Perhaps more than experienced workers, those in Generation Z just entering the workforce over the last few years have been asked to adapt to greater and more frequent workplace changes. And for the most part, they are rising to the challenge.
Ninety-five percent of all daily decisions are made by the subconscious part of the brain, including choices made at work. These include but are not limited to decisions to be social, engaged, and connected with those around you. While this decision-making process is subconscious and primal, neuroscience can shed light on the ways in which people tend to feel connected or disconnected in the workplace. This is important because research on this topic shows that feeling connected in the workplace correlates to employees’ sense of being more (or less) engaged, productive, and loyal.
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There’s a lot of talk about four-day workweeks – but could shorter workdays be a better approach?
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To this day, some of my closest friends are people I met at various jobs over the course of my career. Before the pandemic, every day I looked forward to seeing friends at work, going out to lunch, getting coffee, being in meetings together, and having impromptu hallway conversations. These friendships transformed what work meant to me — it wasn’t just work, it was life.
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Even amid the Great Resignation, job demand skyrocketing, and shifting power dynamics between employers and employees that have led companies to enhance compensation packages and other perks, fears over job security still exist among a majority of workers.
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Summary. Companies are trying to retain employees through better pay, flexible working conditions, and emphasis on the corporate mission. These are not proving successful because the real problem is people’s engagement with the work they actually do.
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This is a challenging time for managers. Alongside their day-to-day roles, many are facing a never-ending cycle of reskilling and recruiting on their teams. The need to reskill isn’t new, with the OECD estimating that 1.1 billion jobs are liable to be radically transformed by technology in the next decade.
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Summary. Executives might be more accustomed to seeing business cases and ROI calculations from marketing and sales teams, but they should start empowering talent departments to make their own case. Why? Because customer-facing employees and revenue are strongly linked, the authors find.
Is the four day work week a good idea, or is it unworkable for many industries – and even many people? The UK may soon find out, as it’s just started what’s being heralded as the biggest ever experiment based on this working model.
