As the tug of war between working from home and working from the office continues, we are now seeing a rise in return to office (RTO) mandates being issued across multiple industries. Indeed, one study has found that up to 70% of companies with flexible work schedules are planning to increase the days employees must work in office by 2025.

These forcible RTO mandates are expected to have a disproportionately negative impact on one group of employers: the ‘super-commuters’ – individuals who travel for more than 90 minutes to get to work.

Recent research from Trainline found that the number of super-commuters has increased following the pandemic. 47% of those who travel for 90+ minutes made the change either during or after the pandemic, and 84% of super-commuters said they were able to extend their commute because of their hybrid working pattern.

This makes sense – with employees expected to come into the office less, this affords them the ability to live further away from where they work and extend their radius of travel, as they will only have to do this commute two to three times per week. However, with RTO mandates rising, this will likely take its toll on those who have to now commute 90+ minutes each way on a daily basis.

Having to travel such long distances each day significantly increases the workday for these super-commuters, taking them from an 8-hour day to over 11-hours when including this added travel. This is likely to have noticeable effects on employee performance and engagement in the form of higher absences, lower morale, and increased likelihood of burnout.

One way employers can support their super-commuters, however, is by leaning in on the very thing that has made hybrid working effective – flexibility.

If employees are going to have to spend an extended period of time travelling to work, then one thing to consider encouraging is making use of that travel time. ‘Working from home’ has already evolved beyond the home with employees working from coffee shops, trains, and just about anywhere that has a Wi-Fi signal. So, if super-commuters are spending 3 or more hours getting to and from work, why not make this a part of their working day?

This removes the pressure of travel delays making them ‘late to work’, as they would have already been working on their way to the office! It also ensures that they are able to get home from work at a time which enables them to continue to sustain the work-life balance that attracted them to hybrid and remote working in the first place.

If you would like to discuss how we can help your business optimize your working styles and ensure that optimizes productivity, please get in touch with us today.

With the scope of HR continuing to grow, the profession is witnessing an increasing number of HR teams that are struggling to meet this increasing demand.

In a recent LinkedIn poll, we asked our followers to share where their teams were facing challenges.

Almost half of respondents, 43%, said CAPACITY (having enough of the right people available when needed), 23% cited CAPABILITY (having the right skills and experience within the team), and 27% stated BOTH were issues.

Just 7% responded ‘NEITHER – we’re in good shape’.

This means that an overwhelming 93% of HR teams feel that they are not properly resourced to deliver everything their organizations need.

The impact of this on practitioners is highlighted in a study by HR software company MHR which found that half of HR professionals are on the verge of quitting due to burnout. Indeed, a separate study by Gartner found that 71% of HR leaders believe burnout amongst HR teams is more of a challenge than it was pre-pandemic.

And it’s no wonder this is happening. Since the pandemic ended, HR have been at the forefront of responding to a seismic shift in the workplace – the rise of the ‘carpe diem’ mindset has seen a significant increase in the importance of employee wellbeing; the ‘quiet quitting’ phenomenon brought to light important conversations around boundaries and work-life balance; and all of this on top of the mass adoption of hybrid and remote working across the world.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Also thrown into the mix is the need for companies to focus on their diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, offer learning and development opportunities around the assimilation of new technologies, manage the change fatigue that emerges from this, and create a bulletproof Environmental, Social and Governance plan… all the while maintaining their ‘business as usual’ HR processes!

In our experience, the best route forward in a situation like this is to take a step back.

At OrgShakers we have pioneered the use of the Program Acceleration Office (PAO) whose role is to work with individual project managers to align, connect, and optimise resources across the whole team. In doing so the PAO creates a shared ‘big picture’ vision for the HR function based on a common roadmap, defined dependencies and impacts, and agreed outcomes. And once the organization’s in-house HR practitioners are optimally deployed, the PAO can objectively identify those areas where external resources are required.

We offer a range of services and expertise across all areas of HR, including fractional HR generalist and specialist support to bolster your team. So, if you would like to discuss how we can help with your capability and capacity needs, please get in touch with us today.

Supporting an employee through grief is always difficult; we all grieve differently. But it can feel particularly daunting to support the aching grief of a recently bereaved parent.

It’s important for employers to consider that a parent’s journey with their bereavement doesn’t always begin post-mortem. For parents who lose their children to illness, this process would have started long before. And in some ways, this part can be even harder to manage, as a parent will still be juggling work alongside this traumatic process.

During this period, flexibility is of the utmost importance. Employers who can offer as much flexibility as possible to a parent going through that process will allow them to have the time they need to prepare for what will inevitably be an intensely emotional time. It wouldn’t be surprising to see performance slip in these employees, but employers should acknowledge that this is temporary and heavily influenced by the nature of the circumstances.

Once a parent has lost a child, there are a few things employers can do to help them:

• Support Programs – employers should ensure that they make recently bereaved parents aware of the support programs that are available to them. While 79% of employers provide an Employee Assistance Program, only 27% of employees realise this exists as an option. It is therefore important to highlight the counselling and support services they offer, as this could be instrumental in helping a parent going through such a loss.
• Send a Token of Support – sending a small token, even just a card, can go a long way. As an employer, it’s important to focus on the human aspect of your employees when they go through a loss like this – and what they need more than anything is to know that you are there, you are supportive, and you are happy to give them the time they need to process. Receiving a card or flowers shows that you care and, in doing so, will help to alleviate any feelings of guilt the employee might have about being away from work.
• Keep Connected – a sense of connection with work and colleagues can be valuable when someone may feel very disconnected from everything else. That’s why it’s important that managers regularly check in with the employee whilst they are grieving. Fostering this bond can help managers discover any hardships that employees may be going through and need support with. In doing so, managers will help the employee feel valued as a worker, in the process building loyalty and trust.

It all comes down to emphasizing the ‘human’ in human resources. When an employee goes through something as unimaginable as the loss of a child, what they need more than anything is to be seen as more than just an employee, but a three-dimensional person. By doing this, employers will be better able to offer the support the employee may need during this time, aiding in their eventual assimilation back into working life when the time comes.

To discuss how we can help strengthen your bereavement support strategies, please get in touch with me directly at karen.cerrato@orgshakers.com

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that is caused by experiencing very stressful, frightening or distressing events. Most of us will experience at least one trauma in our lifetime that could lead to PTSD, although not all experiences with trauma lead to this disorder.

While often associated with military veterans, PTSD affects a wide range of individuals, including survivors of accidents, natural disasters, assaults, and other life-altering events. It is estimated that around 6% of the US population suffer from PTSD, and around 4% of the UK population. It is therefore very likely that employers will have team members who struggle with the disorder, and considering its delicate nature, it is important for them to know the best ways of supporting the mental health of these employees:

• Provide Access to Resources – it’s always important to ensure that your company has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that can offer services such as confidential counselling and crisis intervention. It’s also important to review health insurance policies to determine whether they include therapy and medication for PTSD treatment.
• Offer Specialized Training – offer training and workshops that help managers and supervisors recognize signs of PTSD and understand the best ways to support an affected employee. It is also important to train leaders to have the necessary soft skills in order to communicate empathetically and compassionately around the topic of mental health.
• Flexible Working – offering employees with PTSD the ability to work flexibly can really help in the management of their symptoms, as well as enable them to attend therapy sessions without feeling pressured by time constraints. Employers can even consider certain job modifications to reduce stressors, such as reassigning certain tasks or adjusting performance expectations.
• Crisis Management Plan – have a clear plan in place for employees to reach out for help during a mental health crisis. This should include contact information for EAPs, mental health hotlines, and on-site mental health professionals if available.
• Foster an Open Culture – create a culture where employees feel comfortable discussing their mental health. This can be done by actively educating employees around mental health disorders such as PTSD through regular workshops and seminars. This will help challenge the taboos around mental health at work and equip employees with the skills to be able to identify when a fellow peer may be struggling.

Supporting employees with PTSD requires a multi-faceted approach. With each person’s experience with PTSD varying significantly, there is no one-size-fits-all way of supporting someone. So, educating managers and employees, training them on how to communicate and actively listen, and making employees aware of the resources available to them can all lend to optimizing the productivity of those that suffer with a mental health disorder and allow them to thrive in their working environment.

If you would like to discuss how we can help strengthen your mental health support strategies, please get in touch with us.

According to The Harris Poll’s Out of Office Culture Report, 37% of millennial workers have admitted to ‘quiet vacationing’ – that is, taking time off without telling their managers under the guise of working remotely.

For those getting flashbacks to the days of ‘quiet quitting’, they may be appropriately timed. Much like how quiet quitting was found to be a misnomer for employees wanting clear work-life boundaries and balance, ‘quiet vacationing’ may also be misleading.

This is because the report includes other findings which can help shed some light on why ‘quiet vacationing’ has emerged as a trend – particularly amongst Millennials.

Why Millennials? The most probable answer is that people in this age group are likely to have school-aged children, and they are likely to ‘quiet vacation’ as a means of attaining the flexibility they need but maybe aren’t being offered by their employer.

‘Quiet vacationing’ may also be a symptom of employees who don’t feel they have a proper work-life balance, as the research also discovered that 78% of employees who get paid vacations don’t take all the vacation days they are allocated. The reasons cited for this are to do with demands from work and pressure from managers not to take time off.

Work-life balance is quickly becoming a pivotal factor for many employees, with one study finding that more than half (56%) of employees would be willing to accept a lower-paid job in exchange for a better work-life balance.

So, what ‘quite vacationing’ and ‘quiet quitting’ have in common is that if employees are not getting the work-life balance they need, then they will find innovative ways to create it for themselves.

With the increase of hybrid and remote working styles, employers have been forced to adopt a new mindset of managing employee output (tasks completed) rather than input (showing up 9-5 five days a week). And the fact that the existence of ‘quiet vacationing’ has only been revealed through this latest study highlights that employees are still getting their jobs done – albeit at times which better meet their personal circumstances.

If there had been noticeable and consistent dips in productivity, this phenomenon would have been identified already. But if deadlines are being met on time and the work is getting done, then maybe this is just a case of recognizing that as long as employees can do what is expected of them, it shouldn’t really matter when they do it.

Now, this isn’t going to be applicable to every type of role, but for the most part, employers should be focused on managing the output of their employees, especially in a hybrid and remote working world. After all, someone can sit in an office all day and appear busy. But if the productivity of someone periodically ‘quiet vacationing’ from home remains consistent, is there really a problem?

If you are based in the UK, you may have heard the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, declaring that there is a ‘sick note culture’– that is, that too many people are being formally recognized by their family doctors as being too ill to work.

But is this true? And if it is, are workers genuinely becoming less healthy – or are they simply less resilient to everyday ailments?

Well, the evidence suggests that we can rule out resilience as an issue. Recent research has found that almost 3 in 5 (59%) of UK employees say they haven’t taken time off work sick, either due to illness or injury, despite needing to.

What’s even more striking is that there has been a noticeably lower rate of absence from sickness from those who work from home.

Indeed, it could be argued that rather than witnessing the emergence of a ‘sick note culture’, what we are seeing is a culture of presenteeism beginning to rear its head again. But this time it has taken on a new form – a form that has adapted to remote working styles.

One of the main concerns around remote working has always been the fact that this style of work can blur the line between the home as a place of comfort and as a place of work.

The home symbolises solace and relaxation for many, but with a lot of us now working from home, it can sometimes feel hard to fully switch off from ‘work mode’ and switch on to ‘home mode’. And it now appears that we are starting to see this blurring of boundaries with sickness, too.

Pre-pandemic, if you didn’t feel well, you would be advised to take the day off, rest up, and then return when you felt better. But this notion has changed with the ‘normalization’ of remote working. Now, if an office-based or hybrid employee wakes up and isn’t feeling well, they may ask themselves – or sometimes even be asked – to work from home for a few days whilst they recover.

It’s important for employers to keep this in mind when a remote employee is unwell. Just because they now have the means to do their job from home, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taking the appropriate time to rest and recover. After all, it is very likely they won’t be working at an optimum when unwell anyway, so it can be best to advise they take the time to heal so not to compromise the quality of their output.

And contrary to the Prime Minister’s claims, hybrid and remote employees may actually need to be encouraged to take sick days!

If you would like to discuss how we can help develop wellbeing strategies geared towards hybrid and remote working, please get in touch with us.

Every year, 12 billion working days are lost worldwide to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy $1 trillion, predominantly due to the debilitating effects they have on productivity.

As we continue to see employers make strides towards creating psychologically safe workplace cultures, a key component for supporting the immediate needs of employee wellbeing is an employee assistance program (EAP). EAPs are outsourced mental wellbeing services that are designed to support employees who are facing personal or professional issues, and will tend to offer services such as counselling, a 24/7 support line, work-life balance support, legal and financial advice, referral services, and manager training.

With the importance of mental wellbeing continuing to rise, what should HR consider when selecting an EAP for their organization?

Firstly, it’s essential to assess the scope of services offered by the EAP, which should be as broad as possible to include more complex support such as substance abuse assistance and crisis intervention services. By offering diverse services, employees are more likely to find the support they need, enhancing their overall wellbeing and, in turn, reducing absenteeism.

In addition, HR needs to consider the accessibility of the service. Employees should be able to easily access the support they need when needed, whether through phone consultations, online resources, or in-person counselling sessions. Having this user-friendly platform and streamlined referral process will encourage employees to utilize the program and seek assistance without hesitation.

The privacy and confidentiality policies of the EAP provider should also be considered. It’s important that employees feel comfortable seeking help without fear of their personal information being disclosed to employers or team members, as this will help to build trust with the program and ensure that it is properly utilized.

Another consideration would be the cultural competence of the provider. A diverse workforce requires culturally sensitive support services that are inclusive and respectful of different backgrounds and beliefs. Partnering with an EAP provider that understands and respects these cultural nuances ensures that all employees are receiving appropriate and effective assistance tailored to their unique needs.

Lastly, HR needs to be cost-effective when choosing an EAP. While investing in employee wellbeing yields long-term benefits (such as improved productivity and engagement), it’s essential to evaluate the return on investment of different program options.

Once a program has been selected, don’t hesitate to gauge employee satisfaction with it. Ask those employees who have used the services and get a sense of whether it is making a difference for them – and identify areas where it could be improved. An EAP should evolve and adapt to meet the changing needs of the workforce, and having consistent feedback helps to ensure it remains a valuable investment.

If you would like to discuss how we can support your company with choosing the best EAP – or any other wellbeing support you may need – please get in touch with us.

Health and safety in the workplace has always been paramount, but in recent years the agenda of health and safety has evolved. This is because in the post-COVID era, many employers have realized that psychological safety plays an important role in optimizing team and organization performance. This sentiment is echoed by the workforce; an overwhelming 89% of employees believe that psychological safety in the workplace is essential.  

The term psychological safety was coined by Amy C. Edmondson, professor for leadership and management at the Harvard Business Review. She defines this as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”. In other words, employees feel free to brainstorm out loud, voice half-finished thoughts, and openly challenge the status quo.

What tends to get misconstrued, however, is the idea that a psychologically safe work environment is one where everyone is always nice and agreeable. While psychological safety encourages openness and the freedom to express any and all ideas without fear of judgment, it does not diminish the importance of debate and disagreement. Instead, it is about creating an environment where everyone knows that disagreements can be worked through and resolved together.

Knowing what you are trying to achieve from creating psychological safety is extremely helpful when it comes to strategically mapping out the path to get there. The above definition can serve as a starting point; specific considerations may be taken into account based on a company’s unique culture.

So, when building psychological safety, where is the best place to start?

First, a leader must have a realistic and accurate understanding of their personal impact on the workforce. For almost 70% of people, their manager has more impact on their mental health than their therapist or doctor, so it is important for a manager to be able to acknowledge and accept the role they play – and the influence they have – in creating a healthy working environment.

Next, define the desired outcome from creating psychological safety. From there, pinpoint the behavioral and organizational culture changes that need to be made to achieve the desired outcome. Several key components of psychological safety involve skills such as active listening, compassion, recognition, and inclusion. But it is also about feeling safe to be wrong, to take risks without fear of retaliation, and to work through healthy challenges rather than defending against accusation.

Creating this environment takes time. Those employers who are willing to make the effort to delve beneath the surface level needs of psychological safety are the ones who can unlock its greater benefits: increased productivity, higher engagement, fewer absences, more effective collaboration, and a stronger commitment to the organization.

Psychological safety cannot be built overnight, and mapping the path to achieve it requires intentional and thoughtful action – as well as the right support. This is where OrgShakers can help, from coaching your leaders to identify their impact on the team to pinpointing exactly what cultural strategies will best align with the needs of your company to ensure employees feel psychologically safe at work.

If you would like to discuss our services in more detail, please get in touch with me at amanda@orgshakers.com

The US Surgeon General recently declared an ‘epidemic of loneliness and isolation’ in the US. Meanwhile, in the UK, a new study discovered that a third of workers have a high mental health risk which is being driven by workplace loneliness.

The above statistic is very telling of the fact that a person’s work life plays a huge part in helping to alleviate feelings of loneliness. After all, we spend a vast majority of our time at work, so it’s no wonder that the relationships we form there would have influence over our health and wellbeing.

So, what can employers do to help foster social connection in the workplace?

Firstly, striking a balance between in-person and remote working. Hybrid work has proven to be favorable, but it has its drawbacks; whilst some find it allows them to have a better work-life balance, others have cited that working digitally can contribute to feelings of loneliness. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this, but it seems that employers who are creating opportunities for social interaction to take place will help to ward off feelings of loneliness and isolation.

However, it’s important to remember that if you want employees to come into work physically, there must be a purpose behind it! Make sure you are doing the more collaborative, innovative work on those days in the office, and not work that they could very easily do from home.

Secondly, it can always be good for employers to host team building events. Not only does this allow for departments within a company to mix and mingle, but it also allows for employees to have the opportunity to bond over something that is not work-related.

It is important to consider that those who have been feeling lonely may also be feeling less confident in their socialising abilities, and so this should be kept in mind when deciding on an exercise that could unite employees.

For example, have staff take part in some volunteer work for the day. This ultimately removes the pressure of socialising as there will be things to attend to, but at the same time it is an environment that is outside of the workplace, and so will hopefully help to encourage more organic connections to form. Plus, it contributes positively to an employer’s corporate social responsibility initiatives!

Lastly, having mental health support programs in place. Those employers who have invested in Employee Assistance Programs will be able to signpost staff that are struggling through the correct channels to get them support with their wellbeing. Choosing not to invest in mental health support can sometimes seem like a necessary sacrifice to cut costs, but ultimately, the worsening mental health of employees will end up costing employers so much more in the long run. One study even estimates that stress-related absenteeism attributed to loneliness costs employers $154 billion annually in the US.

Those employers who are actively investing in supporting and preventing loneliness are helping to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of their staff. There are many studies that suggest that stronger social ties are linked to increasing the likelihood of an individual’s overall survival by as much as 50%. There is also a growing body of evidence that suggests that our brains actually function better when we’re interacting with others and experience togetherness. In contrast, when people feel lonelier, they tend to have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can leave them much more susceptible to burnout.

Whilst loneliness may seem like a trivial issue, it can have a huge effect on the productivity of your teams, as well as their engagement levels. When your people are your most valuable asset, investing in their wellbeing will likely prove to be the best way of optimizing their capabilities.

If you would like to discuss how we can help implement strategies to mitigate workplace loneliness, please get in touch with me at Brittany@orgshakers.com

Many of us are likely familiar with the famous collection of photographs, Lunch atop a Skyscraper, which depict a group of workers in very precarious – and notably unsafe – positions during the construction of the Empire State Building in 1932.

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Whilst the images are visually stunning, they also highlight a key fact about the state of health and safety regulations almost 100 years ago – they were nearly non-existent!

But over the years, the importance of health and safety in the workplace has increased exponentially all across the world.

In the US, occupational health and safety truly began in 1970, with the passing of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, and was further improved in 1971 with the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which helped to transform the health and safety landscape into what we now see today.

Similarly, in the UK, the first notion of health and safety becoming a legal issue was in 1833 with the introduction of the Factories Act. However, health and safety was only truly brought to the forefront and addressed on a mass scale with the passing of the Health and Safety at Work Act in 1974.

A common thread throughout the history of health and safety at work is that it has always been focused on the physical safety of workers. Today, with new laws in place and with the help of HR, physical risks at work have been significantly mitigated.

This begs the question – what is the next step in the evolution of health and safety?

And the answer that’s emerging is psychological health and safety.

A hundred years ago, the idea of considering one’s mental health a matter of safety at work may have seemed strange – especially to those high-altitude workers accustomed to leaping between girders! – but in the modern world, mental health is a growing area of focus.

One study found that 89% of employees now believe that psychological safety in the workplace is essential. The concern for mental health has been catapulted to the forefront for many due to the pandemic, which brought into perspective the importance of feeling content and supported at work, as it made many realize that life is short and they want the best out of it (we subsequently dubbed this the ‘carpe diem’ mindset).

With psychological safety now lining up alongside wider health and safety concerns for employers, the role of HR in managing this expanding wellbeing portfolio is paramount to ensure that employees are getting the support they need.

If you would like to discuss how we can guide you in this process to ensure that the health and safety needs of your workplace – whether physical or psychological – are being met, please get in touch with us.

Around this time last year, I wrote a piece in response to the rising trends of ‘quiet quitting’, ‘quiet firing’, and ‘quiet hiring’ that begged the question: why are we being so quiet? Why are these issues not being spoken about loudly?

In that context, the ‘loud quitting’ phenomenon we are seeing now has been a bit of a surprise!

Loud quitting has taken TikTok by storm – indeed, it’s also been dubbed ‘QuitTok’ – with workers very publicly quitting their jobs by recording or live streaming themselves doing so … and then posting the results on social media.

The thinking behind this is that workers are feeling empowered within themselves to take control and leave a job they feel was not invested in their wellbeing.

And it’s a rapidly growing phenomenon. The hashtag ‘QuitTok’ has already amassed over 100 million views on TikTok … with X and Instagram postings adding to the melee.

The idea of naming and shaming an employer and posting this on the internet is a generational one; Millennials and Gen Z have grown up digitally native, and so the concept of sharing what was previously considered a very private thing has become much more normalized with the rise of social media.

There is also the influence of ‘cancel culture’ at play. Many young people believe that exposing bad behaviour publicly on the internet is justifiable, and we are seeing this ideology in action with the ‘loud quitting’ trend.

So, what is the key takeaway for HR?

Primarily, this trend is highlighting how important wellbeing support is to younger workers.

Where once it was all about how much you earned, in a post-pandemic world gripped by a ‘carpe diem’ mindset, the younger generations are seeking more than just compensation. They want work-life balance, flexible working, and support for their mental wellbeing.

Whilst the concept of posting yourself quitting online is a bit extreme, it does also highlight how far workers are now going when it comes to seeking proper support.

As well as this, this phenomenon brings to light just how powerful “stay” interviews can be for organizations. These should be harnessed as valuable sources of feedback and insight into workplace issues. This paves the way for employers to begin to address these problems so to improve the retention rate of their staff and shape their future workplace culture into one that better aligns with the needs of their workforce.

If you would like to discuss how OrgShakers can assist you in creating a roadmap for implementing wellbeing strategies, or how we can help to optimize your off-boarding processes, please get in touch with us.  

Happy employees are productive employees – 13% more productive to be exact.

But in days past, keeping an employee ‘happy’ was usually intrinsically linked with the amount of money they were being paid. If their salary was good, and their performance was methodically rewarded, then this tended to spark contentment in the general worker.

However, we are now beginning to discover that making employees happy is no longer that straightforward. Matt Phelan’s recent book The Happiness Index is a testament to this, as it identifies the 24 sub-drivers of happiness and engagement at work. Yes, 24! But of these, there are some that have a stronger driving force than others; a recent survey from Wondr Health discovered that 30.1% of employees believe that building friendships was the key to fostering happiness at work, in comparison to only 12% who cited financial freedom. What’s even more interesting to note is that financial freedom ranked fourth, below physical and emotional health and wellbeing (21.5%) and engaging in activities that spark joy (16.8%).

Our own poll findings affirm this notion, as when we asked respondents what makes them feel happiest at work, 49% said it was the people they worked with, and 40% said it was the purpose their job gave them.

So, why is salary less of a concern, and what has taken its place as the key factor for fostering employee happiness?

There are two primary forces at play: the post-pandemic mindset and the flood of Gen Z into the workplace.

Since the pandemic, there has been a ‘carpe diem’ mindset emerge. After being faced with our mortality, it’s become common to use this as a point of reflection and determine what we really want to do and achieve with our time. This has driven a major shift in focus towards wellbeing, physical and mental health, and work-life balance. A report from Hays confirms this, as it revealed more than half (56%) of employees are willing to accept a lower-paid job in exchange for a better work-life balance.

What’s working in conjunction with this shift is the fact that Gen Z are now embedded into the workplace, with 27% of the workforce expected to be made up of these younger workers in 2025. With this influx of young talent also comes new ideals and values; Gen Z are the first generation to be socialised in a world with the internet readily available, and so it is no wonder that what they value and expect from work has evolved. For example, 77% of Gen Zers only want to work for a company whose values align with their own. They are more eco-conscious, they don’t shy away from previously taboo topics such as mental health, and they are notably the most diverse workforce in history.

As employers look to attracting new young talent into their businesses, they need to consider that a decent salary – whilst important – is not enough on its own to foster happiness and contentment amongst employees. Instead, salary is playing second (or maybe even third) fiddle to the rising importance of work-life balance and wellbeing support. If you would like to discuss how we can help you implement these changes into your talent attraction strategy, please get in touch with us.