State of the Workplace
In the State of the Workplace 2024, TriNet identifies unique insights into both employer and employee perspectives on hot ticket workplace items like work/life balance satisfaction, employee engagement, AI usage, benefits understanding and ease of use.
By understanding both perspectives, employers can gain unique insights into potential blind spots they might have had about their workforce, while employees can learn how leadership in the small and mid-sized business community generally feel on certain topics.
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Satisfaction
Work/life balance satisfaction plays a big role in retaining great talent. Unfortunately, while 61% of employers are satisfied or very satisfied with their work/life balance, only 52% of employees would say the same and this drops dramatically to 38% for Gen Z employees.
Could there be a correlation for those who have more flexibility and those who are more satisfied?
Digging deeper, across sectors we see a negative correlation between working in office work and employee satisfaction. The industries that have the highest percentage of employees with in office work are the ones that also have the lowest work/life balance satisfaction.
- Financial Services and Technology have the lowest percentage of employees in office all week - and report the highest levels of employee and employer satisfaction
- Nonprofit has the highest percentage of employees in office all week - and the lowest level of employee and employer satisfaction
Engagement
The good news is employees are more engaged with their work than employers realize.
- 85% of employees report being moderately or extremely engaged, compared to employers' estimate of 81%.
- Employee engagement is high across all generations 80% of Boomers report high levels of engagement, 85% of Gen X, 87% of Millennials, and 85% of Gen Z.
Motivators at work change with age.
What drives engagement? Employers & employees weigh in.
Employers overestimate the influence of all employee engagement factors and prioritize them differently than employees do.
Knowledge
Employees are more optimistic they have the skills to be successful vs employers - 59% of employees stated they currently possess the knowledge and skills to be successful, while only 46% of employers agreed their workforce was ready.
Employees are also less clear about their growth path and potential at their company than employers believe. 58% of employers think employees have opportunities to grow within the company, whereas only 51% of employees agree or strongly agree. Similarly, 58% of employers believe their employee growth plans are clear, but only 52% of employees share this sentiment.
Empowerment
Employers and employees generally agree on what constitutes an empowered employee experience. Both groups rank Training and Development and Seeking Employee Input/Voices Heard as the top two factors in employee empowerment.
Breaking this down by generation:
- Gen X employees overwhelmingly value Having Employee Input Sought
- Gen Z employees are primarily interested in Flexibility in Work Location
- Millennial employees place significantly less emphasis on Having Ownership Over Work and Outcomes
Benefits
Are companies doing enough to help employees take full advantage of their benefits packages?
Fewer than two-thirds of employees report taking advantage of their benefits, and only 58% find the technology for enrollment easy to use. When looking at our youngest working generation—Gen Z—we see only 50% are taking advantage of their benefits.
Employees are also less clear about their growth path and potential at their company than employers believe. 58% of employers think employees have opportunities to grow within the company, whereas only 51% of employees agree or strongly agree. Similarly, 58% of employers believe their employee growth plans are clear, but only 52% of employees share this sentiment.
HR expectations
Some employers and employees believe that HR should be available at all times, with 51% of employers and 44% of employees agreeing or strongly agreeing HR should be a 24/7 function. More interestingly, the items they desire on demand are all features of a modern HR platform, such as TriNet.
AI in HR
AI is reshaping the workforce—and not just in individuals’ professions, but even in HR. 88% of employers and 71% of employees in small and midsize businesses are now harnessing AI on the job.
Employers also aren’t afraid of AI. Not only does their AI use outpace their employees across all generations and sectors, but they also demonstrate a higher tolerance for employee AI usage compared to employees’ actual use.
Download the Full Report
Get more data around AI. Explore workplace trends across AI, employee engagement, remote work, and more in the full State of Workplace report by TriNet.
© 2024 TriNet Group, Inc. All rights reserved. This communication is for informational purposes only, is not legal, tax or accounting advice, and is not an offer to sell, buy or procure insurance. TriNet is the single-employer sponsor of all its benefit plans, which does not include voluntary benefits that are not ERISA-covered group health insurance plans and enrollment is voluntary. Official plan documents always control and TriNet reserves the right to amend the benefit plans or change the offerings and deadlines.
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