The Future of Work Part One | Ep. 138

Welcome to the first part of an exciting two-part series on the future of work. Sima is happy to have Kelly Monahan, the Global Lead Talent Researcher/ Principle Director at Accenture, joining her as the guest for the series.

Research on the future of work

Accenture took an in-depth look at the future of work. They wanted to understand what people need and feel today. So they went out and looked at more than 9300 global workers across ten different industries and ten different countries to represent a global workforce.

Similar sentiments

They had within their data set 70% workers and 30% leadership. So they could make some comparisons. They found that most people, workers and leaders alike, had similar sentiments.

Predicting

They wanted to predict what was causing people to feel a certain way or make them want to go back on site.

How people are feeling about work

Some people were optimistic and energized, but the majority were somewhere in the middle and or negative.

Disgruntled people

A third of the people felt disgruntled. When thinking about the future of work, they were pessimistic, tired, and burned out. They experienced micro-aggressions and felt fatigued.

Going through the motions

About 30% of people said that they were simply going through the motions of life. They were feeling neither negative nor positive. They were unsure and waiting to see how the leadership would make their key decisions about people returning to work before making a true sentiment on how they feel.

Optimistic 

About 42% are thriving, optimistic, and energized.

Researchers

Researchers want to know what is going on underneath to cause those differences in sentiment.

Life enhancement

When looking at mental health scores, Accenture looks at a concept called Life Enhancement which is about whether your work is adding to your life or taking away from it.

Net Better Off

Net Better Off is a concept that determines whether or not your job is leaving you better off than most other humans in terms of dignity and money in your pocket.

Generational differences

From a generational perspective, they saw a statistically significant difference with the young people. Gen-Z is struggling the most with mental health, and they tend to be more pessimistic about their future than the other generations. Gen-Xers are also struggling with their mental health, and like Gen-Zers, are unsure about the concepts of Life Enhancement and Net Better Off.

Baby Boomers

Baby Boomers, however, tend to be pretty optimistic and have adapted well to the new world of work.

Millennials

Millennials are still fairly optimistic about work and their ability to create change and adapt to the hybrid world.

Key moments

The key moments in people’s lives tend to impact their expectations and the way they view work.

Gen-Z

Gen-Zers tend to be hungry for social connections. They feel a need to leave their parental home, grow up, learn to understand things and be mentored. They need in-person interaction to do that.

The physical world of work

Both millennials and Gen-Z are looking to experience the physical world of work.

Work as an experience Gen-Zers tend to view work as an experience, not just a transactional operation to support life. They want their work to contribute to their life. They tend to view their work and personal identities as one thing, rather than having separate professional and personal identities. So they want to see the companies they work for representing their personal values and ethics.

C-Suite companies

There has been a profound shift with C-suite leaders. CEOs now tend to feel a need to comment on societal issues.