the health and productivity of the world’s workforce. The report explores the relationship between employee engagement and a range of key business outcomes, finding that high-engagement business units are likely to see significantly higher employee wellbeing – as well as higher productivity, profitability and sales – than low-engagement teams.
The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across 146 countries, revealing that while no country has achieved full gender parity, 97% of economies have closed more than 60% of their gap, compared to 85% in 2006. However, compared against last year, the global gender gap has been closed by +.1 percentage point, from 68.5% to 68.6%. The report suggests that the lack of meaningful, widespread change effectively slows down the rate of progress to attain parity. Based on current data, it will take 134 years to reach full parity – roughly five generations beyond the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target.
This roundtable discussion looked at the opportunities ERGs present, the evolving issues and challenges, and strategies to overcome them.
This report from the International Labour Organisation reveals that despite strong economic growth and steady improvements in some key labour market indicators over several decades, progess in several crucial dimensions of decent work is too slow. The data also shows that the region's employment-to-population ratio is in long-term decline, projected to continue over the coming years and the region's jobs gap, which shows the total unmet need for employment, amounted to 164 million in 2023. In addition, the region is projected to have one of the world's most ageing populations. The report suggests that implementing policies that address decent work deficits will not only alleviate existing challenges but will also render upcoming challenges from ageing more manageable.