Today, some people shop for employers like they do
for consumer products.
People are looking for a sense of purpose at work and ask themselves, “Do I love my job, or do I just like it? Does my employer share my values? There are many factors at play when someone is trying to choose where they want to work.
At the same time, the competition for talent has never been more fierce.
Traditionally, organizations have thought about their offices as a place to park their people.
FIGURE OUT WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT
A great employee experience doesn’t come easy. Companies with low engagement scores often implement initiatives before asking employees what they want. A recent global study of office workers found:
• 51% need an escape from working in the same place during their day
• 53% of employees say they can’t find the right types of space they need.
• 43% are seeking deeper relationships with colleagues and believe informal spaces can help build more trust.
This data is telling; people are unsatisfied.
Traditional perks like higher salaries aren’t enough to convince people to join a new company or stay with the one they’re already with. For Gen Z (born 1994–2008), salary isn’t even a top-three priority, according to the 2017 Change Generation Report conducted by the Lovell Corporation.
For the first time, passion is ranked as one of the top three work values. Employers will be required to keep their spark alive in the workplace—ensuring work speaks to individual interests, provides growth and aligns with employee values.
A HOLISTIC APPROACH
There are three critical factors for companies to invest in creating an optimal employee experience—physical space, culture and technology.
Very few organizations think about these three factors holistically. They are usually managed by separate people with separate budgets. Human resources, information technology and facility leaders rarely sit in a room to talk through how their roles intersect to build the places where people want to work.
WHY IT MATTERS
A survey that measures companies on how well they invest in physical space, culture and technology was conducted at over 250 global organizations. Organizations who prioritized integration of technology, space and culture had more than four times the average profit and more than two times the average revenue.
Stay tuned for part two in a couple weeks, as we further explore this fundamental relationship.
