People globally spend 40 hours a week – or more – in a work environment, which is worth considering. Since 2020, many companies globally have adopted remote, hybrid and flexible working models. As a result, employers and employees must navigate conditions that are different than before.
Work-life balance is increasingly important for workers at all levels and types of jobs. Post-pandemic, employee wellbeing and mental health are key issues, along with supporting business sustainability.
Down here, G Office will highlight some of the most interesting and fun facts of 2024 about productivity, working from home and trends Workplace Latest – including psychological truths about work.
The average worker spends more than 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime, so job search and workplace satisfaction matter.
That's right. Workers spend more than 90,000 hours of their lives working.
Leading consulting firm McKinsey & Company reports: “The average person will spend 90,000 hours working during their lifetime, so it's no surprise that job satisfaction or dissatisfaction can affect significant impact on your life.”
So how do you find satisfaction and happiness at work? Annie McKee, author of How to Be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship, has researched this issue and reports that there is a formula:
Career happiness = (Freedom + Challenge + Balance – Stress) x Meaning
Career coach Sarah Archer agrees with McKee's formulation, “Employers are waking up to the fact that satisfied employees are linked to productivity and performance. More importantly, however, we are seeing the connection between our careers and our mental health.”
Dress code and productivity are not mutually exclusive: 61% employees are more productive when the dress code is more casual
In 2018, many businesses adopted a casual Friday dress code, and with good reason. Research even shows that employees are more productive when they can dress more comfortably.
And it appears this trend has taken hold – especially during the pandemic, when working from home made employee retention and psychological safety a top priority. Years later, with the introduction of multiple work models, some organizations have difficulty balancing employee perceptions of what is acceptable to customers and the company's values.
The distinction between normal and business as usual has been lost during the pandemic. While pajamas are comfortable and may have been forgotten during video calls in the past, they are no longer acceptable. Not intended for remote, hybrid, or office-based work. Business as usual must be reintroduced to workers. It is a win-win for both employers and employees.
Rudi Julius, workplace expert and corporate lawyer, explains: “It is important that employers adapt to the transition to hybrid work, while still ensuring that employees have a clean, neat and professional appearance that is acceptable to customers and reflects the company's image. Thompson Hine.
Video conferencing and video meetings are here to stay: Video calls on Microsoft Teams have increased by 1000% since the pandemic
Video meeting and collaboration software like Microsoft Teams is now an important part of our daily working lives in hybrid environments. With more than 280 million users, Microsoft Teams helps employees reach global colleagues in ways that were previously impossible without expensive airline tickets.
And as organizations look to increase collaboration and strengthen relationships, video meetings and conferences are an obvious choice. Between online chat, file sharing, integration with calendars, and the full suite of office tools employees use every day, it's no wonder how widespread adoption has become.
Activity-based working enhances employee workplace satisfaction and productivity
What exactly is activity-based working (ABW)? It's a way of working that gives employees access to a variety of workspaces — and technologies — to use and dedicate to specific activities, such as organized meetings, chats Intimacy and personal, private work require a quiet area.
With hybrid and flexible work, ABW enables companies to move towards a more shared workspace environment, where 1:1 desk space is no longer necessary, as long as you have a system that organization such as table reservations, room reservations and other workspace reservations.
Research by Veldhoen + Company shows workplace satisfaction increased by 17% after companies switched to ABW. Employees also work more effectively individually and collectively. ABW increases individual productivity by 13% and group productivity by 8%.
Hybrid work models are used by most high-growth companies by 2024
Full-time working in the office “is expected to remain a relic of the past with only 2 in 10 employees with remote working capabilities now working entirely on-site and the same number Expect to work entirely on-site in the future.” ,” Gallup reported.
Only 6% wants to work entirely onsite in the future. What does it mean if more than 90% out of 70 million employees don't want to return to the office full-time? Or 63% high growth company that has adopted and maintained a hybrid work model. Simply put, hybrid work is here to stay.
Ignoring worker preferences for a hybrid model could result in engagement suffering. “Employees who do not work in their preferred location have significantly lower levels of employee engagement, along with higher levels of burnout and desire to quit,” Gallup found. “They don't feel well-positioned to do their best work or live their best lives.”
The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on employment is expected to be positive over the next four years
A 2024 IMF study said AI will impact nearly 40% jobs worldwide. Robots and automated functions are becoming a regular feature in the workplace as they take over more manual and mundane tasks for us, giving employees more space to perform priority and more time-consuming tasks. Chatbots, learning language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and other AI, as well as systems that enhance process automation, including robotic processing assistants (RPA), are becoming popular.
While robots and AI are the future, the workplace still requires real human interaction, not to mention the kind of critical thinking and feeling that only humans are capable of. The fear of being replaced by automated work processes dates back to the early 1800s, and our importance still remains. Most robots and AI will always need to cooperate with human initiative, interaction, and maintenance.
“We expect new technologies to be adopted without considering all the relevant contextual constraints such as cultural, economic, and social agreements,” said BYU sociology professor Eric Dahlin. and the government supports the production, sale, and use of the technology.”
Dahlin's research found that only 14% workers said they saw their jobs being replaced by AI. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum expects AI to bring a positive impact on jobs in the next 4 years.
“Agritech technologies, digital platforms and applications, e-commerce, digital commerce and AI are all predicted to lead to significant labor market disruption, at a significant rate Companies forecast job shifts within their organizations, offset by job growth elsewhere. a positive result,” the World Economic Forum 2023 report noted.
Remote work continues to trend in the US: 12% workers are fully remote and 28% are hybrid
This is a monthly statistical sample of 10,000 American workers conducted by economists at Stanford University and the University of Chicago. It's called the Work Attitudes and Arrangements Survey and starts in 2020.
The latest research, which focuses on tracking work-from-home trends, shows that working from home is more popular in large cities than in smaller cities and towns. It also found employers offering fewer fully remote jobs and more fully on-site jobs than employees currently desire.
Stanford reports that remote work is more common in technology, finance, professional services, and business. Interestingly, workers spend much of their workday on formal training and professional development when they come into the office.
Email volume: 347.3 billion emails sent every day globally – with more to come
That's an increase of 4.2% compared to 2022, when 333.2 billion were sent daily. Furthermore, the number of emails sent daily is expected to increase to 376 billion emails next year. According to Zippia, that's nearly 13% growth.
The average employee receives an average of 121 emails per day and sends nearly 40 emails themselves. We all know what it feels like to be buried in emails, but are they becoming more of an interruption than a useful aspect of the workplace?
According to UC Berkeley research, we're interrupted every eight minutes, so it's no wonder many of us are looking for new ways to increase our productivity levels.
Nearly 90% workers are exhausted from the volume of email inboxes and online chats
A survey by Wakefield Research found that 89% office workers said sorting through unopened emails and navigating incoming Microsoft Teams messages were among the most frustrating parts of remote or hybrid working.
According to Forbes, “When we experience information overload, it reduces our productivity and decision-making ability – often called executive function,” says Carla Bevins, professor of communications. business degree at Carnegie Mellon University, said.
In the same Wakefield Research study, 51% employees 40 and younger said they would consider quitting their job because of too many emails or messages on Teams.
42% Millennials will only work for a company that prioritizes sustainability
More than a third of employees say that establishing sustainable practices in the workplace will increase a company's productivity rates and leadership position, while also opening up more opportunities for innovation. From a generational perspective, 42% Millennials, 30% Gen-X and 21% Baby Boomers said they would only work for an employer that prioritizes sustainability.
Eptura recently spoke with long-time industry leader and IFMA Member Paul Doherty on our Property Champions podcast. We asked him what asset management and facility management leaders should be focusing on today:
“Everyone, it's over,” Doherty said. “Everything else I'm about to say is not important. It's who you are… A lot of this has to do with sustainability. And sustainability isn't just about the environment. It's about sustainable mental health. It's about sustainable economics.”
For Doherty, sustainability is a mindset that underpins ideas of well-being across the totality of our work and lives. But there are also real business benefits to designing sustainability into your workplace experience today, such as reduced energy costs, employee satisfaction and talent attraction.
76% employees currently working in combination want to continue this model
One important reason why hybrid work is becoming more popular over the long term is the benefits it offers employees in terms of work-life balance. Our research identifies reduced commute time and better family life management as the two most cited benefits of the hybrid model. 7 out of 10 employees agree that this model shows the company cares about workers' needs.
Offering hybrid work as an option has a positive impact on how much employees feel their employers value their mental and emotional health. 69% corporate employees – whether working remotely, full-time hybrid, or full-time in the office – agree that hybrid work shows employers are taking their health and productivity into consideration staff. This number increases to 76% among those who are already hybrid workers. The numbers don't lie. Employees want the hybrid model to stay.
45% US employees view going to the office as a means to improve relationships with coworkers, customers, and suppliers
We conducted a global survey of 6,000 workplace leaders and employees. The following statistics about how US employees perceive the office caught our attention:
- 45% sees the office as a meeting place for colleagues, customers and suppliers
- 36% believes that coming into the office improves company culture
- 35% says they look to the office for a productive, well-equipped work environment
- 32% feels that going to the office helps balance work and life
Human connection tops everything. And right behind that, look at the value of the office in company culture – which is entirely driven by human connection. There is no workplace culture without the people who create and nurture it.
