RADICL’s 2023 State of the Work Experience Report Highlights Major Disconnects Between Workers and Enterprise Employers
Minneapolis – Aug. 31, 2023
Boring. Stressful. Micromanaged. Exhausting. Unappreciated.
These are the words people use most frequently to describe their work experience in a new survey by RADICL, a global employee experience advisory company that inspires organizations to unlock their energy and purpose.
“Many company leaders have rightfully been focusing on stabilization and a return to productivity and growth. Unfortunately, the goodwill from empathetic actions early in the pandemic has evaporated as companies have laid off employees and required a return to the office,” said Ken Oehler, Ph.D., Head of People Science at RADICL and author of the report. “These actions send a message to employees that they are expendable, not trusted, and that management may not even understand how work is now done. It seems that there is a disconnect between management and employees, where productivity and a human-centric employee experience are at odds.”
The new report aims to shed light on the current state of the work experience by identifying both the challenges and the opportunities for redesigning a whole-person experience that benefits companies and people who work in them. RADICL partnered with QuestionPro to survey more than 1,000 full-time U.S. employees from companies with 1,000-50,000+ employees across a range of industries in Q2 2023.
Key Findings
- Many people’s work experience lacks meaning, clarity and connection, and this is negatively impacting people and business outcomes. Eight out of 10 people surveyed reported missing one or more of the critical elements of a complete work experience.
- Work experience is a highly individual journey. People are on their own work journey, with their own personal context across a variety of work settings. The research found over 450 unique experience profiles that may exist across individuals within a company. Lower employee experience levels were found in people who are single, have no kids, do individual work, are people managers, or are in a company with declining revenue or market share. Higher experiences tend to be found in C-suite executives and IT and sales professions. We found no significant differences in experience by gender, tenure, company size, or generation.
- We haven’t figured out distributed work yet. 72% reported having a return-to-office requirement, but 80% say the office they’re being ordered to return to doesn’t support the intended culture and connection outcomes. And only 19% work on a completely co-located team — i.e., they’re going to the office to get on video conference calls.
- Toxic environments are destroying value. 19% of employees’ suggestions are about people creating a more caring, appreciative environment, and many are calling for toxic leaders and people to be fired.
- Technology alone isn’t the answer. People don’t need/want more apps. Only 3% of employee suggestions in the survey for improving the work experience were about technology products/features. An integrated design/delivery across people, places, programs, processes, and products is required to deliver what people actually need.
“A great work experience is not easy, lazy, or watching Netflix while working from home,” Oehler said. “Employees make it clear that a great work experience is a productive, impactful experience. They also indicate that people want to eliminate the friction, sharp edges, and toxicity in work that get in the way, overwhelm, sap energy, and dehumanize their experience. Along with delivering productive, meaningful value to the company, people are asking for reciprocal and regenerative value where they are seen, heard, understood, appreciated, developed, and rewarded, not just as employees but as people.”
About RADICL
RADICL inspires organizations to reimagine their people strategies by utilizing new science, frameworks and technology — designed for the changing world in which we work and live. Find us at http://www.radiclwork.com.