Everyone senses it. Things have changed. The pace of technology has accelerated. There is a feeling that the world has entered a new digital era. It makes people feel both exhilarated and a little trepidation over how things will play out. One thing is for certain, the future of work is here now and there is no looking back. The key is what we should expect and how to successfully benefit from the dynamic changes.
Lee Hecht Harrison (LHH), the world’s leading integrated talent solutions provider and global business unit of the Adecco Group, released its initial findings from a groundbreaking international study that sought to uncover the implicit and explicit factors that influence workers’ attitudes–across varying demographics, countries and industry sectors–about their readiness for the future of work. The Readiness Index provides critical insights to help business leaders understand what really matters to employers and talent and how to meet their needs.
At LHH, an executive coaching and outplacement firm, its job is to ensure people–and the companies that employ them–can deftly navigate the new world of work and prepare for the future. The company and its professionals guide and support people in their careers and advise companies how best to implement and execute on their talent strategy. They empathetically understand people feel differently about the future. Some are excited, while others are anxious and worried about being left behind.
The digital economy continues to evolve. Smart leadership needs to know that advancement in technology, Web3, the metaverse, remote and hybrid work models and new innovations will require us to continually upskill, train and learn. Continual transformation is high on the priorities list of every forward-thinking progressive company.
The Readiness Index is a global behavioral science-led study delivering data and insights on how people feel about the future and the factors that influence readiness. The index’s purpose is to calculate the global Readiness Score of workers around the world.
The index statistically quantifies what factors are driving “readiness” and how this changes between different people and different cultures. Initially, the study is focusing on the financial sector in the U.S., France and the U.K. The index taps into both implicit and explicit responses to have a holistic understanding of conscious and unconscious processes influencing readiness.
Key Personal Insight From The Readiness Index
On an individual basis, career goals are a strong behavioral driver to feeling ready. The pandemic shifted the way people think about work. Workers have realigned their priorities. After working two years remotely, people have learned that there are better ways to have a higher quality of work-life balance. Seeing people get sick and succumb to Covid-19 made the world confront the stark reality of how precious life can be and how you need to make the most of it.
This led to a great reevaluation, sparking the Great Resignation and causing a war for talent. People are seeking out new careers that offer meaning and purpose. Many people want to pivot, reinvent themselves and make a fresh new start for the future or work. It is mission critical to learning new skills, so that you can be ready for your next career opportunity.
In the workplace, financial motivation is one of the biggest drivers for people getting ready for their next opportunity. They desire a company culture that promotes people and makes them feel that they have a promising pathway forward. Employees now also want jobs with meaning and purpose. People want to make an impact and difference.
A person’s workload has a big influence on how ready people are feeling, especially if they feel unrewarded or overworked. This can trigger a need to bring about a change of direction in their career. There are cultural differences. Offering opportunities to learn is the biggest workplace driver of readiness in the U.S., whereas wanting more money is most important in the U.K. Relationships with colleagues is the biggest driver for France.
From a wider societal and environmental point of view, the key influences on people’s levels of readiness include concerns about flexible working, remote and hybrid arrangements, a lack of job opportunities and general health and safety (Covid-19) concerns. The data shows that young people tend to worry more about the environmental factors in general, whereas older people tend to worry the least.
The Vulnerable Youth
Who are they? Aged 18 to 24, this cohort has the lowest Readiness Score. They are the most disillusioned and anxious, most likely as a result of starting their career in a post-Covid-19 hybrid working world, along with rancorous and divisive politics, burdened with large college debt and ever-increasing inflation. Now with the uncertainty of a possible third World War, this cohort has a low level of control over their next step and it would be reasonable for them to possess a bleak outlook for the future. These and other events may decrease their levels of self-confidence, which will be an anchor for being ready for the future of work.
The Gender Gap
There are clear differences between how men and women feel about themselves and about their workplace. Women have more harmonious relationships at work and don’t hold on to negative feelings about colleagues. They focus on personal growth opportunities and are less influenced by others when making decisions about their career.
Men, on the other hand, feel that the workplace is more toxic than women. They have a more negative perception of colleagues and tend to compare their salary more. For them, taking the next step is a competitive pursuit. They are more inclined to judge their manager as poor and fall out with colleagues more than women. They believe they have higher chances of promotion than women and are more concerned with financial fairness
Technophobia
Overall concerns about the rise of tech are moderate. People on average are slightly more concerned about more immediate environmental factors, such as the economy and hybrid working. Perhaps, this is unsurprising given the human inclination to focus on the present and discount the future.
The study found that men are more worried about tech than women and the French are more worried than the British and Americans.
What Readiness Index Has Revealed
Highlights
- Women remain less confident in their career trajectories. Despite 84% of women feeling they have the skills needed to advance, study findings revealed that women are more anxious about their next career move than men. At the same time, men feel like they can grow their careers more than women—even though women feel like they have more opportunities to use their skills and learn in their current job.
- Gen-Z is the most vulnerable group of workers. Lack of in-person workplace connections, training opportunities and work-life balance have all impacted how Gen-Z feels about remote work and their careers overall. The study revealed that Gen-Z is not only the most anxious and easily influenced by its peers when it comes to their career paths, but also lacks confidence in their skills and roles in the workplace. More than half of Gen-Z workers were anxious about taking the next step in their careers, 34% felt they could not use their existing skillsets at work and did not get along with their colleagues and 33% felt they could not control their next steps in their careers.
- Workers remain anxious about technology replacing them. More than one-third of respondents were identified as “technophobes,” expressing real worry over whether their skills would have a place in a world increasingly dominated by technology. Older technophobes (especially between 45 to 54) were found to be working 40% harder than their peers to keep up, while also demonstrating less self-belief. Across age groups, 29% of technophobes were found to not get along with their colleagues and feel 17% more anxious about work–all of which could be contributing to toxic work cultures and causing high risks of burnout.
This study is a long-term global initiative. It’s just the start of a worldwide rollout of the Readiness Index.The next phase is to expand the study to include more countries and sectors.
Source: Forbes
