Find out why 51% of employees will move on from their current role in the next year

Why is this report necessary?

The fabric of the working world has changed dramatically over the last few years. The growth of equal working opportunities regarding gender, ethnicity, age and disability has made it necessary for a report such as Aspire’s to consider what employers need to do to attract, and retain, talent. Operating in this changing world requires employers to accept that homogenous attitudes towards employees, and one-size-fits-all initiatives, are no longer effective. Hence, to thrive, businesses must satisfy the desires, and expectations, of the new workforce.

The millennials and their expectations

The report covers in detail the changes that have occurred in line with the growth of millennials in the workforce. By 2025, the group shall make up 75% of the world’s workforce.

Millennials are often viewed as the group that have instigated, or perhaps even demanded, alterations to workplace structures. The report examines how open-plan offices, working from home and flexible working are just a few examples of initiatives increasingly introduced in the last few years. Flexible working has been found as the most popular benefit offered by employers, with 63% of employees preferring it over other schemes. Employee needs are being increasingly recognised within the workplace, and those who don’t offer these initiatives could lose their candidates, and thus their competitiveness.

Aspire has found that 51% of candidate respondents said they would move jobs by the end of the year. Contrastingly, only 6% said they were happy to stay with their company for the next 4-5 years. Therefore, the ideology that previous generations had of a ‘job-for-life’ no longer exists.

Encouraging diversity and valuing employees for their differences

The definition of ‘diversity’ has changed over the last decade, according to the report. Employers have come to realise that this is no longer restricted to gender or ethnicity; socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, disability and age are amongst those factors that employers must now consider when recruiting.

It also addresses the benefits that can come with a successful recruiting process which allows for a diverse workforce, positively affecting higher profits. The 2018 study by the Boston Consulting Group, which studied 1700 different companies across 8 different countries, found that having diverse management teams led to a 19% higher revenue.

Aspire’s report recognises that removing biases is extremely difficult and lays out certain ways that employers can achieve diversity that refer to adapted recruitment processes and physically altering the workplace environment. Such changes aim to help make employees from diverse groups feel more comfortable and valued at work. Encouraging employee collaboration is another way to achieve such a feeling of being valued, as it allows workers from a wide range of backgrounds to forge meaningful relationships. Employees will value their co-workers and their company more, meaning that employee retention rates are likely to be higher because employees are less likely to want to change jobs.

Wellbeing initiatives

Aspire’s report details how wellbeing has become more of a focus for the worker in recent years. The millennials’ expectation to receive benefits from their company are rapidly becoming the norm for other diverse groups too. Aspire’s survey found that 40% were unsatisfied with their wellbeing benefits, pay and progression opportunities, and that this would lead them to leave their job.

Wellbeing initiatives focused on physical and mental health are perceived as more important than ever. Such initiatives could include offering counselling, arranging team expeditions, and cycle-to-work schemes to promote a healthy work-life. As a result, wellbeing makes a workforce more motivated and engaged with the work they are producing. This translates into happy workers, which equals higher productivity and ethos, resulting in improved retention.

Aspire’s report offers not only interesting food for thought, but tangible and practical advice on how to be a competitive business in 2019. By understanding how the world of work is shifting, one can avoid getting left behind and overcome the recruitment and retention challenge.

The Workplace Trends Report is now available to download via the Aspire website: Workplace Trends Report.